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https://downdetector.com/status/slack/ https://downdetector.com/status/slack/ Slack is definitely down even though their status page says otherwise. Incentive

https://downdetector.com/status/slack/ https://downdetector.com/status/slack/ Slack is definitely down even though their status page says otherwise. Incentives matter. If there is no penalty for misrepresenting the current state of an outage, you are going to find that company driven status pages are going to be frequently inaccurate.

philliphaydon 3y ago
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rozenmd 3y ago
We noticed about 2 minutes of hard downtime (API and website) on OnlineOrNot: https://slack.onlineornot.com/ https://slack.onlineornot.com/
zamnos 3y ago
In fact, there's an inverse incentive at play here. Slack is on the hook for missed SLA, so any admission of issue is legally and financially culpable. This means they don't want to admit to an issue until it's impossible to deny there is one.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. We recently improved our status reporting because our old status system might not accurately indicate if only a part of our service went down, so it might show green even though (some) customers definitely saw very obvious downtime.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    When the choice is between temporarily "looking dumb" and permanently loosing a bunch of money because of SLAs, companies like Salesforce usually make the latter choice.
    - Hamuko 3y ago
      I feel like customers treating you like a bunch of fucking idiots is not gonna be a great boost to your bottom line either. Maybe if you're in a market sector where reputation doesn't matter and you don't have any competition swooping in.
      - thecopy 3y ago
        The people signing the contract with Slack is not looking at the status pages, generally.
        bombcar 3y ago
        The people signing contracts ONLY look at the status page, and say everything’s fine. They don’t bother verifying it signing in.
    - inferiorhuman 3y ago
      Nah the issue isn't looking dumb, the issue is looking like a liar. What good is an SLA if your reputation is that you're going to lie to avoid paying out?
      - rwaksmunski 3y ago
        This is Salesforce we are talking about. They topped Stack Overflow as the most dreaded technology so they bribed SO not to include them anymore. They don't care if they look like liars to technical people. Technical people are not the decisions makers in their target customer base.
        Volundr 3y ago
        > They topped Stack Overflow as the most dreaded technology so they bribed SO not to include them anymore. Wait what? And SO agreed? Where can I learn about this?
    - ryanbrunner 3y ago
  - Timon3 3y ago
    > There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. How many customers will think you look dumb? If you admit downtime, will the accurate reporting drive away more new customers, than the inaccurate reporting drives away due to you looking dumb? "Looking dumb" is not a reasonable factor. Damage to your public image is, but that's divorced from looking dumb. It's entirely possible Slack is saving money by not admitting their downtimes, because it leaves a better image.
- wdr1 3y ago
  And yet, this generally doesn't happen. Slack now has the outage listed: https://status.slack.com/calendar https://status.slack.com/calendar The online cynicism is something I've never understood. It assumes the world is filled first first-order simpletons & somehow only the poster rises above it. People aren't dumb & companies aren't dumb. People will notice a status tracker isn't accurate. They will have reduced confidence in the company. Companies know people will notice & think this way, so they generally don't engage in this type of deception. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general, status pages have tended to be accurate in my experience.
  - zamnos 3y ago
    You can't measure "reduced confidence" like you can a dollars going out for not meeting an SLA, and what are you going to do in this case? Move to Microsoft Teams? Please.
Chris2048 3y ago
Their status page is not a report of status, but rather a report of admission.

philliphaydon 3y ago

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rozenmd 3y ago

We noticed about 2 minutes of hard downtime (API and website) on OnlineOrNot: https://slack.onlineornot.com/ https://slack.onlineornot.com/

zamnos 3y ago

In fact, there's an inverse incentive at play here. Slack is on the hook for missed SLA, so any admission of issue is legally and financially culpable. This means they don't want to admit to an issue until it's impossible to deny there is one.

Hamuko 3y ago
There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. We recently improved our status reporting because our old status system might not accurately indicate if only a part of our service went down, so it might show green even though (some) customers definitely saw very obvious downtime.
- capableweb 3y ago
  When the choice is between temporarily "looking dumb" and permanently loosing a bunch of money because of SLAs, companies like Salesforce usually make the latter choice.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    I feel like customers treating you like a bunch of fucking idiots is not gonna be a great boost to your bottom line either. Maybe if you're in a market sector where reputation doesn't matter and you don't have any competition swooping in.
    - thecopy 3y ago
      The people signing the contract with Slack is not looking at the status pages, generally.
      - bombcar 3y ago
        The people signing contracts ONLY look at the status page, and say everything’s fine. They don’t bother verifying it signing in.
  - inferiorhuman 3y ago
    Nah the issue isn't looking dumb, the issue is looking like a liar. What good is an SLA if your reputation is that you're going to lie to avoid paying out?
    - rwaksmunski 3y ago
      This is Salesforce we are talking about. They topped Stack Overflow as the most dreaded technology so they bribed SO not to include them anymore. They don't care if they look like liars to technical people. Technical people are not the decisions makers in their target customer base.
      - Volundr 3y ago
        > They topped Stack Overflow as the most dreaded technology so they bribed SO not to include them anymore. Wait what? And SO agreed? Where can I learn about this?
  - ryanbrunner 3y ago
- Timon3 3y ago
  > There is also an incentive to display the proper status, since if you show all green when the service is down, you look dumb. How many customers will think you look dumb? If you admit downtime, will the accurate reporting drive away more new customers, than the inaccurate reporting drives away due to you looking dumb? "Looking dumb" is not a reasonable factor. Damage to your public image is, but that's divorced from looking dumb. It's entirely possible Slack is saving money by not admitting their downtimes, because it leaves a better image.
wdr1 3y ago
And yet, this generally doesn't happen. Slack now has the outage listed: https://status.slack.com/calendar https://status.slack.com/calendar The online cynicism is something I've never understood. It assumes the world is filled first first-order simpletons & somehow only the poster rises above it. People aren't dumb & companies aren't dumb. People will notice a status tracker isn't accurate. They will have reduced confidence in the company. Companies know people will notice & think this way, so they generally don't engage in this type of deception. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general, status pages have tended to be accurate in my experience.
- zamnos 3y ago
  You can't measure "reduced confidence" like you can a dollars going out for not meeting an SLA, and what are you going to do in this case? Move to Microsoft Teams? Please.

Chris2048 3y ago

Their status page is not a report of status, but rather a report of admission.