The real reason Slack became a billion dollar company (2015)

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.

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.

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

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

Problem solved.

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.

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

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