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Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

(skyfall.dev)
1502 points JustSkyfall | 5 comments | 18 Sep 25 01:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.606s | source
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tomhow ◴[18 Sep 25 03:32 UTC] No.45284991[source]▶
Edit: OK, message received! Thanks everyone for the feedback. We're turned off the downweights and will keep this on the front page.

==

The problem with posts like this is that they give a very one-sided view of the situation and don't allow an uninformed reader (i.e., everyone other than the author and those close to them with direct knowledge of the situation) to understand the backstory and the reasoning for the pricing change.

I'm having to do Google searches to understand why this might have happened, and can only speculate. Is it that previously this company was eligible for a heavy discount as a nonprofit, and now something about that has changed? What has changed? We're not told anything.

According to their website, Slack offers discounts to charities [1] and educational institutions [2]. Does this organisation qualify now? Did they qualify previously? Has something changed in the organisation's status, or in Slack's policies, or has the organisation been misclassified and Slack has only just noticed? This post doesn't even attempt to explain any of those details.

I'm not saying that what Slack did was justifiable. It sounds like a terrible situation for this organization to be in, and I sympathize.

But without knowing any details at all about Slack's basis for making this change, this is the kind of post that generates a lot of heat but not much light.

[1] https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/help/articles/204368833-Apply-f...

[2] https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/help/articles/206646877-Apply-f...

replies(2): >>45285212 #>>45285258 #
novatea ◴[18 Sep 25 04:00 UTC] No.45285212[source]▶
Hack Club had a $5,000/year contract with Slack (renewed in May iirc), but Salesforce just suddenly told them to pay $50,000 within a week and $200,000/year, without warning, or they would deactivate the whole workspace. That's how the HC founder told it in the Slack announcement, anyways.
replies(1): >>45285249 #
tomhow ◴[18 Sep 25 04:06 UTC] No.45285249[source]▶
Yes, but there has to be more to the story, that we're not being told. Without knowing why this organization was previously eligible for the discount, but no longer is eligible for that discount, we really don't know much at all.
replies(1): >>45285304 #
1. milkshakes ◴[18 Sep 25 04:14 UTC] No.45285304[source]▶
it seems your concerns are addressed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45285280

why has this post been taken off the front page, and why has the title been editorialized?

replies(2): >>45285723 #>>45285764 #
2. dang ◴[18 Sep 25 05:18 UTC] No.45285723[source]▶
Yup we agree and have restored the post. The extra background was helpful, plus the community response is clear from the thread and we try never to fight the community.

The title edit is standard practice though - the word "extorted" is too baity for HN's frontpage (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."). Making titles somewhat more factual/neutral is normal HN moderation. That's not a criticism of the OP, mind you! - we'd feel the same way too in their position.

replies(1): >>45288104 #
3. colonelspace ◴[18 Sep 25 05:25 UTC] No.45285764[source]▶
> why has the title been editorialized

Indeed, the HN guidelines:

> please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize

replies(1): >>45285830 #
4. dang ◴[18 Sep 25 05:34 UTC] No.45285830[source]▶
By "editorialize" we mean changing a title to introduce spin, or cherry-picking one detail to bias the reader in the direction that the submitter personally wants, rather than reflecting the article as a whole (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45202136 for a recent comment about that).

In this case, that wasn't at issue. The operative clause is "unless it is misleading or linkbait". A word like "extorted" is too baity for HN's frontpage. This is nothing personal against the OP! It's actually better for them and for Hack Club if the HN title is relatively neutral while still conveying the critical information.

5. yerushalayim ◴[18 Sep 25 10:56 UTC] No.45288104[source]▶
Oh, please!