Hacker News Reader

Ya there is a simpler solution to OP's problems. Stop using an awful, slow piece of software like Slack.

Would other chat systems do it better somehow? Which ones?

I'd imagine that "system supports private messages; I cannot link to them in public channels, copy-paste is the only way to share" is pretty universal. Even IRC and ICQ operated this way.

I used Zulip at a previous job some years ago and was pretty happy with it. I honestly don't remember whether it had a better strategy for DMs in particular, but the general policy of "everything is a thread" seemed to solve a lot of problems.

Software is rarely the solution for bad process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com