IRC or Matrix Bridge to Slack

[RichardLitt]

Right now, we have a Slack community that works fairly well as a space for communication. However, as a lot of people raised at the meetup last night, it is not open source.

It would be great if we could find an alternative that allows people to use their preferred method along with Slack, I think. Slack already exists and works well, and I'm not sure that moving off of the platform entirely is ideal. I think that a bridge would work well.

What do you think?

[Superpat]

Slack just very recently disabled their irc and xmpp bridges (embrace, extend, extinguish is the saying that comes to mind) and while the matrix -> slack bridge still works, it's not ideal and due to the nature of slack, that bridge could be removed at any time.

As a rule I tend to not join proprietary social networks (Meetup being the only one I currently use, and I'm constantly keeping an eye out for a fediverse alternative) and the idea of using one to discuss open source as a whole just feels wrong. Now I'm not saying I personally would actively use a chat system, as I generally find asynchronous communication just fine, but I did want to raise the question.

Have you used riot.im? It's the main matrix app and it is pretty polished.

[TammyMackenzie]

I think we can take a marketing and poli-sci perspective on this question. Who are the target audience? For what type of campaign? Through what channels?

For an awareness and community building campaign*, in general you want to cast a wide net.

Eg If our target is coders, then slack and the ever more esoteric options, and I would say support as many of those sub-options as you have volunteers willing to maintain the relationships.

+If we want to bring in people from open-source management, social economics, activism, research... then we go where they are, which is linkedin and facebook events at a minimum and then, as per resources: conferences, the meetups, a blog, and I ultimately maybe a yearly award event for 5 or 6 different action-targetted categories.

*Awareness campaigns are an interim step in political activism, used when you want to get people talking about the situation on the ground and sharing realities. It builds community, a common store of knowledge, and specifically identifies needs, which are prerequisite elements for an action campaign.

-Who do we want? -Why do we want them? -How do we reach them?

-T.

Sent from my iPhone, expect typos, have a great day!

On Apr 12, 2018, at 13:52, Patrick Marchand notifications@github.com wrote:

Slack just very recently disabled their irc and xmpp bridges and while the matrix -> slack bridge still works, it's not ideal and due to the nature of slack, that bridge could be removed at any time.

As a rule I tend to not join proprietary social networks and the idea of using one to discuss open source as a whole just feels wrong.

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[David-Ro]

We're good with Github, so we're beyond Slack. Options like gitter.im or riot.im are Hardcore-r and geekier, and that's OK.

Going opensource means we'd know to go for Gitlab too: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-GitHub-GitLab

@TammyMackenzie Tammy says we can go mainstream services for marketing campaigns. Yes.

Slack can and shall change their rules at any time.

[RichardLitt]

As a rule I tend to not join proprietary social networks and the idea of using one to discuss open source as a whole just feels wrong.

This is a great point. I find it interesting that there's a strong trend in some open source communities to use only open source frameworks. However, open source is not the norm for most products. If you're using a Mac, you're using proprietary, closed-source code. Should I buy a cheaper laptop and install GNU? Almost certainly - but I don't, because I like the Apple ecosystem and the ease of use it affords.

Ultimately, I don't want to take a side in this argument about whether or not to use Slack. I don't find the proprietary argument to be convincing, personally, because I know that everyone here has to make a decision to use proprietary code at some point, if only when they try to take cash out of ATM.

I set up the Slack a while ago because it seemed a cheap and easy way to collect people where they are, and it affords rooms and channels for talking to each other. IRC is another great option, but I'm not using it very actively at the moment, because most of my social networks are now using Slack.

If you want to set up a Matrix or IRC channel, please go ahead! I think that's a great idea. But I think that asking for the 40~ people in the Slack right now to move over is unnecessary.

[ruyadorno]

Let's give gitter a try, I just setup the room and we have a PR to add the badge to the README file #34

[RichardLitt]

We now have a gitter badge! @Superpat @David-Ro and @TammyMackenzie: That work for you?

[ruyadorno]

FYI @Superpat I think it was you that mentioned being able to connect from the cli, I just tested this gitter+IRC bridge in irssi and it works just fine: https://irc.gitter.im/