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IRC FTW. Slack gets big, gets acquired, integrates with Outlook, SAP, etc., becomes Outlook & SAP, nobody ever got fired for using Slack, etc., etc., Stewart be

IRC FTW. Slack gets big, gets acquired, integrates with Outlook, SAP, etc., becomes Outlook & SAP, nobody ever got fired for using Slack, etc., etc., Stewart becomes a billionaire, yadda yadda. Meanwhile, IRC.

dasil003 12y ago
Why would I forego the use of a tool that gives me dramatically more productivity right now than I could get even spending 100 hours configuring and managing an IRC server on the prediction that some years from now Slack is going to suck? I understand using IRC because of privacy concerns or you have very specific workflows, or just because you like managing your own services. But the threat of future changes is not a credible reason to avoid Slack. When it starts to suck, you just switch.
- philsnow 12y ago
  It takes less than an hour to set up an IRCd, even with SSL. Slack has a bunch of advantages over irc, though: clients for many platforms, connections go over HTTPS (non-issue for firewalls, whereas IRC connections are sometimes non-trivial), cross-platform notifications, inlining of some content (slack calls this "unfurling"). Their trump card, however, is the simple third-party integrations support. In ~30 seconds, I can write an integration that e.g. watches the git repository on a machine and sends a message to a specific slack channel when the HEAD changes. Yes, you can do this with an irc bot as well, but: you have to get that irc bot (maybe it's a library, a binary, whatever) to where you want to run it, and you have to write a few lines of code. Whereas with Slack, you can just curl an https endpoint from bash. There's no need to deploy anything, it's all there, and it's simpler to use. I've seen less-neck-beardy teammates throw together slack integrations that have helped out quite a lot. Slack lowers the bar to not just team chatting, but making the team chat work for the team's environment. In that it's a bit like emacs. It lets the team change it to fit their usage.
Domenic_S 12y ago
Connect to slack over IRC! https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connecting-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connec...
pbreit 12y ago
At over $1b valuation, Slack has priced itself out of the M&A market for awhile.
serve_yay 12y ago
I'm not debating the arc you describe, but it does so many things so much better than IRC. It is a zillion times nicer to use.

dasil003 12y ago

Why would I forego the use of a tool that gives me dramatically more productivity right now than I could get even spending 100 hours configuring and managing an IRC server on the prediction that some years from now Slack is going to suck? I understand using IRC because of privacy concerns or you have very specific workflows, or just because you like managing your own services. But the threat of future changes is not a credible reason to avoid Slack. When it starts to suck, you just switch.

philsnow 12y ago
It takes less than an hour to set up an IRCd, even with SSL. Slack has a bunch of advantages over irc, though: clients for many platforms, connections go over HTTPS (non-issue for firewalls, whereas IRC connections are sometimes non-trivial), cross-platform notifications, inlining of some content (slack calls this "unfurling"). Their trump card, however, is the simple third-party integrations support. In ~30 seconds, I can write an integration that e.g. watches the git repository on a machine and sends a message to a specific slack channel when the HEAD changes. Yes, you can do this with an irc bot as well, but: you have to get that irc bot (maybe it's a library, a binary, whatever) to where you want to run it, and you have to write a few lines of code. Whereas with Slack, you can just curl an https endpoint from bash. There's no need to deploy anything, it's all there, and it's simpler to use. I've seen less-neck-beardy teammates throw together slack integrations that have helped out quite a lot. Slack lowers the bar to not just team chatting, but making the team chat work for the team's environment. In that it's a bit like emacs. It lets the team change it to fit their usage.

Domenic_S 12y ago

Connect to slack over IRC! https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connecting-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connec...

pbreit 12y ago

At over $1b valuation, Slack has priced itself out of the M&A market for awhile.

serve_yay 12y ago

I'm not debating the arc you describe, but it does so many things so much better than IRC. It is a zillion times nicer to use.