8 ms·

I'm not a slack power user, but I feel that it's a bit like IRC but with a fancy (and slow) GUI wrapped around it. Certainly I am wrong, but how wrong?

2sk21 6y ago
Same opinion - I have mostly used Slack as a chat tool and it works very nicely for that
draw_down 6y ago
What exactly does this fresh, original observation have to do with the company being acquired?
Bjartr 6y ago
You're about right, but I think not recognizing the value of having a UX that the average person feels comfortable with Both for daily usage and initial setup. IRC, for all its strengths, does not achieve that.
Spivak 6y ago
Slack, maybe unfortunately, always invites the comparison to IRC because they borrowed a lot of their early UX from IRC with mentions, bots, channels, and /commands but that's pretty much where the comparison ends. You can have IRC-style chatbots that parse messages and do things but Slack "integrations" are a lot more powerful and "magic" if your mental model of Slack is just fancy shmancy IRC. Slack bundles basically all the features you'd have to implement out of band with IRC like chat history, search, user statuses, notifications for mentions, formatted content, media content like gifs and videos, reminders, attachments, pastebins. Then there are things that you can't really do with the IRC protocol like reactions, threads, editing messages, messages with dynamically updating content (our Github bot for example changes the color of PR messages as the status changes), and embedded content like Polls that only take up one message and don't spam the chat with votes, shared history across devices.
kevindong 6y ago
At its core, that's a fully accurate description albeit a misleading one (along the lines of claiming that central AC is just window AC but without something sticking out of your window). As it turns out, UX matters and Slack delivers far better UX than IRC since one single entity can control the entirety of the communication pipeline (from protocol to how messages are displayed).
baobabKoodaa 6y ago
As far as messengers go, IRC is about as far from Slack as you can get. Two main differences: 1. You can't send IRC messages to people who are offline (yes you can work around this with bouncers etc. but that's beside the point). You can send Slack messages to people who are offline. 2. Slack is a proprietary, centralized system. Slack, the company, decides who is allowed to participate, and at what cost. IRC is a federated protocol, where different servers can be part of the same network, or part of a different network. You can set up a server or client by yourself if you want.
hrktb 6y ago
It’s the same distance as between Dropbox and a Git + Rsync setup. The later will work the same for half a percent of the users, but the 99.5% left would be crying tears of blood. I remember Mozilla employees’ blogs about the contraptions they had at individual levels to make IRC fully work for them, and you just can’t ask that to the HR recruiting intern.
- dcanelhas 6y ago
  I remember having an IRC client that supported adding your own client-side perl scripts to do all sorts of nifty automations in the 90s. I wonder what kind of magic IRC bots could do today with the natural language processing we have available now. But you make a fair point. I guess even if you are working at a small start-up with 100% hardcore computer-science types, as soon as you expand to include your own employees for HR, payroll, sales, marketing etc. you'll realize most people started using computers after UX was a thing.

2sk21 6y ago

Same opinion - I have mostly used Slack as a chat tool and it works very nicely for that

draw_down 6y ago

What exactly does this fresh, original observation have to do with the company being acquired?

Bjartr 6y ago

You're about right, but I think not recognizing the value of having a UX that the average person feels comfortable with Both for daily usage and initial setup. IRC, for all its strengths, does not achieve that.

Spivak 6y ago

Slack, maybe unfortunately, always invites the comparison to IRC because they borrowed a lot of their early UX from IRC with mentions, bots, channels, and /commands but that's pretty much where the comparison ends. You can have IRC-style chatbots that parse messages and do things but Slack "integrations" are a lot more powerful and "magic" if your mental model of Slack is just fancy shmancy IRC. Slack bundles basically all the features you'd have to implement out of band with IRC like chat history, search, user statuses, notifications for mentions, formatted content, media content like gifs and videos, reminders, attachments, pastebins. Then there are things that you can't really do with the IRC protocol like reactions, threads, editing messages, messages with dynamically updating content (our Github bot for example changes the color of PR messages as the status changes), and embedded content like Polls that only take up one message and don't spam the chat with votes, shared history across devices.

kevindong 6y ago

At its core, that's a fully accurate description albeit a misleading one (along the lines of claiming that central AC is just window AC but without something sticking out of your window). As it turns out, UX matters and Slack delivers far better UX than IRC since one single entity can control the entirety of the communication pipeline (from protocol to how messages are displayed).

baobabKoodaa 6y ago

As far as messengers go, IRC is about as far from Slack as you can get. Two main differences: 1. You can't send IRC messages to people who are offline (yes you can work around this with bouncers etc. but that's beside the point). You can send Slack messages to people who are offline. 2. Slack is a proprietary, centralized system. Slack, the company, decides who is allowed to participate, and at what cost. IRC is a federated protocol, where different servers can be part of the same network, or part of a different network. You can set up a server or client by yourself if you want.

hrktb 6y ago

It’s the same distance as between Dropbox and a Git + Rsync setup. The later will work the same for half a percent of the users, but the 99.5% left would be crying tears of blood. I remember Mozilla employees’ blogs about the contraptions they had at individual levels to make IRC fully work for them, and you just can’t ask that to the HR recruiting intern.

dcanelhas 6y ago
I remember having an IRC client that supported adding your own client-side perl scripts to do all sorts of nifty automations in the 90s. I wonder what kind of magic IRC bots could do today with the natural language processing we have available now. But you make a fair point. I guess even if you are working at a small start-up with 100% hardcore computer-science types, as soon as you expand to include your own employees for HR, payroll, sales, marketing etc. you'll realize most people started using computers after UX was a thing.