back to article Hipster horror! Slack has gone TITSUP: Total inability to support user procrastination

Hipster darling and reskinned IRC client Slack went dark today, with users having to resort to actually speaking to each other instead. The topple began at 10:25 UK time, with Slack's status drone tweeting that the service was having some problems. Things appeared to get back to normal 10 minutes later (the time it takes a …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    In the meantime the eponymous Linux distro runs on regardless.

    1. macjules
      WTF?

      You means Slack doesn't run on Azure??

  2. Blank Reg

    I never even noticed

    Because despite having a bunch of slack channels set up for our various projects, I only get about 1 message every few months.

    It's just a waste of computing resources. I just checked and there are 6 Slack processes running consuming over 300Mb of RAM in total and about 4% of CPU

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I never even noticed

      Have you considered email?

      1. ckm5

        Re: I never even noticed

        No, email is borderline useless for realtime communications. When you have teams across 3 timezones, it's pretty much invaluable. Besides, my email is flooded with vendor spam and other useless correspondence, so chances are I'll just miss anything significant.

        Yeah, you could use IRC, but Slack has all these third party integrations that make our lives a lot easier.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I never even noticed

          If only irc clients allowed some form of scripting to do the same....

        2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: I never even noticed

          "Besides, my email is flooded with vendor spam and other useless correspondence"

          Use a different email address for the teams. And if you can, close the spammed address and think of the howls of pain from the marketing jerks when their valuable marketing messages spam bounces.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I never even noticed

          No, email is borderline useless for realtime communications

          Who really needs realtime communications, slack is a waste of time. It allows BAs to just vomit stuff without thinking and then interrupting the dev team trying to get them to actually write the requirements instead of sitting down and thinking about what is required and putting it into a structured email.

          The major pain user with slack is the micro managers, hey just stand back and actually let your team do something.

          slack was forced on me so the first thing I did was mute everything. If you need something from me ask a structured question that can actually have an answer send it to me and then let me think about an answer. Doing the same thing with slack will just get the standard reply. "I need to think about this so I will get back to you later."

    2. thephpdev

      Re: I never even noticed

      Then perhaps it might be advisable to uninstall the desktop app and stick to the using Slack in the browser. You can then enable notifications through Chrome so you don't have to miss out.

      1. Barry Page

        Re: I never even noticed

        You mean don't used the Slack client so that Chrome can consume 1GB and 10% of the CPU?

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: I never even noticed

          Chrome can consume 1GB and 10% of the CPU?

          .. and tell Uncle Fester^W Google all about everything you are doing..

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I never even noticed

      That isn’t surprising, it’s another Electron monstrosity.

    4. F Seiler

      Re: I never even noticed

      Now you made me curious. What a progress.

      Hexchat with 13 channels across 3 networks eats less than 0.01% (left idle, up to 6% by busily tabbing between channels) and 14mb ram, and that's on windows. Something like bitchx in its native habitat probably eats not even a fraction of that.

      1. onefang

        Re: I never even noticed

        Add to HexChat some BitlBee for integration with Jabber/XMPP, still not using a whole lot of resources.

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "Hipster darling and reskinned IRC client Slack "

    Good to see IRC getting some love.

    As for Slack, not so much.

    1. Code_Daemon

      Re: "Hipster darling and reskinned IRC client Slack "

      It doesn't use an IRC backend any more I believe. So love has gone.

  4. wolfetone Silver badge

    How will we ever carry on?

    Oh, wait, it seems nothing has changed.

  5. fran 2
    Pint

    Suddenly the person 2 desks down starts talking to me

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Resiliency and redundancy FTW!

    Just sayin'

    As an enterprise architect who really struggles with management who just don't get the need...

    "That'll cost"

    "That's unneeded complexity"

    "Are you sure that's not a vanity project?"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Resiliency and redundancy FTW!

      Up vote. Totally agree.

      I always ask how much can they afford to lose before they go bust and keep the reply in a safe place.

  7. GIRZiM

    Nothing to see here

    Literally.

    Slack is down.

    It'll be up again later.

    In other news, nothing of any significance has happened to me all day.

    1. slimshady76
      Pint

      Re: Nothing to see here

      Here, your comment has been replied. That'll get you through the rest of the day.

      1. theExecutive

        Re: Nothing to see here

        Not really significant, and it is you!

      2. GIRZiM

        Re: Here, your comment has been replied.

