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Comment by xfitm3 | Hacker News Reader

Slack is a productivity killer and whatever they are doing next is certain to be annoying. People ping each other asking questions instead of reading docs. People have calls instead of figuring it out. Annoying people just can’t resist the temptation of @here.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I could customize my experience but Slack fights hard against this. They claim one size fits all, if it’s annoying then it’s a cultural issue.

You can’t get thousands of people on the same page. Different mindsets should be fostered, not punished.

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> Annoying people just can’t resist the temptation of @here

If people keep doing that repeatedly even after being told then you probably have bigger problems in the company than the messaging app of choice. You can also just disable it: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115004855143-Set-wh...

> People ping each other asking questions instead of reading docs.

That's not a Slack problem, it always existed on IRC, people tapping you on the shoulder in the office or on mailing lists and forums.

You're missing the point. Slack is engineering increased engagement which changes thinking and working patterns to be more social vs heads down.

In 15 years as a professional software engineer, I’ve never worked somewhere that wasn’t heavily using IRC, Hipchat, or Slack. The conversations are identical, the only thing that has changed is the service being used. As previous poster alluded to, your complaints aren’t a Slack issue, it’s a co-worker issue.

The nice thing about pre-Slack was that there was a bozo filter: the only people who could bother you were the people who could figure out how to use an IRC client.

Also 15 years professional here; And I agree, it's largely similar.

One difference though is that IRC doesn't have a @here equivalent. People do like to overuse that one in particular. (you can turn it off but the default is frustrating and the UX is poor for disabling)

This lack can be fixed by the amazing dau irssi plugin.

No, it’s Slack. My company was IRC based and moved to Slack. It’s changed working patterns.

Totally agree on that! Sometimes we're so focused to the product we ignore who is using it.

For whatever reason, most orgs I've seen are terrible at getting people who talk too much to stop, whether it's in meetings, at the work table or in Slack.

I never understood people who get annoyed by @here. If you are somewhere where you don't want to be, and people send a message to you that you don't care about, you shouldn't be there in the first place. We have many channels in our company where complete strangers hang out, for example in the engineering channel like it was a garden party of some sort. You know: just for fun. I mean WTF is wrong with these people? Why are they in the channel if they are not interested? When I message with @here I don't give a shit if it annoys someone or not, as long as the message is completely in line with the channel's intended purpose.

> People have calls instead of figuring it out.

I find the opposite, I can often help my coworkers debug something pretty quickly via a quick Slack call and screen sharing session, whereas other times I have seen similar problems resulting in hours of struggle as someone tries to 'figure it out' on their own without being able to tap the expertise of someone who's familiar with the problem or system at hand.

That said, there are definitely downsides to the abundant distractions through Slack as well.

Is there not value to be gained when someone is struggling to get past a problem? I've seen what happens when people too quickly phone a friend whenever they hit a problem, the end result being they don't round out their knowledge.

It depends on the person and the problem I think. I have also seen people sort of struggle and not really make progress and leaving them in their own wouldn’t be a learning experience.

Like how if you throw someone who doesn’t know how to swim in the ocean they might just thrash about until they get tired and drown...

I do always try to work with them to explain the steps I am taking to troubleshoot but it’s definitely a balancing act as you want them to learn not just have it done for them.

> Slack is a productivity killer

I think that notifications is a productivity killer in general - no matter the software behind it.

I’m in some Slacks that have thousands of people all on the same page. It’s impressive and inspiring how the communication style and culture has developed and is enforced.

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