Why I’m Leaving Slack Communities

I wanted to like Slack, I really did. I have been a user for years before it became mainstream somewhere around 2014 it seems. These days *everyone* has a Slack community. (Well, I know of one company that insists upon using Yammer, but that’s a different blog post for another day).

Slack was a useful tool until I became overwhelmed with the number of groups and communities that wanted to use Slack to communicate. At some point, Slack went from a productivity saver to a productivity killer for me. And I’m not the only one that has noticed issues. Here’s a thread from Hacker News where people debate if Slack is good, evil, somewhere in-between, or if people just don’t know how to use Slack properly.

All that aside, my main issue today with Slack is this: there is no way for me to block or mute another person.

 

SlackHQ Conversation on Twitter Last Week

Late last week I had an exchange on Twitter with @SlackHQ, where I asked for the ability to block or mute a person. Here was the response:

This isn't possible at the moment. As Slack is mostly used for work, blocking a colleague wouldn't be productive.

— Slack (@SlackHQ) March 16, 2018

I won’t disagree with that line of thought. We use Slack for work at SolarWinds, and many companies use Slack. However, it’s not just companies, as I reminded @SlackHQ:

Sure. But Slack is also used for communities, too. And communities need such features. Otherwise people won’t join, because @Slack will be the blocker due to it lacking such features.

— Thomas LaRock (@SQLRockstar) March 16, 2018

Well, to be fair, people *will* join the communities, then find out that the ability to block or mute a person does not exist. And then they will disengage, and leave.

 

Why I’m Leaving Slack Communities

The ability to block or mute other users is vital for any platform that is being used by a community. If the platform is not able to provide that service, then a percentage of community members will not engage. I’d rather use platforms that allow for me to engage with as many people as possible.

But that’s not the only reason. Here’s a few more:

– I now have 172 inboxes. Managing threads, channels, and communities is out of control. I need tools to help me be more productive, not less.
– The client app now consumes >3GB of RAM at times, mostly because I’m a member of way too many communities.
– For Slack to be useful you need to be able to archive your content and message, and that can cost you some real money.
– Slack works about as effective for me as instant messaging, and I have better tools for sending messages.

Slack started out as something so promising but is now a victim of its own success. With everyone using Slack, it’s now hard for Slack to live up to the potential it once had.

 

Summary

Today I left a handful of Slack communities. It’s going to be good to have fewer distractions. I’m going to go back to focusing my time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If anyone needs to find me, check those places. Between those three platforms, I will have every opportunity to interact with the people I want to interact with daily.

I will still have Slack for work for now, until the next new tool comes along and promises to make our office more productive (hello Asana!)