Community Chat Preference - WhatsApp Vs Slack

Rysheve

There has been some debate over the past few days about switching from WhatsApp to Slack. The consensus is we should stop debating and have a vote.

If you have used the community chat you are familiar with WhatsApp and if you would like to investigate Slack you can get an auto invite here: http://pinnypalsslackin.herokuapp.com

WhatsApp Vs Slack Comparison

- Price -
WhatsApp - Free Year Trial then $1
Slack - Free

- Device Support -
WhatsApp - Android/iOS/Windows Phone
Slack - Android/iOS/Widows Phone(via IM+)/PC/Mac/Web/IRC/XMPP

- Notifications -
WhatsApp - All or nothing
Slack - Configurable notifications based on user mentions, custom keywords, or every message

- Group Limit -
WhatsApp - 100 (we are currently very close to this number)
Slack - Unlimited

- Search -
WhatsApp - None
Slack - Full Text

- Custom Emoji -
WhatsApp - No
Slack - Yes (Kemper Emoji Anyone?)

- Privacy -
WhatsApp - Requires phone number
Slack - Requires Email

- Outside Integrations -
WhatsApp - No
Slack - Allows custom integrations (Could allow the community members to build out tools that interface with twitter, pinmash, eBay, etc.)

Qumaden

I can't wait to look back and say "I was there for the Slack vs. Whatsapp wars...we lost a lot of good people back then"

Sammy.Sam

I don't think the consensus was let's stop discussing it, except for perhaps let's stop talking about it in the chat

I would rather solicit suggestions on the best client to use. One that is ideally free, cross platform, doesn't display phone numbers, has admins (or controls so people don't wander in), and eliminates the fear of posting in something you already use for work.

Juicesir

I think while Slack seems like the better platform (and I'll be honest, a lot of its features are enticing) the usage of WhatsApp has become so ensconced in Pinny culture that unless there's a purposeful move we risk splitting fronts and the like. Still, this is an enjoyable foray into a community dividing manner, and I for one welcome our new Slack overlords.

Hingo

I still fear giving FFMH my phone number, in case he goes on a drunken bender and does God knows what with it. My vote is for Slack.

Juicesir

Hingo wrote: »

I still fear giving FFMH my phone number, in case he goes on a drunken bender and does God knows what with it. My vote is for Slack.

He's only done that twice to me, and the first time didn't even hurt that much. You can barely see the scars anymore.

fishfishmonkeyhat

I can't help but feel this balanced poll by OP is slightly biased towards Slack considering he only lists it's positives.

- Opinions on murdering your family -
Slack - Helps at a local shelter on the weekend
WhatsApp - Is covered in SO MUCH BLOOD OH MY GOD WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?!

How about

- Where is everyone right now? -
WhatsApp - Here
Slack - Not here

- Do you require any of that other stuff? -
Not really



Although I still have to look at Slack.

NowHiringHenchmen

fishfishmonkeyhat wrote: »

I can't help but feel this balanced poll by OP is slightly biased towards Slack considering he only lists it's positives.

- Opinions on murdering your family -
Slack - Helps at a local shelter on the weekend
WhatsApp - Is covered in SO MUCH BLOOD OH MY GOD WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?!

How about

- Where is everyone right now? -
WhatsApp - Here
Slack - Not here

- Do you require any of that other stuff? -
Not really



Although I still have to look at Slack.

In a very serious note, what positives does Whatsapp offer other than "we're here already"? I feel like the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" kind of falls apart here because while it's true we don't REQUIRE the ability to do the stuff Slack offers, it would make it a much more convenient app for some of the people who use it.

NowHiringHenchmen

I think one of the biggest NEEDS for a change, however, is WhatsApps' restriction on users. We are very quickly getting closer to hitting a cap on how many people can join the chat, and it's just time we move onto a bigger app.

It's okay guys, downloading a new app will NOT, contrary to popular belief, cause the earth to splinter and collapse.

fishfishmonkeyhat

NowHiringHenchmen wrote: »

fishfishmonkeyhat wrote: »

I can't help but feel this balanced poll by OP is slightly biased towards Slack considering he only lists it's positives.

- Opinions on murdering your family -
Slack - Helps at a local shelter on the weekend
WhatsApp - Is covered in SO MUCH BLOOD OH MY GOD WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?!