        Thank goodness for that - it was beginning to look like I'd picked the wrong week to quit anything!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Nothing to see here

      I don't know, about that- when my slacks are down very significant things can happen...

      1. GIRZiM

        Re: when my slacks are down

        I'm almost afraid to ask but, okay, I'll bite: like what?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: when my slacks are down

          I'll bite: like what?

          You may have answered your own question...

        2. hplasm
          Happy

          Re: when my slacks are down

          "I'm almost afraid to ask but, okay, I'll bite: like what?"

          Well, the biting, for a start...

      2. Chris King

        Re: Nothing to see here

        "I don't know, about that- when my slacks are down very significant things can happen..."

        And that's how AC ended up with a restraining order.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Slack is down! OMG

      Really OMG. I'm sure there a bazillion useless slack teams, but there are also a billion useful ones as well. Slack is the main communication channel with our offsite team. And this is hampering our normal discussion. With them being 12hrs offset from our timezone IM is the best way to discuss.

      Slack will loose customers over this. chat.goole.com being the new contender. M$ Teams is just useless (well I haven't looked recently, but I am still in recovery about the last time I did)

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Slack is down! OMG

        "Slack is the main communication channel with our offsite team. And this is hampering our normal discussion. With them being 12hrs offset from our timezone IM is the best way to discuss."

        12 hours isn't instant which is what the I in IM stands for. As someone said higher up the thread, have you tried email?

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Slack is down! OMG

          Well, we not waiting 12hrs. We communicate via small window at the beginning and end of each day. Which puts the I in IM

      2. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: Slack is down! OMG

        "Slack is the main communication channel with our offsite team. And this is hampering our normal discussion. With them being 12hrs offset from our timezone IM is the best way to discuss."

        Have you and your team not heard of email?

        1. ckm5

          Re: Slack is down! OMG

          My inbox currently has 70k+ unread messages - to say email is close to useless would be an understatement...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            Pssst, it helps if you read them rather than just letting them sit there. Sounds like PEBKAC to me.

          2. MiniVan
            Trollface

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            email is close to useless. That's an understatement. (Its useful as a password recovery system to Slack and other IM tools ;-) )

            Its the equivalent of that pile of junk mail at my front door.!

            1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

              Re: Slack is down! OMG

              "Its the equivalent of that pile of junk mail at my front door.!"

              Change the email address, or at least set up a second one. We all went through that phase. Some of us worked out how to deal with it.

          3. HolySchmoley

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            "My inbox currently has 70k+ unread messages - to say email is close to useless would be an understatement..."

            Please would you report back to us when you have 70k+ messages in Slack?

            And tell us how you organise them?

            And tell us how well your devices are running?

            Thanks in anticipation.

          4. Dagg Silver badge

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            My inbox currently has 70k+ unread messages

            Well Doh! haven't you ever heard of email rules. The one thing that email does that slack is completely incapable of is allowing you to set up filtering rules to allow you to ignore/delete/move to different folders etc. The vast majority of my email gets deleted especially notifications from slack to tell me to look in slack.

          5. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            >My inbox currently has 70k+ unread messages - to say email is close to useless

            Hey - don't blame email for your lack of organsation!

          6. onefang

            Re: Slack is down! OMG

            "My inbox currently has 70k+ unread messages - to say email is close to useless would be an understatement..."

            I suspect the useless thing is your email filtering system. Mine filters out spam and sorts the rest into folders for me, so I know which ones are worth ignoring.

          7. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Slack is down! OMG

        I love the thumbs down... probably from people who don't communicate other than thumbs down clicks. Enjoy writing snail mail letters to each other and curse the state of global communications today. Maybe they are adventurous and get on 40m with a Yagi and hope sun spot activity is favourable... oh the good ol' days when technology and a purpose, rather than a waste of time.

        Maybe they are just Lotus Notes fans an hate anything resembles usefulness!

        1. Chris King

          Re: Slack is down! OMG

          Maybe they are just Lotus Notes fans an hate anything resembles usefulness!"

          That doesn't explain why you got more than two downvotes.

  8. GIRZiM
    Angel

    Re: Not really significant, and it is you!

    I go out of my way to be inconsequential if at all possible, yes.

    I do sometimes say something surprisingly profound (or at least intelligent), but we all slip up now and again I don't hold it against myself.

  9. john.jones.name

    use one that you can plug into

    why would you use slack when you can get a secure and opensource equivalent :

    https://mattermost.com/

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: use one that you can plug into

      because everyone else is using Slack. It's a bit like asking why nobody uses Google+ even though it's better than FaceBook.

