The IRC gateway was there to mollify people who said "IRC is better! I refuse to switch!"
Slack advocates could say, "Don't worry, you don't have to switch. You can just keep using your IRC client with Slack. Everybody else will have a web UI, which they prefer, and you can keep using Irssi. Everybody wins."
Right, and now that everyone is hooked the loud minority (if we're being honest with ourselves) have to choose between speaking the Slack protocol or losing access to our contacts.
Are we doomed as a community to be surprised every time a company with power squeezes?
dfabulich|8 years ago
Slack advocates could say, "Don't worry, you don't have to switch. You can just keep using your IRC client with Slack. Everybody else will have a web UI, which they prefer, and you can keep using Irssi. Everybody wins."
Spivak|8 years ago
Are we doomed as a community to be surprised every time a company with power squeezes?