I think the list @tanner provides in the OP of ‘My reasoning behind wanting to try Slack out’ provides a pretty good description of the problems we currently face.
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yes, was on vacation, Telegram discussion should be split out. I think we should also spin off a discussion on creating a Telegram-like IRC client. I think perhaps we should evaluate slack vs a client side-by-side.
In my opinion there is no real feature-wise (okay, maybe stickers, but seriously, come on! 
) difference between Telegram and IRCCloud. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Telegram quite much, and it has a proven track record for low barrier of entry (nice mobile clients, web app, Firefox OS(!) client), that is, except the registration process requiring your phone number. That said, the only thing that really impedes here - and is why I think IRCCloud+IRC couldn’t replace it is the fact that IRCCloud is a paid webapp. You could get away using the free version, but honestly for push notifications & offline & etc you’d need the paid version. (Also, IRCCloud on Firefox OS is pretty dumb/resource hungry, whilst Telegram offers a quite usable FxOS client).
My strongest qualm with Slack is quite similar - its missing Firefox OS client/story is one of its greatest drawbacks (besides the whole invite-only, different-slack-for-different-teams story).
All in all, I don’t think could (or should) be exorcised, as it has its well-defined and useful place in the contributor ecosystem, while IRC(Cloud) and Discourse - if advocated better - could fill the need for other comms needs, I think adding Slack to the bunch would just be throwing oil on the fire.
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I have two major concerns about Slack:
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Fragmentation: We already have IRC for real-time communication. Many people are already there. Using Slack it means that we expect people to use yet another tool just for Community Ops. If there was a wider decision at Mozilla to move away from IRC this would make more sense, but right now I don’t see why things that are being discussed on Telegram can’t be discussed on IRC.
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It’s a closed proprietary platform. Which beyond the philosophical aspect it raises the participation barrier. A contributor has to agree on a 3rdp party’s terms of use, in order to participate to the discussions (same problem Telegram has). Have we also check migration support on Slack? What happens if Slack shuts down? Can we export/import archives somewhere else?
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I’d rather use slack than telegram. Telegram has per group limits. That’s
dangerous and really badly reflects our values.
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It seems that the linked topics aren’t so obvious when you’re reading a topic. Please be sure to check out https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/mozillians-irc-client/2911 as well, which is the direction we’re focusing on right now, with Matrix.
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Mozilla actually has a wholesale rate organization account with IRCCloud and could if it so chose offer accounts to volunteers using it.
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You’re late to the party.
IRCCloud is a no.
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¡Hola!
FWIW I noticed https://drewdevault.com/2015/11/01/Please-stop-using-slack.html causing some ruckus on my Twitter feed last night.
I do agree with the subject there, “Please don’t use Slack for FOSS projects”.
¡Gracias!
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Yeah, we’ve decided against Slack. Matrix is waaaay better for us.
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