Slack is IRC. It’s a fresh coat of paint on an idea that has been around since the late 80s. The question is: why now? Why does an idea that has been around for years gain traction now?
For a set of technologies that has been designed to connect us regardless of where we might be on the planet, the Internet is increasing impersonal and hostile.
The signal to noise ratio emitting from massive communities like Reddit or YouTube is awful. Even with legions of well-intentioned humans dedicated to enforcing basic rules of conduct, it’s still work finding the right signal and even when you do, you’re often wading through some of the most offensive parts of human behavior.
I Slack because I like hanging with my tribe. My tribe is a knowable set of humans who not only have common interests, but also shared values. This combination results in healthy and productive discourse with very little effort. There are hundreds of people on both the Slack channels I tend and we’ve had exactly *zero* incidents resulting in someone being removed from the community. This doesn’t mean there haven’t been flare ups, but when that occurs, it doesn’t escalate – it’s debated. It’s resolved. We learn and we move forward.
È la ragione per cui esiste uno Slack di Bicycle Mind: Slack non è solo ottimo per parlare con colleghi, ma anche un buon luogo per parlare con gli amici, su cui creare comunità specifiche per conversazioni meno rumorose e meno dispersive che altrove — Twitter, Facebook o altri luoghi più pubblici.