> If you're not familiar with
> Zulip, it will take little time before you can use it reasonably well.
> Same for Slack, Discord, Gitter... and also Discourse, by the way.
> Mostly because people go where their friends / colleagues /
> acquaintances are. In other words, those are network effects and have
> nothing to do with the UI friendless of each system. For example, I have
> to use Slack at work, yet I find Zulip far more convenient.
I think that we are on the same side about the considerations points but my observation bias is weighted on Slack, Discord, Teams.
So I agree with you and my suggestion may not be an objective perspective.
But I think that if we decide to choose to adopt new communication tools, I think that we can remove the danger factor which makes people not use after some period.
And I think that it will show a higher survival probability when people feel comfortable than people feel not convenient.
(Please note that convenience or comfort does not mean the systems perfectness)
> In other words, those are network effects and have
> nothing to do with the UI friendless of each system.
The reason why I mentioned the 'UI friendless' is that we are discussing the communication tools for programming projects.
IMHO, the network effect of business communication tools world is that how many people use the tool for their work.
if we can not choose the most people convenient tool of the programming world, but we can choose the second one as the alternative one.
For example, as you said you use Slack for your work purpose if we choose Slack (if we decide to adopt new tools) at least you and I don't have to learn how to use Zulip fluently.
And I think that it can also apply to other core devs and contributors who feel comfortable with Slack or Slack-like UI/UX.
Regards,
Dong-hee