Why don't the slack community channels work?
I am in 5 major slack communities about startups ranging from 300 people to 50k, yet i dont find much value out of any of them. I try to help people and answer questions and occasionally get some feedback on an idea or question i have. But if i wake up tomorrow and i lost access to all of these, I wouldnt miss any of them. I dont know what exactly is missing, anyone has any insights or deals with the same thing?
I was just thinking about this the other day. They just aren't conducive to personal communication. It's like reading the walls of a bathroom wall hoping to find something useful.
Whats the solution though? With covid and everything it is very hard to find a proper support group as I am building my projects. Did you find anyway to develop more meaningful relationships with fewer people?
I'm trying an experiment with grouping people into smaller groups (5-10) people. The first group is getting a lot of value out of it so far. The second group starts tomorrow, so we'll see!
How can i join?
xoxo.vc is the site, here's the sign up form. https://airtable.com/shrAOUMd5SfLjsBPa
In my experience the pattern with Slack and Discord communities is always the same. There is always an initial phase of enthusiasm which vanishes quickly. Oftentimes just a few powerusers continue to use it as their personal chat. Then, either there is a sufficiently large influx of newcomers to or the whole thing dies off completely. All in all, I think Slack and Discord for communities is a fad that will vanish quickly again. It's just too chaotic. There is no good way to stay on top of things and overall it never feels as if there is any kind of progress.
Same here! It is really frustrating, it goes from THIS IS AWESOME to PLEASE STOP SPAMMING ME real quick.
What you're pointing out is really interesting. I don't think the medium is the angle though [be it Slack, Discord or any other solution out there - Whatsapp group, FB, sub-reddit or newer stuff like Mighty Network etc.].
I do believe it's related to the people and their 'why'. Why did they gather here? to talk about what? are they looking for relationships with peers? for meaningful discussions? serendipity & surprises? sharing knowledge?
From what I have seen its mostly to "self promote their product" distribution is hard and this seems like one of the few "free" channels left.
So you might have here your answer to the question '[...] what exactly is missing [...]' -- well what's missing might be a reason 'good enough' / 'deep enough' to engage and discuss beyond 'self promoting my own product' :) and the medium [slack & others...] might have no impact whatsoever on the outcome [assumption].
I am in some Slack communities that have given me a ton of value. When I look at what differentiates them, there are a few factors:
This guide about running your own social network touches on a lot of this: https://runyourown.social/. For example, Darius talks about how he individually onboards each member of his social network.
If anyone is willing to share their Slack frustrations with a member of our UX research team, we'd greatly appreciate it! We are trying to solve this exact problem with our community management platform, Panion, and the more we can understand community manager struggles, the better we can solve it. If you're open to a quick chat please email kareena@panion.com and mention connecting with me (Melanie) here. Thanks in advance!
Slack communities are working great for me.
I don't use them for promotion, but for listening to what people are saying and asking. Think of it as your research ground, where your target community hangs out and they're sharing their problems.
We are building software targeted towards Product Managers, and I have setup notifications for keywords that PMs could be asking about, and when someone does.. I try to help them out with my knowledge, and share our product if it's a good fit. Usually there are other readers who read this conversation and get in touch.
So my recommendations
For shouting out about something interesting from my end, I post it on LinkedIn with relevant hashtags.
How often does that work. Like assuming u r in Product School Slack, how many people actually have reached out to you via that slack (or any other equivalent)
i've written about this a bit: https://www.indiehackers.com/product-update/-MB_cBzSkixoVxTqew5H
I would say they're quite good for connecting and information sharing. For e.g. Firebase has a pretty active 11k+ slack community and it does help people solve for when they get stuck with something or the other. That said value is very differently viewed by different people and the problem usually is not getting people that "value the value" in the same way. This leads to inactive users and hence to inactive community.
We infact have built a "for networking" IM product - because we thought Slack Workspaces aren't meant for networking. But I have to say it hasn't been easy getting communities to switch from Slack to us. We're on https://meshchat.co - you can check it out and see how we've built it out.
meshchat looks good, but again it doesn't purpose seem to be built to create a more meaningful community, if it is then maybe I am missing smth?
It is actually. Think of it like WhatsApp - but with unlimited users, #tags for organising chats (channels inside a group - this is very imp), and we're building in asana like boards etc. - basically all the tools you need to get a professional community going. But do let me know why you feel it isnt #opentofeedback :)
Lets take this offline 😁. You can reach me at aboul3ata@gmail.com
Slack is not meant for communities. Lots of (open source) dev communities have moved away from slack for this very reason.
where do they go?
Some combination of Discord/Discourse seems to be the popular move.
Well, I feel more or less the same for Twitter. Is it normal, or I use it wrongly?
Twitter has been great for me actually, I got a lot more value from my interactions with 10 people on twitter than slack channels with 30k people.
I personally don't really like it.
Everyone typing there is a kaos...
I belong to a few Slack communities, and check them on a regular basis. I find that they are more useful for dissemination of information to the group and perhaps getting some commentary on a post, but less useful for long running collaboration in general.
yeah exactly, but then noise to signal ratio is an issue. 70% of the posts are self-promotion. and the other 30% die off real quick. There isn't real meaningful convs going on
Yes Uclusion was built around this limitation of Slack. Channels suck for collaboration. Slack is actually mostly used for direct messaging anyway. I lurk in This Week In Startups sometimes but its so unpleasant to go into a channel and try to catch up.
Agree. It's just too difficult and feels like a waste of time after you leave.
David's co fouder here, and previously a fairly extensive user of Slack.The problem with any channel is everone's shouting to the world. There's no structure at all. Even if I find something interesting an hour later it's flooded out by a litany of cat pics and sad trombones.
I was just thinking the same thing. Sadly, I go into slack the same way as most. I am looking dor ways to expand or connect. There is just too many people in there. It reminds of going to a club looking for a mate, except you can't see anyone nor can you hold their attention. The complaints don't bother me, i don't understand complaining in a channel. It just shows to people you aren't good company.