      1. Camilla Smythe

        Someone on the Internet is Wrong!!1!!

        because everyone else is using Slack. It's a bit like asking why nobody uses Google+ even though it's better than FaceBook.

        I am not using Slack. As an aside I do not use Google+ or Facebook or MatterHost.... whatever that is. Assuming I exist inside the set of 'everyone else' by virtue of not being you and I do not use Slack then you are completely wrong and should delete yourself.

        Glad to have been of assistance.

    2. ckm5

      Re: use one that you can plug into

      https://www.slack.com/apps

      and

      https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204078066-G-Suite-single-sign-on

      Beside, your suggestion also costs money https://about.mattermost.com/pricing/ and deploying open source is not free, either in dollars or time.

  10. JDX Gold badge

    Fairly significant

    In the modern world lots of us work remotely or in distributed companies. Even if you're in the same building as other developers, the moment more than 2 of you need to talk it gets time-consuming to get in the same place physically.

    So I'm fairly scuppered this afternoon. Although the football is on...

  11. Psy-Q

    That's why you don't put important communications channels into proprietary, centralized silos :P

    1. ckm5

      You mean like email? Or the phone system?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Anyone can run an email server, only Slack can run Slack servers. How is that remotely similar? There are also competing phone networks, but they interoperate so again, not siloed.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slack is down? No that can't be....

    Slack is just too much a darling of the media.

    The founder even grew up without electricity!

    ~~~

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44550312

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We were wondering why things had been quiet today. Only 3 of us in this location, rest down in London. We decided to go to the pub for an extended lunch, as we had no new requests, so just took it easy today.

    1. GIRZiM
      Devil

      Re: just took it easy today

      I wonder how much crowdfunding the promise of a DDOS on Slack's servers might raise.

    2. localloco

      Just read your comment our to my coworkers! We're jealous! :D

    3. ntevanza
      Pint

      It's beard o'clock!

    4. fajensen
      Pint

      We decided to relocate the daily stand-up progress & reporting meeting to an off-site location go to the pub for a dedicated teamwork and facilitation session an extended lunch, as we had too many new user requirements no new requests, so we had to work hard on securing the alignment of stakeholder requirements within the global scope of the project and the organisational objectives just took it easy today.

      Fixed it for ya, see? The long-winded version of "pub-binge" one can expense onto the project account!

      The trick is to have the readers brains shut down 60-70% into the text.

  14. peeberry

    And I can't even post this on Slack!

    </eom>

  15. Borg.King

    We're out of Post-It notes

    and screen wipes.

    Guess we wouldn't of found out about either of these if Slack had not been offline.

    1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: We're out of Post-It notes

      We're out of Post-It notes

      and screen wipes.

      All I can say is - anyone that sticks a post-it note to my screen will be cleaning their blood off it as well..

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    forced user of slack and i didn't notice

    My employer added me to their slack channel. I very occasionally talk to their other developers because we are not working on related stuff. I also talk to the boss directly over slack on a private channel.

    We have anything up to a 24 hour response time so no-one noticed this down time. But now you've told me i am going to be outraged, out...raged i tell you.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slack?

    Isn't that the thing people used to use before Microsoft Teams?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slack?

      Microsoft Teams *chuckles*.

  18. Scott Marshall
    FAIL

    Slack down?

    So who's taking up the Slack now?

    The Hipster Slacks are totally pantsed now.

  19. Dagg Silver badge
    Happy

    Slack is down

    Brilliant, I can finally get some peace and quiet to get some actual work done instead of responding time wasting drivel from the pointy haired one and the dumb BAs.

  20. Andy3

    At the risk of sounding uncool, what the hell is SLACK?

    1. GIRZiM

      Re: what the hell is SLACK?

      It's Pidgin/Trillian for the non-technical.

  21. steviebuk Silver badge

    Wasn't just me then...

    ....that thought this was just a Hipster app.

  22. shaunhw

    Who ?

    Never even 'eard of 'em.

    ' Must have been slacking at some point.

  23. src

    Jabber

    Our company has its own Jabber server. If it goes down we bring it back up again sharpish. Because that is what the IT department is for.

  24. Jeffrey Nonken

    Well... There's always discord.

    1. onefang

      "Well... There's always discord."

      Have an upvote for throwing some discord amongst the slackers.

  25. Aodhhan

    Ack..

    Does anyone have my ICQ number? I can't remember it!

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