Hi all,

Some of you may have noticed that we recently added another page to the website describing the NZNOG Slack we're trialling. This particular one was created a few years back for conference organisation stuff, but we��re opening it up to others. Slack is a commercial chat product, which is used pretty widely by tech companies[1].

We��re using the free plan right now. We��ll see if we qualify for the non-profit thing to get the extra features, but, not really important at the minute.

** Why:

There��s a few different Slacks in related industries in NZ that work really well, and most people I interact with professionally are in a couple of Slacks. It��s really useful to be able to drop someone a quick message, where email isn��t quite the right tool.

The goal of the Slack is to facilitate real time conversations between people, and build some more direct relationships. You can have private chats with people when you��re debugging something. You can ask in the public channels for people to send you some traceroutes. You can post funny networking related things in the #random channel. You get the idea.

The key really is real time.

Also: If you have a clever idea for an integration that��s useful for NZ operators, please, let me know. Write a bot for your looking glass, that sort of thing.

** But what about:

There is no intent to take away from the mailing list at all, and I would strongly encourage people to post important messages, requests, and all the usual stuff to this list in order to get a good audience.

Of course, I��m aware of other places operators in NZ also discuss stuff that are not NZNOG - and we��ve no intent to take things away from those groups either.

There is a #conference-2019 channel, for discussion of whatever��s going on at the conference, announcements, etc. In the past there��s been an IRC channel, and probably still is.

** What else should I know?:

Some key notes:

- The intent is that it��s for network operators in NZ, or people operating networks that touch NZ networks in some way.

- Existing members can nominate new members through Slack itself, and then one of the admins will approve/reject.

- The expectation is that discussions are not shared.

- Don��t post secrets, passwords etc.

There is a code of conduct, which you should read for more: http://www.nznog.org/slack/slack-code-of-conduct

** How do I get on?:

- We��re going to invite everyone who��s registered for the conference. I��m going to do that now, and update it with new registrations as they happen.

- Ask someone who��s already on there, and they can nominate you.

- Up until the conference, if you want on and the above don��t work, email me (nathan@nznog.org) and tell me who you are and such, and I��ll invite you.

Nathan Ward

[1] Yes there are other ��Free��, ��Open��, etc. systems. Yes we could host our own system. The intent here is to get something that��s easy for the largest audience, and right now things tend to be looking towards Slack. This is a trial, so if something significantly better comes along then maybe we move to it - but let��s see if there��s value in this way of interacting first.