Introducing Highlights(slack.engineering)
slack.engineering
Introducing Highlights
https://slack.engineering/introducing-highlights-ac401d7bd02a
56 comments
Any good Slack alternative for communities? We have a big community and are looking for a chat client but there is no way that we would be willing to pay $5/user when we have up to 1000 users.
If the gaming branding doesn't matter, Discord works well with large communities.
http://rocket.chat is an open-source self-hosted (or pay for hosting) slack clone. the client has some bugs, but it's totally usable.
Slack's free tier? if you don't need a full archive, it works fine.
Are the issues in this blogpost still present? https://medium.freecodecamp.com/so-yeah-we-tried-slack-and-w...
if this is anything at all like 'twitter highlights' it will be cumbersome and in the way.
Especially if I get prompted to read them- I hope they are configurable unlike so many other components in slack too.
Especially if I get prompted to read them- I hope they are configurable unlike so many other components in slack too.
they should make the search usable first
What's wrong with their search? It's pretty good for a non-Google company.
I feel like it's gotten better over the past year.
Slack doesnt need anymore features. Just let me chat and stop making me learn new ways to do things.
> Slack doesnt need anymore features.
How about a native desktop app.
How about a native desktop app.
Or a full-fledged API so that anyone can write a Slack client.
Currently, anyone who wants to write a 3rd-party client has to use the IRC bridge. That doesn't have the same capabilities as Slack's client.
Currently, anyone who wants to write a 3rd-party client has to use the IRC bridge. That doesn't have the same capabilities as Slack's client.
What about the Real Time API?
I've been successfully using the WeeChat Slack plugin which leverages the native Slack over Websocket vs. an IRC bridge.
https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack
https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack
Wait you mean you don't like the desktop web view that uses 12 gigs of RAM?
Why bother? Just leave Slack open in a browser tab. Job done.
yes, I would give up Highlights, Threads, Calls and most slack features for a native client.
Honestly I'd rather have a native ncurses app.
Check out Wee-Slack[1], it's as close as you're likely to get for now.
Note this does not use the IRC gateway, but it plugs the slack API into WeeChat, and supports most slack functionality not found with the IRC gateway.
[1]https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack/blob/master/README.md
Note this does not use the IRC gateway, but it plugs the slack API into WeeChat, and supports most slack functionality not found with the IRC gateway.
[1]https://github.com/wee-slack/wee-slack/blob/master/README.md
Then they'd have to hire developers that dare to venture outside the garden of JavaScript.
Skype?
Just like email replaced phones as the go-to method of business communication, chat is doing that to email -- at least in some types of companies and teams.
But it's not just chat. With interactive messages, Slack is becoming more like an OS for communications and business processes. And there are seemingly infinite ways for it to evolve to better serve the needs of just about anyone using it to communicate with others.
But it's not just chat. With interactive messages, Slack is becoming more like an OS for communications and business processes. And there are seemingly infinite ways for it to evolve to better serve the needs of just about anyone using it to communicate with others.
Use IRC.
Use Skype.
They're doing it based on engagement? Great.. it's just going to surface the jokes. Seriously, there's a lot of important information that passes through our slack channels, but, for the most part, we don't "engage" with it in the way they are measuring. We don't react, reply, click on, or share the important messages. We just respond to them in the normal flow of conversation.
The jokes, wit, and quips on the other hand... those get reacted to. So there's a good chance those are going to be the highlights. Which, while fun, is a complete waste of screen real estate and isn't going to help me be more productive.
The jokes, wit, and quips on the other hand... those get reacted to. So there's a good chance those are going to be the highlights. Which, while fun, is a complete waste of screen real estate and isn't going to help me be more productive.
This is what I'm afraid of. By far the most reacted/responded to messages are the Happy Birthday/Anniversary shoutouts, the @channel letting everyone know the coffee machine is working again or donuts in the kitchen, memes, etc.
When our DB is being updated, or our staging instance is gonna be down briefly, or "Here's an article about security updates just released for x," there isn't huge engagement. You know, stuff that actually affects my work as a dev.
I really don't want to see highlights of "@channel can someone dog sit for the weekend? here are pictures!" or similar things that aren't pertinent to work.
When our DB is being updated, or our staging instance is gonna be down briefly, or "Here's an article about security updates just released for x," there isn't huge engagement. You know, stuff that actually affects my work as a dev.
I really don't want to see highlights of "@channel can someone dog sit for the weekend? here are pictures!" or similar things that aren't pertinent to work.
I guess the good news is once buzzfeed et al find a way to appropriate all that attention your highlights will stop being pointless stuff people said.
Yeah, the first thing Highlights brought up for me this morning was some image posted in our company's #random channel. Uh, thanks?
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This is a problem everywhere not just in Slack.. politics, forums, social media etc
I was about to say that that's not totally inappropriate for a chat service originally designed for gaming.
Then I remembered I was thinking of Discord, which to me is better than Slack at most of the things I use Slack for. So...yeah, that's a weird decision for Slack.
Then I remembered I was thinking of Discord, which to me is better than Slack at most of the things I use Slack for. So...yeah, that's a weird decision for Slack.
They use sampling to "preserve a fixed ratio of positive to negative examples." I wonder what the ratio is... isn't the technique w/ class imbalances to up-sample/subsample to get a 50/50 ratio so your classifier generalizes?
On the topic of feature engineering: I think the use of those inline-emojis on a message are a good indicator of importance. That could be another feature for the logistic regression.
Overall seems like a fun modeling challenge. It's nice to see people not just throw deep learning at the problem...
On the topic of feature engineering: I think the use of those inline-emojis on a message are a good indicator of importance. That could be another feature for the logistic regression.
