7 ms·

Slack messages older than 90 days will be hidden for free users from September

26 points by rerx 4y ago

tomrod 4y ago
I want to see a enterprise-ready replacement for Slack. Teams is bad -- too many feature differences, rollout is inconsistent, quality is usually bad. Slack is great at what it does, but their support sometimes mystifies. What are people using today for technical communication besides Matrix (too cumbersome) and IRC (last line of defense)?
- humanistbot 4y ago
  rocket.chat -- FOSS, based on Matrix, but more Slack-like
  - SahAssar 4y ago
    rocket.chat is not based on matrix. It does have some bridging to matrix built in, but that is very different from it being a matrix client/server. See here: https://matrix.org/blog/2022/05/30/welcoming-rocket-chat-to-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2022/05/30/welcoming-rocket-chat-to-...
- emidln 4y ago
  Mattermost is what my company uses. It can be self-hosted on-site, configured to keep an auditable log of changes and conversations, and many of its features that are not compliance-friendly can be turned off.
  - PenguinCoder 4y ago
    I use both for different spheres of communication. I like Mattermost more than rocket chat, as a user, an admin, and for the Mobile notifications Mattermost still does and rocket chat doesn't.
  - tomrod 4y ago
    Good rec. I'll check it out.
- toivo 4y ago
  I worked in a game company that used discord. I much prefer it to slack.
  - tomrod 4y ago
    Besides being less buggy, how is discord better for tech comms?
  - Jill_the_Pill 4y ago
    (now that our trust has been betrayed) Is Discord structured in a way that would prevent them ransoming all your stuff years into a project like this?
- ilaksh 4y ago
  Discord
- Jill_the_Pill 4y ago
  I've been using Slack to support my teaching, so I will probably go back to piazza. No custom gif emojis, and you have to put up with the recruiting, but it basically works.
AzureShill420 4y ago
I've had my eye on "Twist" (from the same developers as Todoist). Seems like a cleaner, thread-focused version of Slack. If I were starting my own business tomorrow that is what I'd use, but sadly I'm stuck with Slack and Teams.
- Mandatum 4y ago
  Having looked at their Features page, I really don't understand how they're accomplishing each of their listed features - even with the demos. It seems like the marketing and product list is written for a specific company, or person rather than some random person on the internet. I have no desire to use their product. It doesn't do anything new, except maybe the way the interface is structured. If that's so great, why isn't it immediately obvious? This is the modern internet. Make a killer demo. Make it fast. Make it fun. This is boring.
throwaway1851 4y ago
Ah, so Slack is transitioning from a freemium model to a ransomware model. Nice.
- yrgulation 4y ago
  Yeah they should pay devs in beers and peanuts instead so we can leech freeware for ever.
  - throwaway1851 4y ago
    I think disabling access to data you’ve encouraged your users to store for years is a distasteful monetization strategy.
    - xyzzy123 4y ago
      You were always going to lose access to that data on a free plan right? Now you just know exactly when you'll lose it. It's going to be worse for small private instances but much better for large public instances.
      - wolpoli 4y ago
        When I last looked at Slack, they let the free plan access the last 20000 or so messages, which means the small private instances won't have to pay for years, and by the time they reach the limit, the information is stale that perhaps no one will miss it. For those small private instance, there might not be many messages left after the 90+ days are hidden.
    - yrgulation 4y ago
      I prefer this over sacking Engineers.
sureglymop 4y ago
I have been setting up a matrix server for my work but it's a mess for people who just want a slack alternative. I understand that federation is the whole point but what about use cases where that is not the most important thing? The weirdest thing about a synapse/element combination is that there is no real admin panel/ui. And even if there was, imo. admins don't really have the same level of control as a slack admin has, but that is needed if it's supposed to be used in a corporate context. After self hosting a huge stack of synapse, element, jitsi, matrix intergration server, matrix identity server, bridges etc... (it is seemingly never ending) just to get a truly self hosted matrix server.. i am actually ready to implement my own. It just has to implement enough to be a useful slack replacement.
- ilaksh 4y ago
  You could just use Discord. But maybe if you want something open source, consider forking an existing Matrix client rather than starting over?
  - sureglymop 4y ago
    I can't because I work at a research institution which _researches_ the use of open source software I'm government etc. It would be a little ironic, actually that's the whole reason why they want to move from slack.

