Public channels
Public channels are for conversations that are open to all users of our workspace, including those from the external community who may have accounts. Public channels channel can be joined by any staff member who has an account. Anything posted to a public channel is browsable and searchable by all members, except for Guests (non-staff members) of your Slack workspace.
Currently, we have the following public channels:
- #general - a read-only general channel for any organization wide announcements
- #random - achannel for any cross staff water-cooler discussions on anything at all
#ask-the-techteam - an open channel for any member of staff to ask any technical or tooling questions to the technical services team
New users can join any public channel and read all the information previously shared by other users.
Private channels
They're for discussions that shouldn't be open to your entire workspace. You have to be invited to join a private channel to view it in Slack. A private channel has a lock icon next to its name.
Private channels are closed channels. They are visible only to their members. Use private groups for subjects that are sensitive, confidential, or limited to a specific group.
Direct Messages
Direct Messages (DMs) are private, 1-on-1 conversation between team members. You can think of a DM as a private channel with only two members.
Channel Functionality
Stars
Use stars to mark important items in Slack and help keep them top of mind. Any messages or files you mark with a star are added to your Starred Items for easy reference. Starring a channel or direct message will bump it to the top of your channel list.
Find more information here - https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201331016-Star-channels-messages-or-files
Pins
Important messages and files can be pinned to the details pane in any channel or direct message, including group messages, for easy reference. Find more information here - https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/205239997-Pin-messages-or-files
Making Calls
Within Slack, you can make a voice or video call using Zoom directly with any member of your workspace. This can be done in two ways:
- Click the phone icon at the top right.
- type /zoom in the message box
If you have not previously linked your zoom account to your Slack account, you will be asked to do so and follow the simple instructions.
Channel Notification Preferences
You can set channel-specific notification preferences, in addition to desktop and mobile. After all, some channels are certainly more important than others!
For every channel, you can choose the type of activity Slack notifies you about:
- All new messages
- Mentions of your name and any of your keywords
- Nothing at all. (You'll see a badge in the channel list if you get a direct message or a teammate mentions you or your keywords.)
More information on how to do this can be found here - https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201649323-Set-channel-notification-preferences
Favorite Channels
To help you organize and prioritize your communications, we recommend you favorite (or star) channels, private groups, and DMs. Starring helps you to avoid noise and to focus on what’s important to you. To favorite a channel, click on the star icon in the upper left hand corner of the message area (next to the channel name).