Overall seems like a fun modeling challenge. It's nice to see people not just throw deep learning at the problem...
> I think the use of those inline-emojis on a message are a good indicator of importance. That could be another feature for the logistic regression.
Upon first reading that, I thought you meant that more emojis implies more importance, and I was very curious about what kind of conversations you and your peers were having on Slack
Upon first reading that, I thought you meant that more emojis implies more importance, and I was very curious about what kind of conversations you and your peers were having on Slack
> Predicting which messages are most likely to be important is a challenging technical problem
I think this is much better solved as a social problem. Use mentions sparingly so they have value and have company conventions about what's expected to be read/skimmed/ignored.
Seems like a case of fitting a solution to a problem.
I think this is much better solved as a social problem. Use mentions sparingly so they have value and have company conventions about what's expected to be read/skimmed/ignored.
Seems like a case of fitting a solution to a problem.
I agree. It sounds like they had some ML people who were itching to implement something and this is what they came up with.
At the risk of sounding geriatric, I think Slack is too complicated. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was threads. I've not yet seen a thread solve a problem that a channel would have otherwise had, but I've seen plenty of confusion from the added orthogonal dimension and the general orphaned nature of messages in threads. Now, as is customary, they're putting the training wheels on their too-complex product.
> The straw that broke the camel's back for me was threads.
Me too. The all threads list being in opposite chronological order as the all unread list blew my mind also.
So I've moved everything to discord and have never been happier. Faster, smoother, chat as it should be, with no 10,000 message limit and broken search. I really wish every public slack group would switch (like Elixir and others). With a 10,000 message limit and 700+ users online, it's practically snapchat...
Not to mention webhooks being dead simple and dead awesome.
---
https://discordapp.com/
https://elixir-slackin.herokuapp.com/
Me too. The all threads list being in opposite chronological order as the all unread list blew my mind also.
So I've moved everything to discord and have never been happier. Faster, smoother, chat as it should be, with no 10,000 message limit and broken search. I really wish every public slack group would switch (like Elixir and others). With a 10,000 message limit and 700+ users online, it's practically snapchat...
Not to mention webhooks being dead simple and dead awesome.
---
https://discordapp.com/
https://elixir-slackin.herokuapp.com/
Discord really is a fantastic group messaging app, if they dropped the gaming branding or made a "business" version that has the gaming features dropped they could make a run to pick up any users Slack loses.
I think the community-ran nature of it makes it super hard to discover new discord communities though, and it leads to duplication where new games have a bunch of communities pop up that divide the userbase.
I know there's third party sites that act as directories but it's a bit of a hassle, I wish they'd have two separate products, the gaming one with a public directory and one to create private communities that can be used for other purposes.
I know there's third party sites that act as directories but it's a bit of a hassle, I wish they'd have two separate products, the gaming one with a public directory and one to create private communities that can be used for other purposes.
I'm not really sure about the adoption rate, but Elixir definitely has a Discord: https://discord.me/elixir-lang.
Yes! This needs to be on here: http://elixir.community/talk
Totally agree. Slack is starting to show the early symptoms of WinAmp Syndrome.
When you have too much money and a large enough product team, the path of least resistance seems to be: keep them busy building as many features as they can.
The end result is that a product that was successful _because_ of its simplicity loses its primary appeal and switches to a business model predicated on networking effect and/or marketing.
Sadly, WinAmp Syndrome is usually fatal.
When you have too much money and a large enough product team, the path of least resistance seems to be: keep them busy building as many features as they can.
The end result is that a product that was successful _because_ of its simplicity loses its primary appeal and switches to a business model predicated on networking effect and/or marketing.
Sadly, WinAmp Syndrome is usually fatal.
Threads would be useful if implemented more clearly. Having to go to a separate tab from the channel they were initiated in, and/or scroll way back up, is confusing; and the replies-hidden-by-default is also confusing.
Well atleast for me slack is cumbersome to use. When someone sends a few dozen lines of text, it needlessly formats and previews only few lines and whatnot instead of giving plain dump of text. Today while working on production issue i sent an XML file to team member but again due to formatting in slack it turned useless and I had to put my xml in file and mail it as attachment.
I guess I am just not sophisticated user to configure it to my requirements.
I guess I am just not sophisticated user to configure it to my requirements.
You can surround multiline code with triple backticks (`) to preserve formatting. Though for whole XML files I'd suggest just uploading it to the chat.
I'm somewhat in the same boat in terms of not being a very sophisticated user, and thus being unaware of alot of features. (I recently started at a new company and am accustomed to IRC)
Over time though, you get used to it, and it is imho much less cumbersome to use than any alternatives (certainly IRC). Need to send a large XML file? Hit the plus button next to where you type messages. Want to just dump it to chat? Surround in triple backticks.
Over time though, you get used to it, and it is imho much less cumbersome to use than any alternatives (certainly IRC). Need to send a large XML file? Hit the plus button next to where you type messages. Want to just dump it to chat? Surround in triple backticks.
I haven't used Flowdock in years, but I remember their Threads feature was awesome. Threads would appear in the main chat, with different colors, and clicking on them would highlight the entire thread. https://www.flowdock.com/help/chat#threads
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I don't care about this really. All I want is just a fluid, fast desktop app that won't make my MBP overheat. Is that too much to ask? =(
Use IRC. Now you see open standards are good. Anyone can make a client.
Every time they introduce a new feature, people at work start using it so I have to try to understand it. I still find the threading confusing.
They should decrease memory usage first for desktop app. I hope you can disable this highlights.
I wish Slack would just fix core functionality like badges (if I open the room they should go away) and notifications (if I read the message on one platform, don't send me notifications for that message 5 minutes later on another platform). Those are the features I want.