26 points by rerx 4y ago

I want to see a enterprise-ready replacement for Slack. Teams is bad -- too many feature differences, rollout is inconsistent, quality is usually bad. Slack is great at what it does, but their support sometimes mystifies. What are people using today for technical communication besides Matrix (too cumbersome) and IRC (last line of defense)?

humanistbot 4y ago
rocket.chat -- FOSS, based on Matrix, but more Slack-like
- SahAssar 4y ago
  rocket.chat is not based on matrix. It does have some bridging to matrix built in, but that is very different from it being a matrix client/server. See here: https://matrix.org/blog/2022/05/30/welcoming-rocket-chat-to-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2022/05/30/welcoming-rocket-chat-to-...
emidln 4y ago
Mattermost is what my company uses. It can be self-hosted on-site, configured to keep an auditable log of changes and conversations, and many of its features that are not compliance-friendly can be turned off.
- PenguinCoder 4y ago
  I use both for different spheres of communication. I like Mattermost more than rocket chat, as a user, an admin, and for the Mobile notifications Mattermost still does and rocket chat doesn't.
- tomrod 4y ago
  Good rec. I'll check it out.
toivo 4y ago
I worked in a game company that used discord. I much prefer it to slack.
- tomrod 4y ago
  Besides being less buggy, how is discord better for tech comms?
- Jill_the_Pill 4y ago
  (now that our trust has been betrayed) Is Discord structured in a way that would prevent them ransoming all your stuff years into a project like this?
ilaksh 4y ago
Discord
Jill_the_Pill 4y ago
I've been using Slack to support my teaching, so I will probably go back to piazza. No custom gif emojis, and you have to put up with the recruiting, but it basically works.

AzureShill420 4y ago

I've had my eye on "Twist" (from the same developers as Todoist). Seems like a cleaner, thread-focused version of Slack. If I were starting my own business tomorrow that is what I'd use, but sadly I'm stuck with Slack and Teams.

Mandatum 4y ago
Having looked at their Features page, I really don't understand how they're accomplishing each of their listed features - even with the demos. It seems like the marketing and product list is written for a specific company, or person rather than some random person on the internet. I have no desire to use their product. It doesn't do anything new, except maybe the way the interface is structured. If that's so great, why isn't it immediately obvious? This is the modern internet. Make a killer demo. Make it fast. Make it fun. This is boring.

throwaway1851 4y ago

Ah, so Slack is transitioning from a freemium model to a ransomware model. Nice.

yrgulation 4y ago
Yeah they should pay devs in beers and peanuts instead so we can leech freeware for ever.
- throwaway1851 4y ago
  I think disabling access to data you’ve encouraged your users to store for years is a distasteful monetization strategy.
  - xyzzy123 4y ago
    You were always going to lose access to that data on a free plan right? Now you just know exactly when you'll lose it. It's going to be worse for small private instances but much better for large public instances.
    - wolpoli 4y ago
      When I last looked at Slack, they let the free plan access the last 20000 or so messages, which means the small private instances won't have to pay for years, and by the time they reach the limit, the information is stale that perhaps no one will miss it. For those small private instance, there might not be many messages left after the 90+ days are hidden.
  - yrgulation 4y ago
    I prefer this over sacking Engineers.

sureglymop 4y ago

I have been setting up a matrix server for my work but it's a mess for people who just want a slack alternative. I understand that federation is the whole point but what about use cases where that is not the most important thing? The weirdest thing about a synapse/element combination is that there is no real admin panel/ui. And even if there was, imo. admins don't really have the same level of control as a slack admin has, but that is needed if it's supposed to be used in a corporate context. After self hosting a huge stack of synapse, element, jitsi, matrix intergration server, matrix identity server, bridges etc... (it is seemingly never ending) just to get a truly self hosted matrix server.. i am actually ready to implement my own. It just has to implement enough to be a useful slack replacement.

ilaksh 4y ago
You could just use Discord. But maybe if you want something open source, consider forking an existing Matrix client rather than starting over?
- sureglymop 4y ago
  I can't because I work at a research institution which _researches_ the use of open source software I'm government etc. It would be a little ironic, actually that's the whole reason why they want to move from slack.