Slack
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- noneck
Is anyone using slack? I've heard a bit about it, but is it any good?
- monNom0
We started using it at work to replace Skype/Msn. It works fine. Nothing really groundbreaking. Its easy to share a file or paste a screenshot right in the chat. and you can register all sorts of webhooks into it so you get notifications from your 3rd party services for instance. It really quickly gets cluttered up if you do that though, so you end up making those discreet channels that you then ignore, which kind of defeats the purpose.
I think most of the hype is PR honestly. Doesn't seem revolutionary to me, just a slightly better ICQ. Definitely not replacing email.
- orrinward20
We depend on it in our dev team, and non-devs are really enjoying using it too.
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We used to use HipChat until Slack just blitzed it with the amount of useful integrations it has.
Our application is a Ruby on Rails app, and with Slack we can:
- Push to our test branch via a bot
- See if our CI Builds pass or fail (message pops up)
- See and disuss Github Pull Requests/comments
- See when new things are added to our Trello boards
- Search full chat history including deep-file searchFor my dev team, it has replaced email. Combined with Trello I've not received an email or sent an email to my fellow devs in a year.
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Where Slack, or any IRC client really, comes into it's own vs email is around project work. A project can't really be grouped in email unless you set up filters or tag the emails in some way and search by that tag.
In A group chat client like Slack/HipChat you just fire up a #new-homepage channel and then have any discussion around the "New Homepage" project there. It makes it transparent to the organisation and easy to find.
I'm a megafan of transparency across an organisation and email by it's nature is private and counters that.
Where Slack stands out from competitors like HipChat is that is is marketed as non-nerdy, and I've been really impressed with how quickly my non-technical team have picked it up and had it become essential in their day-to-day.
- most informative. any more insights in to workflow and usage of slack?2002
- Trello handles all our workflow and Slack supports at every stage. I work with remote devs and it gives instant access to what people are working on...orrinward2
- ...or discussing at any point. It eliminates the need to for checking in in other ways. Project channels also reduces the need to proactively report to...orrinward2
- ...outside parties.orrinward2
- now i see the value. i wish i could see the workflow first hand.2002
- < this
plus i just love the /giphy integrationbliznutty
- detritus0
Tried to on one of my projects, but my partner's loathe to use it, so we still muddle on with Skype and Email etc.
My one concern with solutions like this is the 3rd party 'cloud' hosting - I've never been comfortable having all my business ideas etc, in someone else's T&C'd hands (I have the same concern with stuff like Evernote, GMail and Facebook, to be fair).
That in mind, I'm curious to try self-hosted equivalents such as..
https://sdelements.github.io/let…
http://www.mattermost.org/
https://moose-team.github.io/fri…
https://rocket.chat/..anyone here tried any of these?
- zaq0
We started using it before it was open to a public. As of today it's a main centerpiece of our internal communication.
- pinkfloyd0
Slack is awesome
- ESKEMA0
I pushed it on our team, I just wished everybody used it more, they're all very attached to email and I hate that. But it's a progress. I really think that this (or anything similar) is essential to a good team communication. Email is shit.
- jtb260
I work remote and couldn't do my job without it. I've used IRC, HipChat and Hall and it's easily the nicest.
I will say that there is not a single one that has decent typography. Slack has the most approachable brand, but I still think they made really shitty type setting choices.
- DRIFTMONKEY0
It works exactly like it's supposed to.
- orrinward21
Example of shortening approval on a design with the non-designers.
Example of our development Trello board pinging us in Slack
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In my dev team our main distinction between Slack-vs-Trello for discussion is a decision tree:
"Does this need to be recorded somewhere?"
If no, post to #dev channel in Slack"Is it important for non-devs to see this?"
If no, post it on the Trello card"Is it only important for non-devs?"
If yes, post to project channel, e.g #homepage"---
I might just be rambling now.
- ernexbcn0
We use hipchat at work.
I use slack to coordinate my Destiny activities.
- Out of curiosity is there a reason other than cost-of-migration that you've not switched from HipChat to Slack?orrinward2
- We were HipChatting but found after the Atlassian buyout things just stopped moving.orrinward2
- We just recently started with Hipchat, I guess it fits our needs at work.ernexbcn
- Gnash0
does slack have screen share?
- I don't think it does at the moment, but they're building video chat, so this might be in the pipeline. They integrate with Skype though..ESKEMA
- not natively - it has a hangouts integration you can connect - just type /hangout and it spins up a session.bulletfactory
- Slack acquired screenhero, it was the best screen sharing app for mac.zaq
- ^ interesting, zaqGnash
- It's coming >> https://slack.com/sc…GRAC
- I recommend teamviewermonNom
- i use team viewer now for screenshare, but not a fan of their messaging and file transGnash
- I meant just for screenshare.monNom
- ya, but sometimes having it all together is handyGnash
- Screenhero was pretty good...see_thru
- breadlegz0
Slack has chopped my emails down by half already.
- see_thru1
We use Slack...it's pretty good...I've used HipChat also.
Pretty much don't care...the trick is actually getting people in your team to collaborate and communicate in the first place, regardless of the tool.
- Beeswax0
Good for chatting, but lacks other simple stuff.
Like there's no task management.
Even a simple to-do list would do.
Also it's not possible to create a sub-channel. Why?Anyways we're using it, but along with a bunch of other stuff that could easily be integrated in slack without compromising the simplicity.
- BabySnakes0
https://github.com/benchmarkstud…
Spotify playlist collaboration through Slack.I haven't tried it yet, has anyone?
- zaq0
Who is going to create QBN community on Slack?
https://levels.io/slack-typeform…- ha, excellent. I've been having much the same thoughts about this sort of software.detritus
- detritus0
I just made a new Slack account this morning for a new project - i find it a little odd I need to start a whole new account, rather than just setting up a new project within an account, like you do with Basecamp.
.
Also, I read this yesterday...
- bliznutty0
They just bought Screenhero and are currently integrating it into Slack