If you don’t yet have a workspace, see Request or Create a Slack Workspace.

Slack Help Center: Workspace administration

Create Channels

You can create a channel by selecting the “Add channel” button, located in the Channels section in the sidebar.

Slack Help Center: Channels

Types of Channels

• Public channel — automatically available to everyone in the workspace except guests
• Private channel — only visible and usable by specified workspace members
• Multi-workspace channel* — can include participants from other Slack at Brown workspaces
• Shared channel (Slack Connect)* — can be shared with an external organization

* Contact help@brown.edu to request a multi-workspace channel or to approve an incoming Slack Connect invitation.

Every workspace has a #general channel, which is the only channel that members (excluding guests) are automatically added to and unable to leave. The #general channel can’t be archived, deleted, or converted to a private channel. 

Suggested Channel Prefixes

If you plan on creating a large number of channels in your workspace, you can set up channel prefixes to aid in organization. (You can also organize your channels in sections in the sidebar, but sections are user-specific and do not affect other members of your workspace.)

Here are some channel prefixes you might consider using:

• announce — For important announcements your team needs to know.
  Examples: #announce-sales, #announce-london, #announce-new-features
• event — To plan and execute events, large and small.
  Examples: #event-planning-mtg, #event-field-trip, #event-picnic
• proj — For cross-functional teams working together.
  Examples: #proj-redesign, #proj-office-move, #proj-expense-reports
• team — For teams to coordinate work and activities.
  Examples: #team-design, #team-support, #team-beta-testing
• social — To create different social interest groups.
  Examples: #social-petphotos, #social-gaming, #social-random

Slack Help Center: How to organize your Slack channels

User Groups

You can create user groups to more easily notify a group or give them access to channels. For example, you can create a group for all TAs, or for students working on different projects.

Slack Help Center: Create a user group

Adding Members and Guests

(For course workspaces, most users will be managed through Canvas registration, but you can still add others manually if necessary. Note that there are FERPA regulations that must be considered when doing so. See also: Adding Other Members to a Slack Course Workspace and Slack Course Workspaces and FERPA)

Any user can invite other Brown community members to a workspace, but only an admin of the workspace may approve the invitation. Most Brown staff, faculty, and students are members of Slack at Brown, even if they have yet to be invited to a workspace. When a Brown user is added to a workspace, they are added as a regular member with access to all public channels and content. Because Brown users can only be invited using their (non-alias) Brown email address, we recommend the following method for adding members to your workspace:

Slack Help Center: Invite new members to your workspace from your Google Directory

(Additonal information to come. In the meantime, please see Adding Other Members to a Slack Course Workspace.)

Provide Documentation

If your workspace members are new to Slack, we recommend referring them to the Slack at Brown overview article.

Apps

If you’d like to add additional functionality to your workspace, see Set Up and Use Slack App Integrations.