My major preference for Slack was replacing Skype chats, so there was no loss in terms of open source.
Lots of people complain that it's just a fancy IRC client, but they don't realise how painless it is to get non-tech people to start using it.
But quite clearly there needs to be a fully open sourced alternative.
I think WordPress is a great example of how it should be done. Provide a super simple way to create xxx.slackclone.com in exactly the same number of steps as it takes to create a slack group whilst also providing something that you can download and install yourself.
I think any project would have to be in PHP. Perhaps that sounds stupid but I think again following the WordPress model is a good track. PHP is the most easy way for low-tech people to get their own up and running. It should be as easy as the 5-minute WordPress install to get your own server.
edit: Plus PHP is what Slack is built on and I quite like the irony. The further irony though is that WordPress use Slack now. Perhaps in a similar way that WordPress fought against the React licensing they might replace Slack if there was a good enough clone.
As far as I can tell the aim could be to create as close as possible a clone of slack, ripping off as many features as possible without stepping over a boundary where Slack could try and shut you down.
I agree, no idea why you are downvoted.
At my job the Slack was forced on us by boss, probably because of the hype, we were using Skype before and we still use it because the team was used to Skype, it worked good enough, slack just added for us extra distractions.
I think that even a good alternative appears if the hype is not enough it won't catch, also before Slack we used Hipchat for a short time, same story, it was imposed to the team because of the hype, in the end Slack got a bigger hype I assume.
Lots of people complain that it's just a fancy IRC client, but they don't realise how painless it is to get non-tech people to start using it.
But quite clearly there needs to be a fully open sourced alternative.
I think WordPress is a great example of how it should be done. Provide a super simple way to create xxx.slackclone.com in exactly the same number of steps as it takes to create a slack group whilst also providing something that you can download and install yourself.
I think any project would have to be in PHP. Perhaps that sounds stupid but I think again following the WordPress model is a good track. PHP is the most easy way for low-tech people to get their own up and running. It should be as easy as the 5-minute WordPress install to get your own server.
edit: Plus PHP is what Slack is built on and I quite like the irony. The further irony though is that WordPress use Slack now. Perhaps in a similar way that WordPress fought against the React licensing they might replace Slack if there was a good enough clone.
As far as I can tell the aim could be to create as close as possible a clone of slack, ripping off as many features as possible without stepping over a boundary where Slack could try and shut you down.