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Slack has raised our charges by $195k per year

(skyfall.dev)
2071 points JustSkyfall | 5 comments | 18 Sep 25 01:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.962s | source
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tux3 ◴[18 Sep 25 07:59 UTC] No.45286853[source]▶
That's a 40x increase all at once with a very short grace period, it's bait-and-switch territory.

If only 2.5% of targets pay the ransom, Slack breaks even on this racket, so in absence of any protection this strategy is most likely profitable for Slack.

This is something you pull if you want to squeeze in the short term, and don't mind losing customers.

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1. Aurornis ◴[18 Sep 25 13:17 UTC] No.45289326[source]▶
Second-hand anecdote: Someone I know who works for Slack made a comment a few years ago that the company regretted giving out so many free instances to different organizations years back. Apparently the number of free Slack instances that had grown very large and high traffic was significant enough that it couldn’t be completely ignored.

I disagree with them giving such a short notice period, of course. However I’m not surprised to see them choosing to trim the free or highly discounted accounts at this stage.

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2. kmacdough ◴[18 Sep 25 13:43 UTC] No.45289608[source]▶
Maybe, but theres a real benefit to getting your tool in the hands of ambitious kids if you want to sustain a market share once those kids grow older.

There's a reason Apple still gives pretty solid educational discounts even as the largest consumer hardware manufacturer.

3. RealityVoid ◴[18 Sep 25 14:00 UTC] No.45289817[source]▶
It's a chat app. How much traffic can there be? Just hobble the high bandwidth functionalities for non paying instances and be done with it. I find it quite hard to justify the way Slack is behaving.
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4. ceejayoz ◴[18 Sep 25 14:29 UTC] No.45290158[source]▶
It's a "chat app" that includes large file uploads, video calls, and whatnot.
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5. quentindanjou ◴[18 Sep 25 15:16 UTC] No.45290724{3}[source]▶
Its true but then again, they could provide tiers that restrict large file upload, video calls etc. I think most of the businesses using Slack are unlikely using their video call system (and more likely to use Zoom, Teams, Google Meet). Most organizations use Slack for its organized messaging system; maybe they should make plans that focus on that.

They try to pack more and more features and realize that when their customers start using these, it costs them money.