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Re: [ESPResSo-devel] gitter chat for ESPResSo
From: |
Ulf Schiller |
Subject: |
Re: [ESPResSo-devel] gitter chat for ESPResSo |
Date: |
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 09:07:34 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.8.0 |
Hi,
I don't know Gitter but I have been using Slack (with Github
integration) on various spells. I have become less than enthusiastic,
and I agree with Georg and Peter on the potential downsides.
Regarding the pros and cons, I would not weight out chat vs email. But
in my opinion the pro arguments are a bit anecdotal.
On 07/13/2016 05:41 AM, Peter Košovan wrote:
+ More responsive than the mailing list
From my experience with Slack I would say that the trendiness may make
people more responsive initially, but eventually everyone will fall back
to their usual habits.
+ Syntax highlighting for code
Visual sweetener, but do you really want to include larger chunks of
code in chat messages?
+ Desktop and mobile clients
Holds for virtually any platform these days.
+ Does not clutter your inbox
Filter rules for email can achieve the same (with the advantage in my
view that the recipient has control over sorting). Once you use chat
channels for several projects and groups, it becomes as horrendous as an
unfiltered email inbox (think searching for a conversation in 10,000s of
messages without subject threads).
> This chat makes discussing short questions or new features very
> easy and seems like a nice extension to the mailing list to me.
I do agree this can be useful if used wisely, but really just as a
replacement for IRC, Jabber, or Skype. It's basically a question of
synchronous vs asynchronous communication and push vs pull subscription.
Chat may be useful for discussing specialized topics in a smaller group.
Gitter, Slack, HipChat, etc. offer a closer integration of the chat
client with Github (plus convenience features such as syntax
highlighting), but at the risk of scattering information on yet another
platform.
That being said, I'm not opposed to trying Gitter - I'd think of it as
the trendy version of a phone call. But be sure to keep the relevant
information somewhere documented, structured, and traceable (like
meeting minutes). I think many of us can't afford the time to follow yet
another communication channel on a regular basis. Just my 2 pennies...
Cheers,
Ulf
--
Dr. Ulf D. Schiller
Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Faculty Scholar, School of Health Research
Clemson University
161 Sirrine Hall
Clemson, SC 29634
Office: 299c Sirrine Hall
Phone: 1-864-656-2669
Fax: 1-864-656-5973