Slack Alternatives: Pumble

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

Dependency

The next person who says why don't we use another tool, besides slack

Overview

We need to know if there is a better tool for our org than slack, so that we can stop struggling with slack limits

Action Items

• Review the product offering
• Identify what it does not do, that slack does do.

Resources/Instructions

https://pumble.com/

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

Check out these webhooks, this might be a good alternative to slack for us.
https://pumble.com/help/integrations/custom-apps/incoming-webhooks-for-pumble/

[nyarly]

Pumble's free offering has a 10GB whole-org limit on storage, so it sounds like a very similar problem to Slack.

[joey-ma]

I think this conversation had come up in the past, and from what I remember the decision to continue using Slack is primarily based on its relevance. Slack is used by many companies, and can be helpful for volunteers to become familiar with this tool instead of a less "official" tool such as Discord.

If we're open minded, though, I think Mattermost is super cool. It's essentially Open-Source Slack, but setting things up could take some time and work, as it can be customized to your heart's content. It's mobile app does not offer the same capabilities, but the Desktop app is full of features.

[nyarly]

The reasoning about preferring Slack makes sense. It's by no means my preference, but it's used extensively in industry.

That argument works in two ways: it help familiarize Hack for LA volunteers with a commonly used tool, and it lowers the barrier to entry for incoming volunteers.

Those two advantages may trump any number of snags and frustrations with Slack. Maybe what's needed is a page somewhere titled "Why Slack and not Another Communication Platform?"

[hkatzdev]

The Recurse Center uses Zulip. Its also fully open source (I believe mattermost is open core).

Price-wise, here are some things to note:

• Pumble's free plan has a set storage that isn't per user, doesn't allow restricting @ everyone, doesn't have user groups, and is missing other features. Its pro plan costs $1.99 a user.
• Mattermost's free cloud plan only has 1GB of storage (!) and limited search history. Its professional plan costs $10 a user.
• Zulip's free cloud plan has 5GB of storage and limited search history. Its standard plan costs $6.67 per user; however, it may be free to open source projects / non profits
• Mattermost and Zulip both have self hosting options, but idk if Hack for LA has the time to maintain them. As Mattermost is only open-core some features would still be restricted, including custom user groups.

I'm a bit biased towards Zulip since I've used it before and don't mind it, so I'll mention one downside to it. Zulip looks pretty different from slack, though everything is still roughly in the same place.

[hkatzdev]

I will say that I believe having message history is enough of a reason to use one of the above services, even if they are only used as an archive. When I joined the slack, finding older information was basically impossible unless it was pinned or a link to the comment was posted recently. Some channels just appear empty.