Just my two cents here.
At first, I thought real-time conversations for help in Slack was a good thing. To be honest, it’s nice to get that 1-on-1 help and get answers to questions/concerns quickly.
Over time, my mentality on this has shifted for various reasons.
- It’s distracting to have another Slack group open at work
- You develop a feeling of instant gratification over time (e.g. I need this answered now)
- Knowledge transfer is non-existent (e.g. A question will probably be asked and answered with little to no track record)
- It’s not beginner friendly
Let me touch on that last one real quick.
I totally loved the Slack channel and thought it was great for beginners, and I’ve definitely pointed people to Slack to ask for help. But that requires a lot of trust (new person) from people (ember folks) you don’t know. Personally, I’m very transparent but many people aren’t immediately and don’t want to create a new alias for themselves just to ask questions - initially. This changes over time, but it’s a big ask for newbies.
Either way, these are observations I’ve had. Hopefully, it’s useful in some manner.
Cheerios!