DIBS ON STUFF
FOR TAKING TURNS IN SLACK
Dibs On Stuff was used in Slack
over 29,000 times in 2022
When you want to claim a thing, put this in Slack:
/dibs on THING
(e.g. /dibs on staging-server)
If no one else is using the THING, it's yours. Otherwise you join the queue for THING and will get a Slack notification once it's your turn.
Dibs is the friendly way to take turns with anything - most of the time for calling shotgun on dev/staging servers, and some of the time for fairly dealing out sales leads to sales teams.
What else can I do with dibs?
If your Slack organization activates the extra features
you can use timers in your queues to automatically release the item. Or
use Slack buttons instead of typing. Or use abbreviations if you like
typing. Or set up all sorts of other special chicanery - random, anonymous
queues? (yep, bit of Halloween mischief in that one)
The Extra Features
The normal functionality is all free - or your entire organization can get access to the extra features for $9 per month.
| Feature | Basic | Extra | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited team members using dibs | |||
Unlimited |
|||
| Unlimited queues per Slack channel | |||
| Unlimited views on all queues | |||
| Bump the THING to the next person in line | |||
Automatic /dibs off after a specified duration |
|||
| Join and leave queues using Slack buttons (less typing) | |||
| Allow only approved queue names | |||
| API access to your Slack queues | |||
| Add reasons for calling dibs on things | |||
| Use abbreviations when typing queue names | |||
| Randomly ordered queues for delightful surprises | |||
| Enforce the use of timers on particular queues | |||
| Secret queues with people's names hidden | |||
| Automatic re-queuing for long-life queues/rosters | |||
| Queue jumping for emergencies | |||
| Queue renaming | |||
| Prioritized support + new features! |
Extra #1: Automatic release
Automatically release the item after an amount of time that you specify.
Use the keyword "for" to indicate the time period.
/dibs on server1 for 45 minutes
(note: time unit can be: m, h, d, min, hour, day and more)
Extra #2: Add a description
Add a description to each item that you seize, to help other team members understand more.
Use the keyword "because" to indicate the reason.
/dibs on server1 because issue #4758
(note: you can use it in combination with Automatic release)
Extra #3: API access
Manipulate items inside your instance of Slack from the API. See conchable.com for more API info. Eg:
curl https://conchable.com/seize
-X POST
-H 'Content-type:application/json'
-d '{
"conch": "SLACK_TEAM/CONCH",
"slack_team_id": "TEAM_ID",
"name": "SLACK_USERNAME",
"email": "YOUR_EMAIL"
}'
Extra #4: Approved names
Ability to define a fixed list of approved item names.
No more spelling errors, eg: "/dibs on staging" works, but "/dibs on stageing" won't.
/dibs set staging approved
/dibs on staging
/dibs on sta (abbreviation supported!)
Extra #5: Support for Repeating Rosters
A brand new extra feature: Repeating THINGS. Good for roster duty, or taking turns with after hours support, or any other turn taking event that repeats day after day.
Once a person discards the THING, they'll automatically get placed onto the end of the queue again.
Just update the relevant THING to make it repeating eg:
/dibs set water-cooler-refill repeat
It can also be mixed with the Automatic release functionality for a hands-off rotation, so that when people enter:
/dibs on water-cooler-refill for 1 day
Their job will be to fill up the water-cooler for that day, and it will automatically be their turn again, only once everyone else has had their day.
Extra #6: Support for Random Queues
A brand new extra feature: Random Queues! Everyone is in line, but the queue gets shuffled everytime someone new joins the line (what fun).
Can't decide who the lucky person is today? Better than drawing names from a hat, use a random queue to decide who's next!
Mix and match this setting with Repeating Queues and create an automatically repeating randomly ordered queue. For even more mischief mix and match it with Secret queues to prevent anyone peeking at the order of people in the queue.
Just update the relevant THING to make it random, repeating and secret eg:
/dibs set feed-fish random
/dibs set feed-fish repeat
/dibs set feed-fish secret
And don't forget you can always use wildcards to specify multiple queues, eg
/dibs set servers/* random
Extra #7: Buttons!?
A brand new extra feature: One-click buttons to join and leave your queues!
Running
/dibs q
will present you with a list of all your conches and provide a handy button
next to each, allowing you to join or leave each queue instantly.
A little bit of an extra feature (that took a hell of a lot of extra work).
Privacy Policy
The information that is put into this service is used only to run this service. No spam etc. Here's the long version
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
Contact me
Any questions or support queries: trouble @ conchable.com
Alex Lance
Alex Lance
Other projects
Some other stuff I've been working on:
tfstate.com bring your terraform infrastructure a little bit closer
Conchable.com a general API for queuing systems - the engine underneath Dibs On Stuff
Autoexpire.com transfer sensitive information to your clients (for sharing passwords or other credentials, and customizing the security controls)
Streetmates.net join up the people in your street in a non-intrusive fashion (give each street on the planet a mailing list)
tfstate.com bring your terraform infrastructure a little bit closer
Conchable.com a general API for queuing systems - the engine underneath Dibs On Stuff
Autoexpire.com transfer sensitive information to your clients (for sharing passwords or other credentials, and customizing the security controls)
Streetmates.net join up the people in your street in a non-intrusive fashion (give each street on the planet a mailing list)