I'm currently doing my best to move away from US-based tech services, feeling the need for healthier...

# random

[darkmoon_uk]

I'm currently doing my best to move away from US-based tech services, feeling the need for healthier global competition.
Delighted to discover that Kotlin is well represented on both Lemmy (Reddit equivalent) and Mastodon (X/Facebook equiv.).
Wondering who'd prefer to see this Slack channel migrate entirely to an Open Source platform such Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Wire or other... (Slack being owned by Salesforce in San Fran.) Show of hands?

[Youssef Shoaib [MOD]]

I don't know how realistic that is, though to migrate fully.
Does Kotlin Foundation/Jetbrains/whomever pay for a Slack subscription? If so, then I see the point. But if we're existing here without financially benefitting them, then I don't see the point?

[Stefan Oltmann]

I'm curious why JetBrains doesn't use their own system. I mean JetBrains Space has a chat system.
They moved all GitHub issues to YouTrack, too.

Maybe JetBrains Space is too much, but I would like to see that as a standalone Open Source project.

[Stefan Oltmann]

Does Kotlin Foundation/Jetbrains/whomever pay for a Slack subscription?

Since we have more than 90 days of chat history here, it's not the free plan. If JetBrains doesn't pay then it must be a custom deal to support the Kotlin Foundation.

[Robert Williams]

Anecdotal evidence: a place I worked tried moving from Slack to Rocket because of data privacy concerns. No one really liked it and we ended up moving back to Slack about a year later. Open source is great but some people will always complain if anything's missing or even just different compared to the commercial alternative.

[Robert Williams]

Not to mention that using Slack here is more convenient for those who already use Slack for their day job; most people don't have to be here (except a few JB folk) and may mot bother if they need a different account/client

[darkmoon_uk]

Very fair points @Robert Williams, particularly about the potential to fragment the community.

[Stefan Oltmann]

So, what specifically was wrong with Rocket? There are more to try.

[darkmoon_uk]

Though I'd like to think the community would tolerate some feature changes for the cause.

[Stefan Oltmann]

the community

Some will, some won't.

[darkmoon_uk]

There will always be a minority

[Robert Williams]

I literally couldn't tell you what was wrong with Rocket because they felt very similar to me but people would complain almost every day 🤷

[Robert Williams]

Lots were about threading but that's not great in Slack either

[Robert Williams]

And many were about plugins

[Stefan Oltmann]

Plugins come automatically if the base product is good. 🙂

[elect]

Mattermost is not bad

[hfhbd]

This Slack is provided by Slack.

[Stefan Oltmann]

I don’t find any info about that.

[darkmoon_uk]

@hfhbd For free, you mean? Good if true but... source?

[hfhbd]

https://slack.engineering/developing-in-the-open/

[Stefan Oltmann]

This includes things like sponsoring the Kotlin Lang Slack