How about

- Where is everyone right now? -
WhatsApp - Here
Slack - Not here

- Do you require any of that other stuff? -
Not really



Although I still have to look at Slack.

In a very serious note, what positives does Whatsapp offer other than "we're here already"?

Umm, I have admin privileges? Much like the 2 people who awesome'd my last post do!

:P

We should have made this a public poll so we would know who should be the first against the wall when the revolution happens.

Hingo

Frealz though, I won't use Whatsapp due to the phone number restriction. No value judgement on others - that's just where I draw the line for myself, so I won't be using it ever.

Rysheve

fishfishmonkeyhat wrote: »

I can't help but feel this balanced poll by OP is slightly biased towards Slack considering he only lists it's positives.

- Opinions on murdering your family -
Slack - Helps at a local shelter on the weekend
WhatsApp - Is covered in SO MUCH BLOOD OH MY GOD WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?!

How about

- Where is everyone right now? -
WhatsApp - Here
Slack - Not here

- Do you require any of that other stuff? -
Not really



Although I still have to look at Slack.

I am biased but would love to here about slack drawbacks.

I'm more than willing to make you a mod.

fishfishmonkeyhat

Fine! I'll join Slack so I can find out its drawbacks from the insid.. OH WAIT A MINUTE NICE TRY!

Sammy.Sam

Ok, everything will have things that people don't like. For instance the fact that Slack allows you to like comments is a con to me. But I will go where the community wants.

My big question is about data. Does Slack suck up less data usage than WhatsApp?

NowHiringHenchmen

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

Ok, everything will have things that people don't like. For instance the fact that Slack allows you to like comments is a con to me. But I will go where the community wants.

My big question is about data. Does Slack suck up less data usage than WhatsApp?

You don't need to use slack on your phone, so anytime you're around a computer and want to use it, that will chew up less data. I don't know about strictly data vs data on mobile phones.

Rysheve

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

Ok, everything will have things that people don't like. For instance the fact that Slack allows you to like comments is a con to me. But I will go where the community wants.

My big question is about data. Does Slack suck up less data usage than WhatsApp?

I'm in multiple active slack teams and only use whatsapp for Pinny pals.

This month they are both round 10mb of cellular data usage. YMMV

Ayefkay

I dont know why people are saying theres no pc client for WhatsApp but there is a pretty decent web browser version...

My only gripe with swapping over is the idea of dividing us in any way. I know of a community member, remaining nameless, who already uses slack during work hours and is not allowed to swap to pinny pals during work hours. They will essentially miss out on the time of day most of us are on and talking.

Maybe an odd case, but this may not be the only incident. The argument of "if it aint broke..." means exactly what it says; it aint broke . If we can get everyone over hassle free then im all for it, otherwise, these are my reservations.

Rysheve

Ayefkay wrote: »

I dont know why people are saying theres no pc client for WhatsApp but there is a pretty decent web browser version...

My only gripe with swapping over is the idea of dividing us in any way. I know of a community member, remaining nameless, who already uses slack during work hours and is not allowed to swap to pinny pals during work hours. They will essentially miss out on the time of day most of us are on and talking.

Maybe an odd case, but this may not be the only incident. The argument of "if it aint broke..." means exactly what it says; it aint broke . If we can get everyone over hassle free then im all for it, otherwise, these are my reservations.

Whatsapp web does not work on iOS.

Sammy.Sam

I agree about not wanting to divide the community. I'm still searching for an alternative to slack, so that we can avoid losing people. I'm looking at telegram right now. It still uses a phone number to register, but I don't believe it shows it to everyone. It touts itself as privacy minded.

Rysheve

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

I agree about not wanting to divide the community. I'm still searching for an alternative to slack, so that we can avoid losing people. I'm looking at telegram right now. It still uses a phone number to register, but I don't believe it shows it to everyone. It touts itself as privacy minded.

Do we have a third party candidate? Oh no!

surette

I was never part of the WhatsApp group, but I'm firmly in the "Slack is unequivocally better" camp.

Sammy.Sam

I'm liking what I see with telegram. I think it addresses a lot of the concerns from both camps. Check it out https://telegram.org/faq

Happendy

Personally, if having a phone number made public makes Whatsapp an instant "no" for some people, then it's obviously broken. The "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" argument is instantly invalid. As much as I like Whatsapp, I think that finding a new platform is something that we have to address and whether or not we end up choosing slack, we have to find a new alternative in order to cater to everybody's needs.

