Slack is Destroying Communities

On this episode, we have Zach Shall­bet­ter, co-founder of Uxil­iary on to dis­cuss the ​“Fron­tend Devel­op­ers” com­mu­ni­ty he start­ed on Slack.

We talk about its sud­den rise to fame, and then a devo­lu­tion that hap­pened as a result of Slack­’s poli­cies towards pub­lic com­mu­ni­ties. We dis­cuss the scourges of recruiters, trolls, and hor­ri­ble peo­ple that helped to make the com­mu­ni­ty turn from a vibrant one to a tox­ic one.

We also talk about how the Craft CMS Slack suf­fered attacks from peo­ple spam­ming it with unmen­tion­ables, caus­ing a move to Dis­cord, for bet­ter admin­is­tra­tive controls.

Then like any good redemp­tion sto­ry, Zach tells us about how the move to Dis­cord saved the com­mu­ni­ty, and allowed for open and pro­duc­tive con­ver­sions between fron­tend devel­op­ers again.