All the attempts at 'slack best practices' since this article was written in June 2015 are basically to not do #1, #2, & #3. If Slack is an authoritative source of information that cannot be ignored, you simply aren't doing it right. Slack is a success in my org specifically because it enhances our communication and documentation, not because it has become it.

I really don't agree with the main thrust here at all, and I think I agree with the analyses the OP was trying to rebut: it basically boiled down to luck. There were other viable (and even better) chat products out there.

Lacking a "reply" feature almost kept me from using Slack. It is still the only new feature I want in Slack. I would trade half of the integrations (I mean, Giphy sucks, it really does, and the Hangouts integration is just a race condition with an icon) to have that one thing.

IRC client -> ZNC -> Slack IRC => logs*

Sync them with Syncthing => locally saved logs, you can read them later.

Problem solved.

Problem solved for technically savvy software engineers who enjoy wasting a day of their time for a worse product (and an hour or so every so often with maintenance).

Worse product? You're cute.

Slack without the unicorn farts is much less of a hassle and a distraction; I have enough things to keep an eye on to appreciate plain text communication.

There is a reason 90% of the world writes their text in Microsoft Word / Google Docs rather than Vim/emacs/Sublime/Notepad. Something tells me Slack is going after the 90%.

the one thing that bothers me about slack is the notification model - i am always distracted and compelled to check notifications (whether they are relevant or not). as such i try to minimize the application and only respond when im called out by name and or channel or @here notifications are posted, but still there are also channel users who abuse these notification broadcasting features.

Ironically though, doesn't slack HAVE a way to reference messages? You just copy a link to the post you want to reference.

Real reason = Idle middle managers/project people trying to justify their existence + stupid VC + marketing + hypetrain