How do I enable the fun stuff in Confluence (like from EAC)?

[Simon Keefe]

As an ex-Atlassian, Confluence to me is EAC, and all the wonderful fun stuff that comes with it. To be honest, I assumed most of it came by default. But (hugefan) doesn't do anything, nor does (boom) etc. Can I get these going? Collaboration should be fun, and I assumed this was just part of the default experience.

Also, stuff like the RSVP macro we used. Is there anything similar without me having to write my own connect plugins?

We use Slack as our comms app btw so linking to Hipchat or Stride is not an option.

[BaM]

On Confluence Server, the "RSVP" macro you are referring to is a module of TeamCalendar and it is called "Event Macro" .... it has the following comment "Experimental feature, disabled by default! The Team Calendars Event macro."

[BaM]

Also on Confluence Server is a plugin called "Confluence Hipchat Emoticons Plugin"  which is described as "A plugin for Confluence that makes the full set of HipChat emoticons provided by the linked HipChat account available for use in Confluence content." .... I think this is the one you are after.

[Simon Keefe]

Alas we're Cloud. If there ever was a Shipit or Innovation Week project that would bring delight to peeps outside of Atlassian, this would be it. 

[Tanya L Christensen]

@BaM - ... or anyone ... can you or someone explain WHY this is?

Event Macro: "Experimental feature, disabled by default! The Team Calendars Event macro

I have not been able to find any where that let's me know why it's disabled.  I can only expect some harm or performance issues would make this disabled by default.  

Apparently in both my Server and Data Center instance a prior SA must have turned it on as I now have a customer asking 'where did the event macro go?' and I have no good answer.  I don't want to just turn it on and pray.  

Thanks,

Tanya

[Stephen Deutsch]

Well there is an RSVP Marketplace app for Confluence Cloud (and server too):

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/eu.prepend.connect.rsvp/cloud/overview

However, I'm curious about what macros are available on EAC (extranet.atlassian.com, Atlassian's internal Confluence instance, for those that are unaware). Could you describe what {hugefan} and {boom} do?

[Simon Keefe]

I totally should have embellished that with a bit more colour! 

Re: RSVP yeah I’ve seen that but to be honest it should be part of the product. Events are an integral part of being a team, and a relatively expensive plugin (we have a lot of users) to be able to simply respond to an invite will just drive us further to Slack (which does it for free) but I’m keen to keep the team in one place. 

Atlassian’s internal Confluence instance is a different experience altogether to the default Cloud one - I wasn’t expecting it to be so dry, nor ADG3 to be so obstructive - but the lack of emoji resolution seems a strange thing to have left out. Developers love a meme, especially if they can add to the experience. (Hugefan) replaced the contents with a picture of a large fan. (Boom) an animated gif of a cartoon explosion. (Rip) a grave. (Lol) the lol face. (Bethechange) the company value matching it etc etc. Hundreds of them. They aligned with what we had in Hipchat so I suspect it’s going to be moved to Stride, or has been, so we either need the same for Slack users or a way of localising it to Confluence itself. I saw an emoji section in settings but no way of doing anything with it. 

Incidentally, I chatted with one of the devs internally, he tried it on an internal cloud instance and it worked. So what’s the trick for external customers? 

I’m trying to shift a culture in a company that has been traditionally pretty formal into one that has fun while working, and assumed Atlassian software would help me with that. I know JSD focus on experiences customers love, Confluence seem to have missed that memo unless I’m missing something. 

[Monique vdB]

@Simon Keefe I guess I can't call myself a "relatively new Atlassian" after a year, so I won't, but I have noticed how much fun the emojis and such bring to my work life both in Confluence and in Stride. It seems like such a silly thing at first and yet it goes a long way to making work playful and fun. I remember how excited I was to find we can insert emojis in the community editor with a keyboard shortcut! 🎉

@florian is a product manager for Confluence Cloud and may be able to shed more light on this question. I'll be interested to follow the discussion! 

[Simon Keefe]

I’m more than happy to be a user interview etc if you want. We’re based in Sydney and I’m pushing for us to be big Confluence users. I work at Domain. 

We’ve got JIRA Cloud coming to have a look too. 

[carolyn french]

@Monique vdB Can you add keyboard shortcuts in Community to FAQs or somewhere else easily searchable? I totally forgot how to do emojis and gifs...

[Monique vdB]

@carolyn french yes, great idea! I'll add it to my list. 👍🏼

By the way, Ctrl-command-space is how you insert an emoji on a Mac. 👸🏻

With gifs I download it to my desktop and then upload it using the camera button in the editor. 

[Simon Keefe]

Windows will eventually get there too - at the moment you have to launch the on screen keyboard etc. However, it's more the extensibility of the emoji which is important so that local team culture/memes can be easily added (e.g. BeTheChange to put in Atlassian terms).

[Monique vdB]

@Simon Keefe for sure, I love having the emoji. We're in the midst of ShipIt right now but (unless some team is magically working on this and it ships tomorrow) I can put you in touch with the team next week.

[carolyn french]

@Monique vdB- well, that was eye-opening. I thought there was some sort of quick gif search built in (like with WhatsApp) 😅 ok, good on emojis now, thanks!

[Monique vdB]

We have a ticket in the backlog to add in an emoji picker when we update the editor. You know how finicky our editor can be! But in the meantime 💃🏾 🕺🏿

[Joshua DeClerck]

@Simon Keefe Totally interrupting but if you're on the latest versions of Windows, using the windows key + '.' will get you an in-line emoji pop-up in most contexts. ✌ I think this was added in one of the 2017 updates, but pffff who commits that kind of thing to memory?

[Simon Keefe]

Heh! I tried that at the office, our version of Windows may be a little behind because updates typically roll out slower across large corps. Works here at home: 🐱‍🏍 <- although weirdly they are not the emojis I selected lol! Something's being lost in translation between Windows and Chrome.

However, it's the local culture stuff I'm looking for. Like if you type :keefing: into Stride at your machine now (if you're an Atlassian). Totally meaningless to the wider population, heaps of fun internally. Glad to see it's on the backlog - can't wait to see it! Assuming it's Fabric, so it'll be in JIRA and JSD too. (boom)