Rust Public Slack

Has anyone given thought to opening a public Rust chat using Slack? Many who use Slack for work or other community chats might prefer a non-IRC option.

1 Like

Slack just looks like a proprietary clone of IRC; does it offer anything that IRC doesn't? Regardless, it would just splinter the community more so a big :-1: from me.

7 Likes

It appears to be Web 2.0, whilst IRC is, generously, Web 0.7a-pre2. Also, IRC doesn't have a cool website with corporate branding, so it's less hip to the kids with their hashtags and twitting. Something, something, principalskinner.jpeg

9 Likes

Is kiwiirc.com not web2.0 enough?

It is largely an IRC clone but improves on it quite a bit: solid API and bot integrations, link parsing, syntax highlighting, attachments, posts, keyword alerts, statistics, works well on all mobile devices and browsers.

And it's free (only limitation is inability to search back past 10,000 messages).

I would make the argument that it's no more unusual than using Discourse for this forum instead of something older...

Why do you feel the Rust community is "splintered"?

It was more "it would splinter the community" than "the community is splintered". I think the assumption was that you were proposing Slack as an addition instead of as a replacement.

Both. We already have two forums, a stack overflow, a subreddit, and several IRC channels. Each current communication platform serves a slightly different purpose but Slack seems to completely overlap with IRC.

There's "free" and there's free; Discourse is FOSS and IRC is just a protocol. I definitely don't want to move from an open platform to a closed platform.

With regards to the features you mentioned, IRC is just a protocol so implementing them is up to the client. The client I use on my laptop client parses links and has keyword alerts and I have another client that I use on my phone. Granted, both clients could use some TLC but that's not the fault of IRC (and, because it's just a protocol, you can use any client you want or even write your own).

2 Likes

I think a slack community would be a great idea.

1 Like

To bump this thread (sorry); is there the possibility of setting up an IRC-Slack hook? That way there could be a Slack channel for people like me who have 99% of their other communities and projects in Slack, but means IRC folk don't need to move to Slack.

It appears there is a way to do so, but I don't think it's desirable as an officially supported channel. Rust is a free and open source software project, and has thus far made sure to support only free and open source systems officially (the subreddit is an unofficial channel linked to for convenience). If something like this were done, it should probably be done in the same way: as an unofficial alternative. If a Slack channel were to be made, this two-way integration would be the least terrible way of doing it.

1 Like

Rust is a free and open source software project, and has thus far made sure to support only free and open source systems officially.

This is false. Rust is hosted on GitHub.

You're right. Nonetheless, the point that the project should probably avoid adding non-FOSS communication channels remains.

This is not true. There is an upper cap of registered users and the ceiling is rather low. #rust on IRC would easily break it.

Slack the product is not meant for such things.

I agree on Slack not being IRC, it has a much richer form of messaging which I love (snippet attachments!) and hate (I have to avoid rooms with GIFs for $reasons).

An open source, API-compatible alternative, if someone felt like hosting one, would be mattermost.org.

I feel slack would be a great place for Rust!
Right now I hate having to go to IRC. I really want to interact with Rust people, discuss things and even make jokes, IRC is just not the right channel for a community in 2018.

I hope more people come to slack from IRC, right now the Rust Slack Channel is super quiet!

It seems like there's more momentum behind Discord than Slack, with actual Rust teams making it their home.