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by aaron-lebo 3943 days ago
> I can pick and choose my hours, work when other guys are off, and still see all the comms that happened while I wasn't at my machine.

I'm sure are features IRC cannot duplicate, but all that's necessary for that is a bouncer.
2 comments
girvo 3943 days ago
Right. Think of Slack as a really well configured IRC server, except you don't have to manage it at all, and it's front-end UI is much more modern (and better); integrated file uploading, inline media, integrations with everything under the sun, etc. None of it is impossible in IRC, it's just _easier_ in Slack because it's out of the box like that.

And, most importantly: I don't have to manage the damned server ;)

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MichaelGG 3943 days ago
Are there open source/open protocols for something like Slack? Rich IRC?
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girvo 3942 days ago
There are a couple of protocols that do similar things, but nearly all of them have a major fatal flaw, that is unfortunately very difficult to work around through no fault of their own: mobile push notifications, especially on iOS. An open protocol is useful, but not enough, and that's where Slack hosting and developing everything themselves has an advantage, despite open protocols and tools being what I'd normally want to use. But practicality matters, and so when I last looked at alternatives a year ago, I couldn't find anything that would be a drop-in feature-complete replacement. It's a shame, but I expect something to come up in the future, perhaps on Matrix or other protocols.
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aw3c2 3942 days ago
Matrix has push, at least on Android.
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aw3c2 3942 days ago
matrix.org is pretty good. Theoretically a well configured XMPP server would do.
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91bananas 3942 days ago
Yup, totally to your last line. That is it entirely, all of this stuff is probably possible with a ton of time invested into IRC.

But we have shit to build! :)

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pavel_lishin 3943 days ago
True, and I use a bouncer myself, but it's something you have to set up explicitly - Slack already does it for you. Notifications as well - you can get emails, or texts, or the app on your phone can ping you.

And sure, a bouncer with some plugins could do it, but you'd have to set it all up. I've had "have bouncer email me when I'm mentioned in a channel" as a mental to-do for the past five years, and it's never been a high-enough priority for me to sit down and expend the minimum of two hours it would take (and likely much more.)

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