Here's my theory on why most people use this sort of service (see also: Skype, Gmail, etc.) rather than a technically superior, independent, non-client-specific service: no server names to remember.
Want to set up an IRC client? Sure. What's the server and port name? Got firewall rules set up? That's complicated, and easy to get wrong. Your own IMAP email service? Same.
Want to set up Skype? Just sign in here. Want to set up Gmail? Just sign in here. Want to set up Slack? Just sign in here.
No regular person used a chat client until MSN Messenger and Skype came along. Nobody. Now they all use the messenger service built in to Facebook, and they don't even think about it.
No regular person ever renames files.
No regular person ever uses a browser that didn't come with their system.
No regular person ever properly navigates an average website without help.
Your point is?
because businesses don't have only technical people, and you don't want to have multiple chat systems, which will eventually bring worst communication between different groups of people.
If technical people are on IRC and all the other people are on hipchat, how do you make the 2 groups communicate?
Plus, the fact that someone is technical does not always mean they want to fiddle with getting chat systems working. None of the engineers in my department would be willing to mess with IRC when Hipchat and Slack provide turnkey solutions that just work, the first time you open them, and require no configuration or special treatment.
Usability. I don't think Hexchat is "good enough". Slack is vastly superior from a usability perspective in my opinion. I don't have to use commands for the most part, I can customize my interface as much as I "need" to and there's no setup, also there are mobile apps that "just work".
It's almost like what OSX/iOS is to Linux. Sure Slack has a particular way of doing things, but they take care of all the hard, annoying shit you don't feel like doing.
Konversation is really nice and cleaned up, runs on every OS like HexChat / XChat does. Slack has a lot of sugar coating compared to any IRC client I've ever used, and I'm surprised nobody's beefed up an IRC client yet to "compete" with Slack. Some clients have really nice features though.
Because a new IRC client without widespread protocol extensions means everyone currently using IRC will hate people using the new client due to the fact there is no place to hide metadata.
It makes less sense for open source. Ember would have to pay $30k a month to archive slack. But, all the Ember devs are on slack and irc is a grave yard.
Recently I was talking to a co-worker about this and I said I prefer IRC over Slack and HipChat. You can certainly build robots on IRC and make fancy automation. You can also use IRCloud if you prefer someone hosting it for you. I came from a company where IRC is literally the primary communication channel for both business and technical staff (the word starts with the letter M). When we did townhall we all jumped on IRC and we asked questions from there. We use other software for conferencing and video calls. We are okay with that.
Here at my current company we have a big challenge. We use Skype for inter-team communication, Webex for grooming and remote conferencing. We also looked at Lync (aka the stupid lame ass 'Skype for Business'). While Skype allows you to keep history (I can go back to 2 years ago!! how amazing) and create groups, but I have to know everyone first. This is where IRC-like channel is really powerful. Everyone can join some lobby and then we branch off into individual team channels. With Skype I can't. Oh good luck finding the group you forgot to favorite 3 months ago. Also, I can't build nice robot in Skype and make pretty command to automate our infrastructure! There used to be restriction with how many people we are group video chat before we have to get into paid plan (not sure still apply or not). With everyone at different location and with different operating system, colleagues would have problem accessing or using Skype / Webex, espeically our Linux users, and they have to boot up a Windows VM. What a nightmare chore.
What if we have a tool that can do
* text chat
* video chat
* voice chat
* integrate with Jira / ticket system
* mention people and actually MENTION people
* create a large lobby
* integration with active directory(?)
* have a decent API for automation
* cross-platform
* safe and secure
* integration with other third-party services/tools that we have signed up (Box? Dropbox?S3?)
* record things?
* history
wouldn't that be awesome?
I am excited about trying out Hipchat and Slack. The problem is, Hipchat is the only one out of IRCCloud and Slack offering on-premise installation (we do have onsite Atlassian). The downside is we'd managing additional infrastructure, esp if I want to use the video & voice feature. Oh.
If I have to choose I prefer Hipchat or the Campfire style (they are pretty similar in terms of style). Slack - a lot of people like it, but the UI is just so awkward and clumsy and crowded. I don't like it. I don't know. It hasn't changed since launch.
jen729w|10 years ago
Want to set up an IRC client? Sure. What's the server and port name? Got firewall rules set up? That's complicated, and easy to get wrong. Your own IMAP email service? Same.
Want to set up Skype? Just sign in here. Want to set up Gmail? Just sign in here. Want to set up Slack? Just sign in here.
No regular person used a chat client until MSN Messenger and Skype came along. Nobody. Now they all use the messenger service built in to Facebook, and they don't even think about it.
It's just way easier, even for technical people.
freyr|10 years ago
AIM?
ianremsen|10 years ago
jypepin|10 years ago
twblalock|10 years ago
unknown|10 years ago
[deleted]
ianremsen|10 years ago
Mandatum|10 years ago
It's almost like what OSX/iOS is to Linux. Sure Slack has a particular way of doing things, but they take care of all the hard, annoying shit you don't feel like doing.
giancarlostoro|10 years ago
subway|10 years ago
See: Microsoft Comic Chat
spinlock|10 years ago
Imo, having logs makes irc demonstrably better.
yeukhon|10 years ago
Here at my current company we have a big challenge. We use Skype for inter-team communication, Webex for grooming and remote conferencing. We also looked at Lync (aka the stupid lame ass 'Skype for Business'). While Skype allows you to keep history (I can go back to 2 years ago!! how amazing) and create groups, but I have to know everyone first. This is where IRC-like channel is really powerful. Everyone can join some lobby and then we branch off into individual team channels. With Skype I can't. Oh good luck finding the group you forgot to favorite 3 months ago. Also, I can't build nice robot in Skype and make pretty command to automate our infrastructure! There used to be restriction with how many people we are group video chat before we have to get into paid plan (not sure still apply or not). With everyone at different location and with different operating system, colleagues would have problem accessing or using Skype / Webex, espeically our Linux users, and they have to boot up a Windows VM. What a nightmare chore.
What if we have a tool that can do
* text chat
* video chat
* voice chat
* integrate with Jira / ticket system
* mention people and actually MENTION people
* create a large lobby
* integration with active directory(?)
* have a decent API for automation
* cross-platform
* safe and secure
* integration with other third-party services/tools that we have signed up (Box? Dropbox?S3?)
* record things?
* history
wouldn't that be awesome?
I am excited about trying out Hipchat and Slack. The problem is, Hipchat is the only one out of IRCCloud and Slack offering on-premise installation (we do have onsite Atlassian). The downside is we'd managing additional infrastructure, esp if I want to use the video & voice feature. Oh.
If I have to choose I prefer Hipchat or the Campfire style (they are pretty similar in terms of style). Slack - a lot of people like it, but the UI is just so awkward and clumsy and crowded. I don't like it. I don't know. It hasn't changed since launch.
nickpsecurity|10 years ago