[girvo]

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 ;)

[MichaelGG]

Are there open source/open protocols for something like Slack? Rich IRC?

[girvo]

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.

[aw3c2]

Matrix has push, at least on Android.

[aw3c2]

matrix.org is pretty good. Theoretically a well configured XMPP server would do.

[91bananas]

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! :)