Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. ❤️

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

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

Discussion  6 comments

Michael B.

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.

Rex Sorgatz

Hm, seems more like a backronym

Michael B.

Thanks for the reminder of the word backronym!

Reply in this thread

Jim Whimpey

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

Chris Montrois

I worked at slack for 7 years. Jim confirmed.

Reply in this thread

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.

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!