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posted by Jason Kottke  ·  gift link  ·  via wired.com

TIL that Slack is an acronym: “Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge”.

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Michael Bester

I’m just speculating, but that sounds like they made it an acronym after they came up with the name Slack in order to make it sound more highfalutin.

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Rex Sorgatz

Hm, seems more like a backronym

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Michael Bester

Thanks for the reminder of the word backronym!

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Jim Whimpey

I’ve worked at slack for 8 years. Backronym confirmed.

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Chris Montrois

I worked at slack for 7 years. Jim confirmed.

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Jason KottkeMOD

From a series by two early employees, here's how Slack got its name.

We undertook a roundabout search for alternatives to the name "Slack," mostly while bullshitting before or after a meeting. (Much of this bullshitting happened in our own product, which was already clearly labeled Slack.) Like all startups, we needed something that was memorable and available. Like all people with a more squishy liberal arts bent, we wanted something evocative and vaguely metaphorical.

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