In this case, privacy is a valid concern and I completely understand the hesitation for why someone would not want their digits be made public.

00Fayt00

Over this discussion. Groups choice.

Sammy.Sam

In the FAQ I linked for telegram it explicitly states that you can set up a username & it will not show your phone number to other users. The only exception is for people you already have a phone number for saved in your contacts.

NowHiringHenchmen

Ayefkay wrote: »

I dont know why people are saying theres no pc client for WhatsApp but there is a pretty decent web browser version...

My only gripe with swapping over is the idea of dividing us in any way. I know of a community member, remaining nameless, who already uses slack during work hours and is not allowed to swap to pinny pals during work hours. They will essentially miss out on the time of day most of us are on and talking.

Maybe an odd case, but this may not be the only incident. The argument of "if it aint broke..." means exactly what it says; it aint broke . If we can get everyone over hassle free then im all for it, otherwise, these are my reservations.

I think this has already been resolved, but Slack can be used with ANY XMPP client.

Also, In a months time, we will have to make a decision anyway, because the WhatsApp group will be at 100. What will we do then?

NowHiringHenchmen

00Fayt00 wrote: »

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

I agree about not wanting to divide the community. I'm still searching for an alternative to slack, so that we can avoid losing people. I'm looking at telegram right now. It still uses a phone number to register, but I don't believe it shows it to everyone. It touts itself as privacy minded.

I'm very obviously one of the people who doesn't see a need to change to something new. I just don't like the argument in there of "you can't prove there are things wrong on slack" because they are right, bc I have no interest to join it. I use several different chat programs, and out of them I prefer whatsapp. Also, I don't want to have people writing paragraphs in a chat program because we have thousands of messages over a day at times. The argument of a few select people already use a pc for whatsapp doesn't convince me that that won't happen. We have a full forum for that. I want a place just to chat. And this over the course of the last week has turned into a big ball of arguing in the chat which is frankly silly. I know that being against switching to any different program has caused drama in and of itself, but that's one reason why I'm not going back into the main whatsapp chat until yall decide what to do. I'll end up fighting yall and I don't want to divide the community like that .

What everyone else wants to do is their choice. I will however not be joining a different one. There is absolutely no reason why 6 months from now someone won't go "we need to use ______ now". Also, I personally enjoy and like whatsapp.

See yall in whatsapp or at prime in about a week and a half because I'm out of the chat until this mess goes away one way or the other.

By the time Prime passes, the WhatsApp group is going to be at max capacity, so we're either going to have to not allow anyone else to be able to chat with us, create some sort of silly waiting list, OR just move to an app that doesn't restrict how many members can be in a group. If the sole purpose of the group is to chat, then we would have to move anyway to include more people!

Sammy.Sam

Telegram, although it looks & feels incredibly similar to WhatsApp, it appears to address the concerns of the Slack crowd. No one has to see your phone number, you can set custom notifications for specific groups & users, it is much faster, & leaner data wise. You can even set messages and/or photos to self destruct James Bond style in secret chats. You can also use it from your deskto or tablet, use gifs, stickers, etc.

https://telegram.org/faq

sary

I vote that we use something more inclusive. A dedicated Pinny IRC channel, slack, telegram, whatever. Whatsapp the group is reaching its limit and I'd expect it to meet and surpass that limit by next week [edit: meant month. or two weeks. basically at or shortly after prime]. Additionally, Whatsapp requires a *connected smartphone* to work, even if you're using the browser tie-in - so if your phone breaks, you're SOL as far as the pinnypals chat until you replace it, and people without smartphones are completely excluded.

I also have regrets about giving out my number. Sure, everyone in the group now has been good folk, but it only takes one rotten apple. When I first joined at south... honestly I probably would have been like "oh, then... no thanks, I don't feel comfortable giving that out" when asked for my phone # if it wasn't Happendy vouching for the group, (I've had problems, and so now I have trust issues. C'est la vie.)

