Is there any reason this workspace doesn't allow u...

# meta

[louiscad]

Is there any reason this workspace doesn't allow us to add custom emojis? I think it'd help unleash a little the good emotions and thoughts of this community, based on my experience on another Slack (that is less crowded but more active).

I often myself wanting to show my reaction to something, but the standard emojis don't fit, and a message would be too much (drowns the rest of the discussion).

If letting any member here feels risky because of how many people are registered, maybe it'd be possible to allow only a few active members to add emojis with some guidelines so all the emojis are safe for work (though such a policy can be set and apply even if anyone can add custom emojis).

[gildor]

Wouldn't be easier to suggest emoji in this channel, so admins could add them?
I think it happened already a few times

[gildor]

I'm not against allowing to add custom emoji, just not sure that allow add anyone custom emoji is good, it may be abused, but having some sort of set of "privileged active users" is good way to manage it

[louiscad]

The fact that we have to ask it for every single emoji adds a lot of friction because we don't want to waste JetBrains time with a request for every single emoji we think would be cool to have.

[gildor]

I think it's not a big deal honestly

[gildor]

Manage "active users" requires more work 😅

[louiscad]

Yes, I was thinking that it could be a sort of spam vector if no rules are in place, that's why I suggested to add guidelines or allow select users to populate the emojis, so we can have more fun!

[gildor]

Unfortunately slack doesn't have "moderator" permission, only admins

[louiscad]

Re spam vectors: messages are still a way bigger vector than emojis, so I don't think it'd be that much abused if at all, plus admins/owners of a Slack Workspace can remove emojis added by other members.

[louiscad]

Don't you want to add emojis with me, Andrey? 😄

[gildor]

😅

[gildor]

Yeah, maybe it's not a big deal about allowing to add custom emojis to everyone, I think in general we don't have much problems with spam, and even off topics (I'm looking on you #android channel!)

[Shawn]

personally speaking I don’t think it’s a huge spam vector, just a surface to subtly add things inappropriate for the workspace

[Shawn]

it’d potentially be a lot more moderation work

[Zac Sweers]

I mean channels like #android exist so if spam vectors were a concern, there's lower hanging fruit

[Zac Sweers]

emojis are pretty innocuous most of the time in basically every public slack I've been in. Moderation here seems pretty hands-off and just reactive to issues raised to them, I don't imagine it would change anyone's workload

[louiscad]

@hhariri So… can we have custom emojis here, please?

[hhariri]

@Zac Sweers Are you saying we should be like StackOverflow moderators? 🙂

[hhariri]

@louiscad i don’t mind enabling custom emojis. What I do want to make sure that doesn’t happen is people using inappropriate emojis. This could be covered by CoC, but if folks see them, to call them out so we can take action.

[hhariri]

@louiscad In order to enable custom emojis, I will have to file a request internally. This will then be raised to three departments, one of which is legal. The approximate wait time is around 1'5 - 3 months.

[hhariri]

I’m just kidding. It’s enabled.

[louiscad]

Hurray, thank you Hadi!
BTW, I think you already know, each custom emojis keeps the username of who added it, this should help address any violation of the CoC 🙂

[Zac Sweers]

I once made a question and answered it myself on stackoverflow to create a tag and like 300 people came in to shame or downvote me. Imagine if we could utilize that level of moderation energy for actual useful things