Principles of Slack Maximalism

Congrats you turned Slack into (an even worse version of) Jira.

This got me thinking though. Instead of turning your chat into a ticketing system, has anyone ever turned the ticketing system into a chat?

Like instead of “comments” on a ticket, you get a live chat channel (that can be reviewed later as “comments” for historical data).

Most companies I’ve worked for will setup channels on slack in a similar fashion for projects and initiatives but these are not really ergonomic for someone that prefers to “live” in the ticketing system for work management. And context gets lost the older things get.

You could pair this with a general channel for unfocused chitchat, but all relevant work would be discussed under the work item itself. Perhaps a “slack-like” view where you can see all your watched work items at once in “channels”.

I had never worked on slack until this spring when I joined a company that used it. I don’t get what all the fuss is about. It is just an IM client?

Honestly I preferred Google hangouts because they were better integrated with my email.

Channels as far as I can tell are a mix of group chats or replacements for mass email distribution lists. Nothing special.

Also point 7in this blog is truly insane. The whole point of a dm is I don’t want others to see it.

These just keep getting dumber and more ridiculous every time. Just use ticketing system like a normal person.

Meanwhile it feels like half my colleagues don't understand the difference between starting a new Teams conversation ("thread" in Slack), or replying to an existing one. And there's no way to move a message that was posted in the wrong conversation. AFAIK it's the same with Slack threads.

Getting people to post in the "correct" channel faces similar challenges.

Imagine the chaos that would result if we ran everything through Teams.

This whole piece is just weird.

> Each member of the staff has their own channel, in which they give updates on their work status, ask questions of other teammates, notify of their unavailability, share their uncertainties and thoughts on the program.

When a piece of work require input from two persons, should I ask in project channel or channel of person A or channel of person B?

> Each resident has their own channel, in which they talk to their coach, ask questions of the team, request improvements to their room or writing setup or just generally throw anything they want someone to look at.

If I want input from my coach and not discuss in public, why not DM but channel?

This list is what happens when you try to use/shoehorn the wrong tool for the job.

I actually came here thinking it was about Slackware Linux. I always forget, because I have never had to use it, that slack is an IM app.

It is really too bad that "Slack" (the application) is the antithesis of "Slack" (the SubGenius philosophy):

In the satirical Church of the SubGenius, Slack is the ultimate goal: a state of blissful, lazy freedom from work, responsibility, and societal pressure, achieved by rejecting "Normal" conformity and embracing conspiracy, self-delusion, and "Bulldada" (bullshit) to attain personal liberation, money, and effortless success, with the mustachioed avatar J.R. "Bob" Dobbs as the ultimate guide to this spiritual laziness. Key Aspects of Slack:

Anti-Work/Anti-Conformity: Slack means escaping the "compulsive urges" of modern life, like working, saving money, and trying to be "normal".

Effortless Achievement: It's the ability to get what you want (wealth, status, love) without effort, often through bizarre, pseudo-occult means or by exploiting the system.

Conspiracy & Weirdness: Slack is tied to uncovering hidden truths (aliens, conspiracies) and embracing abnormality, separating believers from the "Normals".

J.R. "Bob" Dobbs: The iconic, pipe-smoking, suited figure is the living embodiment of Slack, a shortcut to financial heaven and a life of ease.

"Hour of Slack": This is the name of the SubGenius radio show, broadcasting their anti-establishment message and teachings on achieving Slack.

How to Get Slack (According to the Church): * Join the Church of the SubGenius and pledge allegiance to Bob. * Use "Bulldada" (bullshit) and "Morealism" (more bullshit) to overcome problems. * Learn "occult technology" and incantations for financial power. * Reject mainstream pressures and embrace your inner weirdness.

Essentially, Slack is a satirical take on the American dream, promising ultimate success and happiness through utter laziness and rebellion against the very systems that create the need for such a shortcut.

...and it being "the season" - if you live in any city larger than 30K, look for an announcement of the "drunken Santa pub crawl". That is a global annual event the SubGenius put on every year, where mobs people in Santa outfits swarm bars for a 24 hour period, often over a hundred Santas.

I'm a chat maximalist (we all are going to be as agents improve), but this article makes the idea look bad. Chat should be the interface, not the system of record.

This is one of those posts where I cannot work out if this is earnest or satire. I kept waiting for a punchline but I don't know if it ever came. Makes me suspect the whole thing was the punchline.

"Principle 3: Use Channels as Work Queues"

Hence why lots of people hate Slack now - it just becomes a ticketing system, and it ends up being a not-particularly-good one.

God almighty. If you want to go in that direction, why not do all of this in a ticketing system with live collab features like Linear?

Slack is an awful ticketing system, there are many better ones, many with slack integrations even, if you're dead set on using one of the worse IMs out there for everything