slack-help

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@Jon Coonan set the channel purpose: Slack management / help

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Here we go

Much better

I like it

I had to close the other one since the conversion to private is irreversible

Remember that one

How do you transfer past messages or conversations from one channel to another ?

Cannot, sadly

the "share message" button allows you to repost it

(RTO) Remember that one

but as far as I know we can't efficiently transfer them all

You can export a channel to a file and then share the file

But it is not the same

Or just copy a part of the conversation to file

So lets try to figure out all the channels we need and which one are # and private

So right now there are 10 channels that we use

I think it’s clear that the main subteams should be public

what will the #strategy channel be used for?

There is the mentors channel which I can't see but am assuming exists

@Alex Larson Freeman probably discussing the game and general strategy

so I guess it's reasonable for that one to be public? just to throw ideas around?

Yeah

I think so

Specifically for that I think

alright, so that one can stay

We could also tie the official feeds from FRC there (I forget how, but there is a way)

oooh

#engineering , #marketing , #programming and #slack-help should be public so anyone can catch up on the other subteams

#slack-help for obvious reasons

Ya there is a mentors channel

makes sense

yes mentor channels exists

Good

Clio we can add an RSS feed via an addon

Gotcha

Did not see James respond

Also we need to talk about addons

I personally think we should use this https://spartronics.slack.com/apps/A0HBTUUPK--todo

Agreed

so my account shows i have 9 channels, but it only list 6 of them . why ?

2 conversations going on now

I'll switch back to here

You have only "joined" 6 of the channels

Ok, I figured it out . I did not join those channels.

There is one thing we don't have

a general chat for all team members

Do we need that?

Everyone should click that link I sent and read about the /todo plugin so we can test drive it

not sure why we'd need it but it is missing

It could get a little hectic

exactly

Yeah...

read that as "very hectic"

NO on general chat !!!

Unless you can justify why we need it.

again, no reason for it

but someone may ask about it in the future

Talk in person !!!

I have a group chat from my summer that has 32 people in it and let me say that as a general rule having that many people communicating for no set purpose is a bad idea

I'm with Coach on this one

I agree

Me too

If people have questions, the subteam channels will be fine

Plus this one

otherwise use the DMs

DMs ?

If a student needs to pass a message to the entire team they can contact their subteam leaders to relay it to us or do it directly

Direct Messages

@Enrique Chee Direct Message

So lets reflect on the last hr. Pros and con of slack ?

Pro: quick data searching!

and file sharing

Pro: easy communication and communication organization

Pro: addons

This active conversation would have been horrible on email this is fluid

Also true

con: easy communication can lead to cluttered chats though

But only if not managed properlu

*properly

Which we can get better at as Admins

Yes. By some measure, we’re not exactly talking about slack help right now

Pro: pinned messages and chat management tools

Pro: Markdown text files for easy data management

Con: learning curve

ehh

Pro: brief learning curve

^^

Con: we need to teach people. and by we I mean James and Jon

Pro: easy to ask the gurus for help… and reference these questions later

… by searching the thread!

Pro I can make my phone,laptop,watch,and more freak out if someone types something (aka super customized notifications)

true

Pro: notifications are instant compared to minimum 15 minute ping for email

Con: deluge of information if a public conversation was missed

that's a big one

SO lets say we have an attendance survey to share . Do I do by email or slack ?

I say put it in #C16U27D7Z

We can get a number from slack, IDK about specific emails. James?

... once people know how to use Slack

http://bit.ly/2b8fSOW also watch this

What do you mean number ?

One number for attending one for not

Like your "is slack boss" poll

I vote we add /todo ASAP

No we still need google forms

I agree with James

We can still use google forms, but share using announcements

The spreadsheet functions triumph over slack polls

google forms created Sheets

anyways there isn't a spreadsheet-like feature for Slack polls?

maybe an addon?

I think todo app adds another learning task for folks . Think your mentors.

True

Some mentors use Slack already at work (not all, but some)

The todo is fairly easy to use, but I agree

It adds to the learning curve and we should test run it first

Not to mention in an ideal world we would use it properly but odds are that instead of going to slack to add a task we will walk one room over and tell the person

Also true

Agreed

yeah, maybe worry about slack's learning curve before messing with /todo?

Or we could add /todo and try it out just with us?

Also think students ! So , if I am a student who does not read email (my guess 15 %) , why should I read my slack stuff?

It’s short

Mostly

It is totally optional, it can be installed and just idle until it is needed so we can play around without consequence

it gives instant notifications like a social media app

And it is faster, not to mention more chatter means more notifications which means more reminders

unlike email where you check once in a while and might have many messages to go through

Also email is dated enough that some kids just don't realize it's importance because they have not had to use it

email gives instant notifications

For some providers it does

not all though

Slack creates incentive to check frequently, and respond immediately (even if it’s only one or two words)

Regardless the chatter and easiness to reply and lack of formality makes it more commonly checked

It must be an easy night with no HW. I have slack in sleep mode after 10:30 pm

Mine starts at 8, I need to fix that

They would only have to check the #C16U27D7Z for all the major things. Checking a channel you are in by default where it is just robotics news I feel is easier that managing a cluttered inbox

I think if we can get people excited to use this platform it can make checking the robotics news fun not like checking email which is a chore for some.

Agreed

James , lets get them excited about Slack !!

