Hello All, We have set up Mahout's slack space to forward directly to dev@mahout.apache.org. We will now be able to plan publicly on slack. This a bi-directional connection, all messages to dev@mahout.apache.org will show up in Slack. No one will be left out of planning.
IRC, Slack, HipChat and other messaging platforms have always been as they are and are now essential tools optimal and effective distributed software development. Surprisingly, there are not a huge amount of freely available methods to ways to connect slack to there outside universe or at least were not when i started this back burner project last year. At the time, there there was essential : The MailClark APP and Slack Web-hooks[1]. Slack web-hooks require an outside HTML/PHP server and take reasonably easy configuration, available on GitHub. This would have been relatively easy and required only a few minutes of PHP copy pasta, but also would have meant setting up and maintaining an email server specifically for this. We went with a free version of the Mail Clark app. The free version allows a relatively easy configuration for a single channel in slack to forward each message sent to d...@your-project.mahout.org during a planning session without interruption. each message will come from the bot's email address, with the Full Name name of the person sending it and the channel name in the subject. Slack threads are maintained as email threads on the dev@ list. As i mentioned, the connection can configured to be be bi-directional. In some cases It's been easier to have conversations, on other channels, and then copy the entire day's messages in to either an email or just pasting it directly into the connected account. As i mentioned, the connection is bi-directional, so those not using slack can participate via email. This allows us to either record planning sessions or project issues verbatim in Slack, with really no overhead. This has helped us to keep the efficiency of slack, while maintaining compliance with ASF public e-mail list planning requirements. Please let me know if a write-up of MailClark integration would be useful. It can be done for a single channel in about 10 minutes (I struggled on and off for a while to get it done in a different manner, and found the single channel method to be easiest.) The interface has matured a bit over the past year, and is now relatively intuitive, but also not so much. I am happy to provide a write up of the steps to connect if it would be useful for anyone. If it didn't happen on list, it didn't happen. Please let me know if anyone is interested. --Andy [ 1 ] https://slack.com/help/articles/115005265063-incoming-webhooks-for-slack#messag[e-options. <https://slack.com/help/articles/115005265063-incoming-webhooks-for-slack#message-options> [ 2 ] https://mailclark.ai/ [https://mailclark.ai/static/img/logos/slack-avatar.png]<https://mailclark.ai/> MailClark: Smart Shared Inbox Within Slack & Microsoft Teams<https://mailclark.ai/> Whether it be a Facebook Page, Twitter account or several email addresses (Outlook, Gmail, etc.) you and your team can access, interact and monitor everything directly from the workspace. mailclark.ai [https://a.slack-edge.com/80588/marketing/img/meta/slack_hash_256.png]<https://slack.com/help/articles/115005265063-incoming-webhooks-for-slack#message-options> Incoming WebHooks for Slack | Slack<https://slack.com/help/articles/115005265063-incoming-webhooks-for-slack#message-options> Using Slack From channels to search — learn how Slack works from top to bottom! Workspace Administration Want to learn more about setting up your team? Look no further! Extras Supplemental Slack info for you and your team. Changelog If you’re curious about what’s new in Slack — and what’s changed — you’re in the right place. Slack Certification Your Profile & Preferences Adjust ... slack.com
