Move from Campfire to Slack for team communication?
July 8, 2015 5:08 AM   Subscribe

My work team has been using Campfire for communication for the last three years because of this post. We are at a place now where we would like to switch to a free tool. We are considering Slack. We also need to export our chat transcripts from Campfire.

1. I did some reading and found that the only? way to export Campfire transcripts is by using Ruby. Is that true? Can I do this? (I took a couple computer science classes in college but haven't coded in about 10 years now.) Any tips for this process?

2. And, is Slack the best tool for us? (We are a team of 5 that works in the same city but in different buildings. We use the search features frequently to recall decisions we made in the past. We need a good mobile app that has push notifications and is available on both iOS and Android. We want the ability to export our chat transcripts in case a better tool comes out or our needs change in a couple years.)
posted by allison00 to Computers & Internet (7 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
For #2: Slack's free option limits your searchable history to 10,000 messages. You can export your messages, but there are some limitations, especially if you don't have a paid plan.
posted by neushoorn at 5:27 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


My team is using Slack to coordinate integration efforts among distributed sites, but another similar tool is HipChat. You might want to consider that as well.
posted by elmay at 6:08 AM on July 8, 2015


I don't know about the export problem, but my small team has been using the free level of Asana with very good success. You can set up team members per project, projects can have tasks, tasks can have sub-tasks and related tasks. You can also rope people from outside the ongoing team into a task or project. For example, you can invite the client to an entire project, or just to the tasks you need their input on.
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:16 AM on July 8, 2015


1. I did some reading and found that the only? way to export Campfire transcripts is by using Ruby. Is that true? Can I do this? (I took a couple computer science classes in college but haven't coded in about 10 years now.) Any tips for this process?

Yes, you can do this. Are you referring to this gem*? It doesn't look like there's any actual coding involved; you just have to install Ruby (already on your machine if you have a Mac) and RubyGems, then pretty much follow the instructions. It looks like you just run it and get a little command line interface. MeMail me if you get stuck.

*A gem is just a Ruby library. Nothing fancy.

Side note: that gem is by Marc Hedlund, who was responsible for increasing hiring of woman engineers when he was at Etsy, so I am predisposed to feel good about it!
posted by the_blizz at 6:22 AM on July 8, 2015


Free Slack won't work for your need to search history. You need to pay for that.
posted by corvine at 7:50 AM on July 8, 2015


Yes, Slack is absolutely wonderful, and for my team, a true life-changer, but if you really expect and require free, look elsewhere. I think the cost is well worth it, but your priorities may be different.
posted by TonyRobots at 9:28 AM on July 8, 2015


One of my teams (5 people) uses the free tier on Slack with no issues. To keep below the searchable threshold, you might want to avoid intentionally flooding channels with gifs or pug bombs or other goofing around (some groups are more prone to this than others, ymmv). Otherwise, for a small team, 100k gives you a few months of searchable archive.

We wrote a script that copies every message to an external app, so if we really need to we can search those archives.

That being said, the paid tiers are 100% worth it if it's in your budget. We briefly tried Hipchat and the iOS and Android apps weren't nearly as user-friendly.
posted by third word on a random page at 4:40 PM on July 8, 2015


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