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Please-stop-using-slack.md (6438B)

    

  1. ---
  2. date: 2015-11-01
  3. # vim: tw=80
  4. layout: post
  5. title: Please don't use Slack for FOSS projects
  6. tags: [slack, irc, free software]
  7. ---
  9. I've noticed that more and more projects are using things like Slack as the chat
  10. medium for their open source projects. In the past couple of days alone, I've
  11. been directed to Slack for Babel and Bootstrap. I'd like to try and curb this
  12. phenomenon before it takes off any more.
  14. ## Problems with Slack
  16. Slack...
  18. * is closed source
  19. * has only one client (*update: errata at the bottom of this article*)
  20. * is a walled garden
  21. * requires users to have a different tab open for each project they want to be
  22.     involved in
  23. * requires that Heroku hack to get open registration
  25. The last one is a real stinker. Slack is not a tool built for open source
  26. projects to use for communication with their userbase. It's a tool built for
  27. teams and it is ill-suited to this use-case. In fact, Slack has gone on record
  28. as saying that it *cannot* support this sort of use-case: "it’s great that
  29. people are putting Slack to good use" but unfortunately "these communities are
  30. not something we have the capacity to support given the growth in our existing
  31. business." [^1]
  33. ## What is IRC?
  35. IRC, or Internet Relay Chat...
  37. * is a standardized and well-supported protocol [^2]
  38. * has hundreds of open source clients, servers, and bots [^3]
  39. * is a distributed design with several networks
  40. * allows several projects to co-exist on the same network
  41. * has no hacks for registration and is designed to be open
  43. ### No, IRC is not dead
  45. I often hear that IRC is dead. Even my dad pokes fun at me for using a 30 year
  46. old protocol, but not after I pointed out that he still uses HTTP. Despite the
  47. usual shtick from the valley, old is not necessarily a synonym for bad.
  49. IRC has been around since forever. You may think that it's not popular anymore,
  50. but there are still tons of people using it. There are 87,762 users *currently
  51. online* (at time of writing) on Freenode. There are 10,293 people on OFTC.
  52. 22,384 people on Rizon. In other words, it's still going strong, and I put a lot
  53. more faith in something that's been going full speed ahead since the 80s than in
  54. a Silicon Valley fad startup.
  56. ## Problems with IRC that Slack solves
  58. There are several things Slack tries to solve about IRC. They are:
  60. **Code snippets**: Slack has built-in support for them. On IRC you're just asked
  61. to use a pastebin like Gist.
  63. **File transfers**: Slack does them. IRC also does them through XDCC, but this
  64. can be difficult to get working.
  66. **Persistent sessions**: Slack makes it so that you can see what you missed when
  67. you return. With IRC, you don't have this. If you want it, you can set up an IRC
  68. bouncer like [ZNC](http://znc.in/).
  70. **Integrations**: with things like build bots. This was never actually a problem
  71. with IRC. IRC has always been significantly better at this than Slack. There is
  72. *definitely* an IRC client library for your favorite programming language, and
  73. you can write your own client from scratch in a matter of minutes anyway.
  74. There's an [IRC](https://github.com/nandub/hubot-irc) backend for Hubot, too.
  75. GitHub has a built-in hook for announcing repository activity in an IRC channel.
  77. ## Other projects are using IRC
  79. Here's a short, incomplete list of important FOSS projects using IRC:
  81. * Debian
  82. * Docker
  83. * Django
  84. * jQuery
  85. * Angular
  86. * ReactJS
  87. * NeoVim
  88. * Node.js
  89. * everyone else
  91. The list goes on for a while. Just fill in another few hundred bullet points
  92. with your imagination. Seriously, just join `#<project-name>` on Freenode. It
  93. probably exists.
  95. ## IRC is better for your company, too
  97. We use IRC at [Linode](https://www.linode.com/), even for non-technical people.
  98. It works great. If you want to reduce the barrier to entry for non-technicals,
  99. set up something like [shout](https://github.com/erming/shout) instead. You can
  100. also have a pretty no-brainer link to webchat on almost every network, [like
  101. this](http://webchat.esper.net/?nick=&channels=truecraft). If you need file
  102. hosting, you can deploy an instance of
  103. [sr.ht](https://github.com/SirCmpwn/sr.ht/) or something like it. You can also
  104. host IRC servers on your own infrastructure, which avoids leaving sensitive
  105. conversations on someone else's servers.
  107. ## Please use IRC
  109. In short, I'd really appreciate it if we all quit using Slack like this. It's
  110. not appropriate for FOSS projects. I would much rather join your channel with
  111. the client I already have running. That way, I'm more likely to stick around
  112. after I get help with whatever issue I came to you for, and contribute back by
  113. helping others as I idle in your channel until the end of time. On Slack, I
  114. leave as soon as I'm done getting help because tabs in my browser are precious
  115. real estate.
  117. [First discussion on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10486541)
  119. [Second discussion on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11013136)
  121. ## Updates
  123. Addressing feedback on this article.
  125. **Slack IRC bridge**: Slack provides an IRC bridge that lets you connect to
  126. Slack with an IRC client. I've used it - it's a bit of a pain in the ass to set
  127. up, and once you have it, it's not ideal. They did put some effort into it,
  128. though, and it's usable. I'm not suggesting that Slack as a product is worse
  129. than IRC - I'm just saying that it's not better than IRC for FOSS projects, and
  130. probably not that much better for companies.
  132. **Clients**: Slack has several clients that use the API. That being said, there
  133. are fewer of them and for fewer platforms than IRC clients, and there are more
  134. libraries around IRC than there are for Slack. Also, the bigger issue is that I
  135. already have an IRC client, which I use for the hundreds of FOSS projects that
  136. use IRC, and I don't want to add a Slack client for one or two projects.
  138. **Gitter**: Gitter is bad for many of the same reasons Slack is. Please don't
  139. use it over IRC.
  141. **ircv3**: Check it out: [ircv3.net](http://ircv3.net)
  143. **irccloud**: Is really cool and solves all of the problems. [irccloud.com](https://www.irccloud.com/)
  145. **2018-03-12**: Slack is shutting down the IRC and XMPP gateways.
  147. [^1]: [Slack is quietly, unintentionally killing IRC - The Next Web](http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/03/24/slack-is-quietly-unintentionally-killing-irc/)
  148. [^2]: [RFC 1459](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1459.txt)
  149. [^3]: [Github search for IRC](https://github.com/search?o=desc&q=irc&s=stars&type=Repositories&utf8=%E2%9C%93)