
The real reason Slack became a billion dollar company (2015) - hoag
https://medium.com/@satyavh/the-real-reason-slack-became-a-billion-dollar-company-f14c22b15a29#.sylma3sq4
======
delias_
All the attempts at 'slack best practices' since this article was written in
June 2015 are basically to not do #1, #2, & #3. If Slack is an authoritative
source of information that cannot be ignored, you simply aren't doing it
right. Slack is a success in my org specifically because it enhances our
communication and documentation, not because it has become it.

------
aggieben
I really don't agree with the main thrust here at all, and I think I agree
with the analyses the OP was trying to rebut: it basically boiled down to
luck. There were other viable (and even better) chat products out there.

Lacking a "reply" feature almost kept me from using Slack. It is still the
only new feature I want in Slack. I would trade half of the integrations (I
mean, Giphy sucks, it really does, and the Hangouts integration is just a race
condition with an icon) to have that one thing.

------
pmlnr
IRC client -> ZNC -> Slack IRC => logs*

Sync them with Syncthing => locally saved logs, you can read them later.

Problem solved.

~~~
argonaut
Problem solved for technically savvy software engineers who enjoy wasting a
day of their time for a worse product (and an hour or so every so often with
maintenance).

~~~
pmlnr
Worse product? You're cute.

Slack without the unicorn farts is much less of a hassle and a distraction; I
have enough things to keep an eye on to appreciate plain text communication.

~~~
argonaut
There is a reason 90% of the world writes their text in Microsoft Word /
Google Docs rather than Vim/emacs/Sublime/Notepad. Something tells me Slack is
going after the 90%.

------
lfender6445
the one thing that bothers me about slack is the notification model - i am
always distracted and compelled to check notifications (whether they are
relevant or not). as such i try to minimize the application and only respond
when im called out by name and or channel or @here notifications are posted,
but still there are also channel users who abuse these notification
broadcasting features.

------
hoag
Ironically though, doesn't slack HAVE a way to reference messages? You just
copy a link to the post you want to reference.

------
contingencies
Real reason = Idle middle managers/project people trying to justify their
existence + stupid VC + marketing + hypetrain

