Posted by stpaultim on Sat, Feb 05, 2022 - 12:25am --- Updated: Feb 05 '22 - 12:28am

I am writing an article about how the Backdrop CMS community uses Zulip and would love to get feedback from the community. I'm posting this question here AND in Zulip, because I'd like to get feedback from folks who use Zulip AND maybe from those who tried and found it difficult or confusing to use. 

In the early days, we got mixed feedback on Zulip. Some folks found the interface difficult to use. Yet, it seems to be that there is much more activity in Zulip than in the past - is that because Zulip works well or just because the community is growing and Zulip is the only real chat channel.

Do you use Zulip to communicate with the Backdrop community? If so, why or why not?

Most helpful answers

I'm a big fan of Zulip -- I

I'm a big fan of Zulip -- I appreciate the way it provides the live chat feature for instant messages but also allows threading for future reference. When I come back to the chat after some time away (as happens periodically), it's easy to read the chats by topic or even mark entire topics as read if they aren't relevant to me rather than picking through a huge long stream of posts and trying to weed out what's relevant. I've had good luck searching for past threads as well, or linking to a specific conversation thread (in an issue queue for example).

And I love that it's available as free and open source software.

Comments

Sat, Feb 05, 2022 - 2:02am by BWPanda (not verified)

I use and like Zulip. On the one hand, it is primarily the only way to actively chat with the Backdrop community, so you kinda have to use it if that's what you want to do (i.e. we (the community) don't use Gitter or Slack). On the other hand, I like it over Slack anyway because:

  1. It's open-source
  2. Conversations (i.e. topics) are a lot easier to follow and find (over Slack's channels and threads)

Zulip's not perfect (the UI could use some work, integration with things like Giphy aren't as polished as Slack's), but it's a great tool that gets the job done and I'm glad we're using it.

indigoxela's picture

Sat, Feb 05, 2022 - 3:27am by indigoxela

I use and like Zulip, too. I find it clear and the streams and topics make it easy to follow conversations.

It's open source and IMO better than RocketChat.

Sat, Feb 05, 2022 - 3:56pm by laryn

I'm a big fan of Zulip -- I appreciate the way it provides the live chat feature for instant messages but also allows threading for future reference. When I come back to the chat after some time away (as happens periodically), it's easy to read the chats by topic or even mark entire topics as read if they aren't relevant to me rather than picking through a huge long stream of posts and trying to weed out what's relevant. I've had good luck searching for past threads as well, or linking to a specific conversation thread (in an issue queue for example).

And I love that it's available as free and open source software.

Mon, Feb 07, 2022 - 12:41am by yorkshirepudding

I like Zulip - I think every one of laryn's reasons apply to me.

Wed, Aug 31, 2022 - 12:16pm by stpaultim

We've gotten this feedback recently on Zulip.

"The question of "where the heck do I type" is both frustrating, and a waste of time."

I'm concerned that others might not be participating for similar reasons, but that they don't bother to complain - they just go away. I've love to hear from others that have problems with Zulip or are uncomfortable posting there. 

I've recently started engaging with the Zulip community to provide feedback and see if they have ideas on how to improve this situation.

Anyone?

Wed, Aug 31, 2022 - 12:34pm by PepeMty

I now browse Zulip regularly, and even posted a few rhings in it.

But I have to admit that in my beginings with it I found it somehow imposing.