Rian nicely sums up a growing sentiment. Namely, that there is an anti-Slack backlash growing.
What made Slack so inviting is a reduction. But we're simply using it to replace everything (every.other.thing), which is just moving a mess, rather than cleaning it up.
Slack is a great communication tool, with integrations that make it possible to reduce the amount of time spent on other services. But once you have multiple accounts and multiple rooms to contend with every day, it has the potential to become worse than that technology we all love to hate—email.
Well said. The reality is, if used unwisely, Slack can actually be worse than email:
At least with email there’s an assumption of asynchronous communication. With Slack there’s always an expectation to get an answer immediately, so the stress it induces can really skyrocket out of control.
We're always looking for tech to solve problems, but sometimes the problem is just us. Discipline and a focus on what's important is going to be required, whatever the communication tool is the flavour of the day.
At Wildbit, we have a policy that if anyone needs to focus, they can log out of HipChat. No one is required to be there 100% of the time. Email and Basecamp (or tool of choice) are where the details that must be shared are supposed to go.
Besides all that, I'm hesitant to support companies that are built on play money. Hard to believe that's the same guy who doesn't want to sell saddles …
