This is disappointing. Grove.io was really awesome. IRC channels seem easy, but are (relatively) hard to get going:
- Finding a server
- Registering it properly
- Explaining it to non-tech people
The last one is way harder than you'd think. With Grove, you just send them a URL and it's easy.
It's a shame they're shutting down. I stopped using because it was too expensive for a channel with a few friends (a channel with fewer than 10 friends was costing $25/month).
I set Grove up for my distributed team but it didn't stick. I still think team-level chat is a problem worth solving, but nothing I've tried has gotten any real traction.
What are you currently using? I didn't use Grove, but I use IRC; I've definitely found that some people really take to it, and some people don't; some people even end up using IRC only to watch what other people are saying, and then send PMs as if they were using instant messenger, but never say things in the channel in public, even if they later talk about the things being said on IRC when we are all at dinner.
We use standard chat messaging, Skype, Google Hangouts, teleconferencing and a team mailing list. So... clunky, I guess, but it gets the job done.
Chat messaging is for quick questions or requests to Skype or Hangout, Skype for 1 to 1 video or extended audio chats, Hangouts for small group video chats (quality is kind of crummy though), teleconference is for larger meetings and the team mailing list is for "hey everybody, check this cool thing out" type stuff.
IRC would be too much for our designers and some project managers.
We've been using HipChat for several months now and have been quite happy with it. I'm using it to manage several remote contractors. The pricing is very reasonable. And it has an XMPP interface should you need it as well.
Yea, but that last one wasn't worth the cost and the user limit. Most groups using IRC in this fashion probably have a high level of technical experience.
Campfire succeeds at this because it wasn't their first product. They essentially brought customers in from their other products and then tied them all together. As a stand alone service, it's fairly useless IMO.
It's a shame they're shutting down. I stopped using because it was too expensive for a channel with a few friends (a channel with fewer than 10 friends was costing $25/month).