Opening up Slack

[phillydevknights]

As many of you know, Dev Night has a Slack. Slack is a very popular messaging platform for groups. For the people who are part of it, it's a great tool to collaborate, share, solicit help and just chat. When Dev Night isn't happening, Dev Night is happening in Slack. Until now, it has only been available to Patreon members, but today we're opening it up to all.

Why?

Dev Night's mission is about working together, sharing our work and learning from each other. By having a private Slack, we are keeping one of the most powerful tools we have away from a large part of our community. Less people contributing to the conversation makes for a less vibrant dialog. 

We strive to be inclusive. Our events are open to all. So it only makes sense for our online community to be open to all as well.

I'm a Patreon member and I paid for this. Now what am I paying for?

When we started the Patreon, we struggled with what to have as rewards. The Patreon is fundamentally about supporting what Dev Night already offers to participants, but incentives are nice. Slack made sense at the time because it offered real value to members. But by keeping it private, we're keeping it from being as valuable as it could be. 

We are working on coming up with additional benefits for Patreon supporters (loaner equipment, class discounts). But for now, we're asking our supporters to remember the value of their contributions to Dev Night. Those contributions keep Dev Night alive and able to keep doing what it does every week.

Join Us!

We're very excited about taking the shackles off of Slack. Please spread the word. 

Sign up here: http://phillydevnight.com/slack/