@James Slattery set the channel topic: Questions about how to use Slack or talk about how to enhance / improve slack.

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i would suggest you start a frc news channel and subscribe to the following rss feed..
This can be done with /feed subscribe url

http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog-rss

Done!

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@Enrique Chee When it comes to sharing files on slack, PDFs and pictures that are for situation use such as a screenshot of the website or sharing an idea drawn on the whiteboard are fine. Another good way is to make a "post" in slack (click the plus button next to the text field) and then fill that with information that needs to be referred to.

However, in the number of pictures exceeds 5 or so, or it is a video or other large file they should be shared another way. Marketing already uses a Google Drive folder Kevin made, however IDK if he would allow the rest of the team to use it. Google offers 100 gb of storage for less than 5 dollars a month, and Dropbox probably has a similar offer.

Slack only allows 5 gb of storage. so it is important we only use the file storage system for things that are needing to be referenced and discussed. We can also remove old and irrelevant files as they become irrelevant to help with this

Thanks .

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@James Slattery: thanks !!

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team domain

what is it?

http://spartronics4915.com/ ?

He's referring to the slack domain.

It's spartronics.slack.com

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What is the best way to repost or reshare a file in slack?

You can share a file to multiple channels. Find the file then click on it. On your phone you use the 3 dots drop down to share it again to other channels

Thanks for your prompt response !!

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slack to support threaded messaging (this helps to reduce clutter in a channel by collapsing a collection of related posts)... https://slackhq.com/threaded-messaging-comes-to-slack-417ffba054bd#.824bajlyu

(available in the next day or two)

Thanks for sharing that Dana, it's going to be a big help for organizing our communications

About time :grinning: thanks

you can use 'everyone', 'here', and 'channel' with @mentions to notify a bunch of people at once, but can you create groups like "@programmers" which you can mention to ping every programmer (not just everyone in #programming)?

Not like Discord sadly. Best way to ping a group is to go to their channel and do @channel

yeah, but there's a ton of non-programmers in #programming (like the other channels)

ah well.

I like the ability to create threads, but I'm not that crazy about the implementation because I'd like to see each full thread in the main channel frame with replies indented. I half wonder if it might be better to have an engineering channel for each robot module to compartmentalize those conversations, and then keep the current engineering channel for the overall robot and general topics.

hm - i'm not seeing an update yet on either my android phone nor my windows desktop. On which platforms are you able to thread?

I can see it on all mine (windows Mac and android). On mobile you have to click the message to start a thread

Also @Chris Rininger there are module channels now, go ahead and check them out! #agitator #launcher #intake #bumpers

I’ll have Clio create a climber one too

@Dana Batali more info on threads https://slackhq.com/threaded-messaging-comes-to-slack-417ffba054bd

what version number do you see on any of these devices?

Android is 2.26.1

joncoonan: got it on my phone, thx!

Issue resolved then!

Not on my Windows desktop... There it reads v 2.4.1

@Chris Rininger I think you can have the messages go into the main channel but indented by checking the “Also send to #channel” box. Go ahead and try it

Can’t help you with Windows at the moment, but I know it was working on mine yesterday

My comment was based on the blog post overview - had not tried threading yet, and like Dana it seems like I don't have the updated version yet that enables threading. Instructions say hover over message to reply by starting a thread, but i don't see it yet.

Here is what you should see - if not, then the update has not hit yet

chrisrin: i now see the option to create a thread on windows... I did re-install but the verson number is still the same 2.4.1. So either i missed the option or they forgot to bump the version number.

joncoonan: dp you not know how to create new channels?

No I just would need to look up who needs to be in each one

I created all the basic subteam channels way back in September

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@Jon Coonan: can you remind me how we can get message threading to work? (did you disable this feature or am I just spacing on the magic incantation)

On mobile, tap the message then tap "start thread". On desktop, there is a little chat icon when you hover over a message that when clicked starts a thread

got it! definitely fell into the space plus magic category tx!

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hmm i hadn't realized we were already "falling off the edge"

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@Cruz Strom @Enrique Chee @Declan Freeman-Gleason, @Kenneth Wiersema

we're currently well past the limit of messages on slack . We're also near the disk-space limit... (this means that our institutional memory is falling off a cliff).

I just saw this new announcement re: Microsoft Teams:

https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2018/07/12/microsoft-teams-new-free-plan-looks-like-a-better-deal-than-slacks/

With our mentor connections at microsoft (@Chris Rininger), perhaps this is a good time to look at migrating off slack? One might even imagine a special deal where all limitations are relaxed. For me the "requirements" would include: integration with github and google docs, possibly trello.

Thank you @Dana Batali . I saw this also this morning and was thinking the same . Captains and mentors please research , if we switch we will start in September. Maybe one if the captains can test it over the summer.

I believe as an academic/nonprofit we could even get the full version of Teams. I have resisted suggesting it because it has a lot of parts to it that (initially at least) make it less intuitive to use than Slack. Plus the school seems like a Google-centric place, and I have been hesitant to suggest Microsoft anything because it would not be congruent. Facebook also has a free workgroup thing. Re: Teams, why don’t we try & see how we like it... We could set up channels for summer projects maybe?

@Chris Rininger: do you know if there is a phone app for teams on ios and android? (i'll poke around later if you don't know the answer to this)

answered my own question:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.teams&hl=enUS
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-teams/id1113153706?mt=8

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