undefined | Better HN

0 pointsbaddox10y ago0 comments

Slack seems to have mostly eclipsed Hipchat, at least among Silicon Valley startups, but integrations probably weren't a huge factor in that. Slack does have a nicer flow for integrations, but Hipchat worked quite well (and actually had much-missed features like customizing the background color of messages; it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature).

0 comments

Klathmon10y ago

>it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature

I hear this saying a lot, and every time I just can't take it seriously.

This is the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting customizable background colors for messages on a messaging platform. It's just not something I or anyone I know about cares about.

I just can't see how that would be considered a high importance feature by anyone.

baddoxOP10y ago

It's all about integrations. We have all sorts of server messages and errors in a couple of our Slack engineering channels. Slack provides almost no way to visually distinguish these messages based on importance. In Hipchat, we had red/yellow/green background colors that worked great.

To be clear, I'm not dead set on having background colors. I just really miss having a good visual distinction between messages.

Klathmon10y ago

I came on a little strong there, it's just saying things like "how could they not have [insert niche feature here]?" drives me up a damn wall!

But that makes sense, and it would be a nice to have. In the meantime can you "hack it in" via different icons per status?

1 more reply

kcorbitt10y ago

HipChat's colored messages made it easy to see the error messages in a stream of mostly unimportant notifications. Slack kinda lets you do the same thing with a vertical colored bar to the left of the message, but important/error messages are much less visually distinct.

Jordrok10y ago

I seem to remember AIM allowing customized fonts and background colors around 15 years ago... Just sayin'

Klathmon10y ago

And a Porsche from 1992 can outrun a current day Prius, it doesn't make one better than the other...

1 more reply

pavel_lishin10y ago

And it was a miserable nightmare trying to talk to my friend who would decide to use bright yellow Comic Sans on a bright pink background.

lmm10y ago

AIM is actually really nice these days. I wish I could get my friends to switch back to it.

JonnieCache10y ago

mIRC supported ANSI colour codes for foreground and background back in the 90s. I seem to remember people hated you for using them though.

douche10y ago

People go ape-shit about silly features in IM clients all the time. Case in point, emoticons

daveguy10y ago

Back when I was a boy we didn't have any fancy emoticons! We used ascii characters and we LIKED it! >:-O

derFunk10y ago

Hipchat, like ALL other Atlassian products are always feeling just incomplete. By design. (I'm using 80% of their product line).

Slack just feels complete. For tech and non-tech teams.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

Klathmon10y ago

>it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature

I hear this saying a lot, and every time I just can't take it seriously.

This is the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting customizable background colors for messages on a messaging platform. It's just not something I or anyone I know about cares about.

I just can't see how that would be considered a high importance feature by anyone.

baddoxOP10y ago

To be clear, I'm not dead set on having background colors. I just really miss having a good visual distinction between messages.

Klathmon10y ago

I came on a little strong there, it's just saying things like "how could they not have [insert niche feature here]?" drives me up a damn wall!

But that makes sense, and it would be a nice to have. In the meantime can you "hack it in" via different icons per status?

1 more reply

kcorbitt10y ago

Jordrok10y ago

I seem to remember AIM allowing customized fonts and background colors around 15 years ago... Just sayin'

Klathmon10y ago

And a Porsche from 1992 can outrun a current day Prius, it doesn't make one better than the other...

1 more reply

pavel_lishin10y ago

And it was a miserable nightmare trying to talk to my friend who would decide to use bright yellow Comic Sans on a bright pink background.

lmm10y ago

AIM is actually really nice these days. I wish I could get my friends to switch back to it.

JonnieCache10y ago

mIRC supported ANSI colour codes for foreground and background back in the 90s. I seem to remember people hated you for using them though.

douche10y ago

People go ape-shit about silly features in IM clients all the time. Case in point, emoticons

daveguy10y ago

Back when I was a boy we didn't have any fancy emoticons! We used ascii characters and we LIKED it! >:-O

derFunk10y ago

Hipchat, like ALL other Atlassian products are always feeling just incomplete. By design. (I'm using 80% of their product line).

Slack just feels complete. For tech and non-tech teams.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse