Introduction To Slack

Slack has become our main tool for communication among members and our larger community.

MakerFX Slack

If you do not have access, contact us for an invite.

Basics

Start with Slack's own Getting Started guide.

If your user name is obscure, please consider changing it to either your name or your more well-known username. It makes it much easier to know who is who. The user name is only for our specific Slack and won't be seen outside of our Slack. You can change it at any time. While you're doing that, consider adding a bit of information to your profile such as interests, projects, and maybe a profile photo or avatar.

Slack has multiple channels for conversations. Some are private.

Everyone should belong to #general after joining. Just be aware that this channel has non-members as well as members in it.

There is a #members channel for discussions that are only relevant to members.

There are channels for different areas and subjects of the makerspace such as the metal shop, wood shop, 3d printers, etc. There are also channels for some group projects and for different shows and events we're attending.

Stars and Todo Items

You can star any message on Slack and it will be available on your Starred Item List (top right). This makes it easy to mark messages for later follow-up or reference.

Notifications

Slack has many notification settings. There is a global setting for all channels for both desktop / web and for mobile apps. Then each channel has it's own notification settings. You can also set quiet hours and temporarily snooze all notifications.

Slackbot

Slackbot comes with every Slack and has some neat features.

One neat feature is reminders. You can type /remind me Pick up sodas tomorrow 3pm and Slackbot will remind you. Or you can /remind channel Tonight is Open Make 1pm to remind a whole channel.