I do also like the idea of something that can be used on a PC - my arthritis is starting to affect my hands and so using the phone keyboards, i find it to be a lot more difficult to type some days than I do on a physical keyboard. And on other days, it's the exact opposite. Plus this doesn't limit people to one or the other, if they don't want to use a PC, they don't have to, or if they don't want to use a mobile device, again that option would be open

Telegram sounds like a competitor, but I have a couple of concerns:

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

In the FAQ I linked for telegram it explicitly states that you can set up a username & it will not show your phone number to other users. The only exception is for people you already have a phone number for saved in your contacts.

But then your handle is searchable, findable, and spammable by everyone, or so the FAQ seems to imply. Can we set public and private usernames? that is, username is dsbb1234 but it displays only in the group as sary?

Additionally, Telegram has a limit of 200. The additional 100 people will probably last us until next year, sure... but then we'd have to have this conversation again, no?

NowHiringHenchmen

Yeah, Telegram sounds equally as enticing except for that group limit as well. Slack's unlimited is not truly unlimited, but I believe many have tested it out and it will cap you out at around 8,200 members, which would take some sort of miracle to even think about getting near.

Sammy.Sam

Personally I think more than double our current group is more than sufficient.

zerzhul

Hingo wrote: »

Frealz though, I won't use Whatsapp due to the phone number restriction. No value judgement on others - that's just where I draw the line for myself, so I won't be using it ever.

This is also why I will not ever be using Whatsapp.

Aside from that, the #1 thing I prefer about Slack is that it can be accessed from just about anywhere using whatever method you like.

Sammy.Sam

Slack sounds great, but there are some members of our community that can't use it, due to work issues. That is the only reason I am pushing telegram, because it seems to be the most inclusive, while at the same time respecting privacy issues (no phone numbers displayed) and allowing people to check in on multiple devices, including tablets & computers. I am glad to hear about other options, since I only just found out about telegram while trying to find a compromise that would satisfy the most people.

NowHiringHenchmen

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

Slack sounds great, but there are some members of our community that can't use it, due to work issues. That is the only reason I am pushing telegram, because it seems to be the most inclusive, while at the same time respecting privacy issues (no phone numbers displayed) and allowing people to check in on multiple devices, including tablets & computers. I am glad to hear about other options, since I only just found out about telegram while trying to find a compromise that would satisfy the most people.

I may be mistaken, but the person who cannot use it, there is actually a workaround using other XMPP clients!

zerzhul

I don't understand that particular issue. How is that different from using whatsapp for work?

Just use a different email address and they won't be linked in any way at all. If you use gmail, you can put a + after your email to solve this problem

xyz@gmail and xyz+pinnypals@gmail will go to the same place, but separates them in the systems apps use to connect accounts

edit: although I'm now thinking about this and is the problem that they use slack on their phone for work and that would be the thing that's hard to swap?

edit again: I now get that I am probably right with my previous edit! hooray for other xmpp clients!

orthancstone

Qumaden wrote: »

I can't wait to look back and say "I was there for the Slack vs. Whatsapp wars...we lost a lot of good people back then"

Pfft, these things never last. Like pirates vs ninjas, cake vs pie, and vi vs emacs before it, people will identify the proper choice and everyone will be happy.

zerzhul

vi and emacs are both shit

00Fayt00

I've decided not to argue the issue, but I agree with the people saying 200 is more then enough people. We get more then 150-200 total I'll probably stop checking it bc it'll be too dang busy.

But I'll join whatever is decided upon eventually probably

burned.fork

Vote for Slack here, if only because I really prefer to type at my PC if I'm on it. Why should I have to pull out my phone and type on that when I'm literally sitting at a computer with a real keyboard. I use Google Voice just so I can send SMS from my laptop, and trust me, it's awesome.

I think XMPP support also makes it significantly more inclusive, since there's clients for every platform. You can probably run it on your toaster.

madoruk

We have slack at work, which I have not used yet because I am lazy, but I know some of my co-workers do not like it. I will have to talk to them on Monday to get more information.

fishfishmonkeyhat

Rysheve wrote: »

Sammy.Sam wrote: »

I agree about not wanting to divide the community. I'm still searching for an alternative to slack, so that we can avoid losing people. I'm looking at telegram right now. It still uses a phone number to register, but I don't believe it shows it to everyone. It touts itself as privacy minded.

Do we have a third party candidate? Oh no!

Hah! How does it feel!?

:P