Seeking a new maintainer!

[mrkaye97]

Hello everyone! I've been maintaining slackr for almost five years now, but have less free time to work on it as much as it deserves now than I once did. Because of that, I'm seeking a new maintainer for slackr to continue building features, providing help to users, fixing bugs, etc.

If anyone is interested, feel free to reach out or leave a comment on this issue, and thanks!

[GreenGrassBlueOcean]

II can completely understand the challenge of finding time to maintain an open-source project like slackr, especially as life gets busier. I took a similar path and started working on a package for Mattermost after struggling with the Slack API—particularly for file uploads, which require up to three separate calls just to upload a single file. Unfortunately, I found Slack's support unhelpful as well.

One of the standout features of Mattermost is its native support for Markdown, which makes it incredibly easy to format messages and create rich, visually appealing content. With Markdown, you can effortlessly add headings, bold and italic text, code blocks, tables, and more—directly within your messages. This feature is particularly useful for developers, teams collaborating on technical content, or anyone who values clear and structured communication.

Markdown in Mattermost is intuitive and works seamlessly across channels, making it a powerful tool for enhancing team communication. Whether you’re sharing formatted code snippets, creating organized to-do lists, or simply adding emphasis to your messages, Mattermost’s Markdown support ensures that your content is both functional and easy to read.

For anyone transitioning from other platforms like Slack, where Markdown support is limited or requires workarounds, Mattermost’s approach is a refreshing change that enhances productivity and collaboration.

In the end, I decided to switch to Mattermost, and I’ve developed a package for its API: MattermostR. The package was created with the help of ChatGPT, has over 97% test coverage, and has passed all CRAN checks. While it’s not a direct replacement for slackr, it’s an option for those moving to Mattermost.

I wish you the best in finding someone to continue slackr’s journey—it’s a great project, and I’m sure someone passionate will step up!

[JDOsborne1]

Hi @mrkaye97 Communicating with Slack using R is a really important part of some projects we're looking to do next year. I was actually assessing the challenge of creating a bespoke package for that purpose when I found this one. It looks like a great library, and I would rather re-use than re-invent for this case.

I'm mild-to-moderately experienced with maintaining packages, though I confess I've never made the CRAN gauntlet, and mostly used internal hosting for them.

I'd be interested in helping out! Is there some specific places you'd like some attention put to which I can maybe start helping on, and we can work up from there?

[mrkaye97]

Hey @JDOsborne1 - awesome to hear that! I think the biggest thing is looking into issues that come up and, of course, maintaining compatibility with the Slack API and documentation that explains things! Although if you're interested in adding new features, of course those would be welcome :) it's been a while since any have been added here, but the API supports much more than it once did.

Let me know what you think!

[KrishyV]

Hey @mrkaye97, I use slackr for some projects, noticed some deprecated methods recently. I would be open to making contributions to get it up to present Slack API standards.

[mrkaye97]

Hey @KrishyV - great to hear that! I'd be happy to accept contributions 😄