Which Channel Should I Post This In?
Which Channel Should I Post This In?
The feed vs email: we used to send an email to specific people. Now we broadcast.
We used to send an email to communicate with people who we couldn't speak to directly at the office.
This realisation hit me recently as I decided which Slack channel to post a message in.
What did we do before?
We would write an email and include the right people on it. We could send it to a distribution group (rarely).
Now, we DEFAULT to broadcasting.
If you post something on a Slack channel, how can you guarantee everyone reads it?
You can hit @channel or @here, and that should do it.
But you would only do that sometimes. That's the nuclear option.
So what?
By the way, this is not a "God damn you, Slack." memo.
I'm not complaining.
I'm just saying things have changed. I like that I can access anyone via Slack. Schedule a message in their time zone. Reply with an emoji. Send them a video or a voice note. You don't have to keep the email thread mentally open until they reply.
But I also hate it.
I am organised. And yet, I can't deal with 300 channels with a #temp prefix. I hate it when someone adds me to another channel without explanation.
Oh, this channel is private? That might have been good initially, but it will only work in the short run.
Oh, this person isn't in the channel? Let's make a new channel and add them there.
Oh, did you add them to a private channel? Now, we can't have our private conversations. Let's make a new private channel or go to DMs.
When you give people freedom of expression and no rules, they make new discoveries.
But they also make a mess.
Is a mess what we want in an organisation?
I know this is a dysfunction of an individual organisation.
I bet other companies solve this in their own way.
Sometimes, I wish to email the right people and not have to second guess where to post my message.