Onshape Slack channel?

pbc

Does one exist?

lougallo

@pbc I have used and managed IRC like channels in the past and personally I like them a lot but it is another vector that has to be managed and moderated.  It is only as good as the resources you put into it and we definitely are always evaluating how to best serve the community.  As @john_rousseau said, internally we live on this type of tech for realtime sync of our team.  The biggest thing I am always after as a user is to know where the resource is and have good tools to manage the signal/noise ratio 

john_rousseau

Hi @pbc. No, we currently don't have a public slack channel, although we are long-time, avid slack users internally at Onshape.

I'll bring this up with our support team.

Thanks
-John 

lougallo

 It might be a consideration for the future. What would you hope to get from that vs using our forum. The thing we want to avoid is making it too complicated to talk to the community. 

pbc

lougallo said:

 It might be a consideration for the future. What would you hope to get from that vs using our forum. The thing we want to avoid is making it too complicated to talk to the community. 

Good question, well sometimes there are just basic questions that are easier to talk outloud about.  I'm thinking of Slack as how IRC used to be used, was more of an informal usergroup where a variety of questions can be answered (if other people are online and presumably also using Onshape).  I think most of this thread could have been done in a slack channel instead of on the forum (https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/7427/getting-a-control-sketch-ready-for-lofting#latest)

michael3424

IMHO, this forum is far more useful than a Slack channel.  Slack seems more useful for just idly chatting about general topics.  And please don't *ever* attempt to do support through a Facebook group!

pbc

Well the suggestion was definitely not meant as a replacement to the forums; just as an addition.  I suppose it doesn't even need to be sponsored by Onshape; i'm just of the opinion that an IRC/Slack solution for onshape users would be of benefit.

3dcad

I also like the forum, it might be 'old fashion' but it works with same login as cad and doesn't need additional apps. It's easy to use and doesn't need additional login or apps. It has decent tools for interacting and did I mention that it doesn't need additional apps nor login credentials.

I don't like to mix social media with work that doesn't need it. And I hate companies who have website just to promote their twitter-facebook-tinder-instagram-snapchat-slack-youtube-channels; then they assume that I wan't to own my life to follow them if I just need to ask a question or like to research some of their products.

lougallo

@pbc I have used and managed IRC like channels in the past and personally I like them a lot but it is another vector that has to be managed and moderated.  It is only as good as the resources you put into it and we definitely are always evaluating how to best serve the community.  As @john_rousseau said, internally we live on this type of tech for realtime sync of our team.  The biggest thing I am always after as a user is to know where the resource is and have good tools to manage the signal/noise ratio