Opened 2 months ago
Closed 2 months ago
#8224 closed defect (bug) (maybelater)
Move away from Slack since it cannot be accessed by all users anymore
| Reported by: |
|
Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milestone: | Priority: | normal | |
| Component: | Communication (Matrix, Slack, IRC) | Keywords: | |
| Cc: |
Description
Apparently, Slack nuked all Hong Kong / China based users last week without any prior info https://www.reddit.com/r/Slack/comments/1sadwsh/hong_kong_china_taiwan_based_slack_suspended/ causing lots of people to lose communication with their projects and teams completely - and it seems to still be ongoing after like a week...
WP should drop it's Slack and move to a FOSS alternative like zulip or similar
Change History (3)
#2
@
2 months ago
- Resolution maybelater deleted
- Status changed from closed to reopened
It is not, apparently Slack is completely banned an unaccessible from users from there (unless when using a VPN)
From what I saw on that reddit thread, it's like 1 in 100s of affected users was notified (given how annoying the Slack AI ads are currently everywhere in Slack, I'd believe them and assume they weren't actually notified) - especially since this wasn't the first time this happened https://slack.com/blog/news/an-apology-and-an-update
donating the services we're remaining on Slack for the time being
zulip would donate the services for WordPress too - in fact it's free for open source
This isn't likely to change any time soon.
Why?
For now, I'm closing this ticket, as there's nothing actionable for the WordPress project at this time.
To quote Matt from last month https://ma.tt/2026/03/wordpress-everywhere/
Technology is best when it puts you in control, gives you ownership, digital autonomy, freedom, and liberty. That’s open source
This is the total opposite of Slack and how it treats its users - imagine getting your way of communicating turned off over night? I imagine lots of people also had messages they still need/want, just vanished.
Given there are FOSS alternatives that are generally on-par feature wise and at no additional cost - what's the argument for staying at Slack exactly, except that it's established?
Hello,
The WordPress.org Slack instance still welcomes users from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The business decisions of Slack Inc to not renew services for users in some of those regions is outside of our control, but importantly doesn't prevent those users from using our Slack instance.
While I do not wish to defend other companies (Especially when it appears a ball has been dropped in communications); It does appear that an attempt was made to notify affected slack instances: https://www.reddit.com/r/Slack/comments/1sadwsh/comment/oe178ui/
At this time WordPress.org uses Slack, and although had previously discussed a change to Matrix, due to Salesforce (Slacks owner) donating the services we're remaining on Slack for the time being. This isn't likely to change any time soon.
Local teams are welcome to use whatever communication means they wish to, Facebook, IRC, Wechat, Telegram, etc.
A recent post has announced that we're going to be integrating more regional channels into our main WordPress.org Slack instance, so I imagine locale channels for those groups will be available soon.
https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2026/02/18/lets-slack-better/
For now, I'm closing this ticket, as there's nothing actionable for the WordPress project at this time. I'll mention this to those who are involved with managing the Slack instances though.