Jan 30, 2022

Fudge Sunday - Cut Me Some Slack

This week we take a look at Slack communities that are worth exploring and other “deep web” places that public web search engine can’t index (yet).

Sound City Players - Cut Me Some Slack

Getting Informed

Do you remember the first time you read or heard someone reply to a general question with…

“Just Google it”

Truly, public web search engines are amazing. Yet, public web search engines are not exhaustive for all of the information on the Internet.

Years may have passed for increased technology capabilities in public web search engines but one thing is still very much a certainty…

As of 2022, public web search engines still do not index all of the Internet. So, tell anyone saying Google, Bing, etc. are the end all be all…

“Cut me some Slack”

"Deep Web" Trendspotting in Slack

As a refresher, Fudge Sunday took a peek into the “deep web” where a regular public web search engine cannot go – such as Slack.

Source:

sunday.fudge.org

Cut me some Slack?

Is SLACK really a Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge? Or… Is the backronym just clever?

What is the long term mechanism for exposing Slack instances (never?) for public web search engine indexing to a wider audience?

I don’t have answers to the questions above. I do have recommendations.

Here are some of my favorite Slack communities that are not indexed by a public web search engine. You have to join each one – and then you can search them.

(Largest to smallest – but Slack membership size isn’t everything!)

Rands in Repose: 19,820 members

At +400 articles, Rands in Repose is a wealth of knowledge and the Slack community is immense.

Source:

randsinrepose.com

Write the Docs: 14,932 members

Imagine a Slack community of technical writers, documentarians, and all those who write the docs.

Source:

www.writethedocs.org

PreSales: 7,597 members

There are many collectives and the presales community has theirs too.

Source:

www.presalescollective.com

Equinix Metal: 4,050 members

What was once Packet is now Equinix Metal and there are thousands of bright practitioners here.

Source:

slack.equinixmetal.com

NetDev: 2,086 members

If you are a proponent of network automation and open source, you’ll find a similarly devoted community here.

Source:

netdev.chat

What about GitHub? Or perhaps Discourse?

Where do answers find larger audience? Here’s a fun example.

As you might know already, I really like Tailscale. It’s clever in addition to providing great utility and value.

I ran into a couple of similar questions in two Tailscale communities:

Since I wanted to share a possible workaround to the questions, I ended up cross posing to each community. It’s the least I could do.

So, while one could provide an answer on GitHub… it probably won’t be found. Yet, if you post to Discourse, it might be picked up by a search engine such as Google.

Example: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22event+that+tailscale%22