The importance of organizing channels increases as Mattermost spreads to thousands of users.
This document shares best practices from various Mattermost deployments including:
The importance of channel names
Channels organize communication in Mattermost.
When naming or renaming channels, consider the following:
Basic Structure
- Channel names appear in menus where users select which conversations to join.
- Channel names are unique.
- Channel names have a 22 character limit to ensure readability on both desktop and mobile devices.
- An additional 128 characters are available to add a “Channel Purpose” visible when users are selecting channels.
- An additional 1024 characters are available for describing the channel in detail in the “Channel Header”.
Scoping Names
It’s natural to start with broadly defined channels and let them divide into narrower topics as discussions progress.
For example, you might begin with a general “Marketing” channel. As conversations progress, you might divide that channel into: “Marketing: Website”, “Marketing: Social Media”, “Marketing: General”.
Tip
Use colons to separate sections of channel names, rather than `` - `` or `` > `` which require more spaces to display.
As the organization grows, disciplines might split across business units, products and geographies, with channel names like “US: Marketing” and “UK: Marketing”.
You can combine the hierarchies, with formats like [SUB-TEAM]: [TOPIC]: [SUB-TOPIC]. For example: US: Mrkt: Website and UK: Mrkt: Social Media.
Tip
Shorten words, particularly categories, by removing vowels, endings and redundant letter sounds. Example: Turn “Marketing” into “Mrkt”, and “Project” into “Prjt”.
Good naming can take a team up to several thousand channels without significant confusion. Eventually every organization hits a limit and an additional team might need to be created on the server to accommodate the large number of channels.
How to navigate and organize channels
With guidance on how to set channel names, here are different navigation options and types of channels to consider:
Navigating channels using the keyboard
Keyboard shortcuts allow users to jump between channels.
Entering CTRL+K brings up a dialog where users can type in the first few letters of a channel, triggering auto-complete. Pressing ENTER jumps to the channel directly.
Keeping names clear and short lets users navigate large collections of channels quickly.
Tip
Use ALT+SHIFT+UP and ALT+SHIFT+DOWN to move up and down to the next channel with an unread message.
Topic Channels
Topics are broad categories for organizing discussions. Topics are similar to how a user might create a folder for organizing emails or documents:
Examples: Recruiting, Interviews, Legal Reviews, Documentation
Users can join and leave topic-based channels, as well as add colleagues to have topic-based discussions.
As teams get larger and the number of channels increase, you may start naming topics in a hierarchy to make them easier to find:
Examples: Legal: Trademarks, Legal: Contracts, Legal: Licensing
Meeting Channels
Meeting channels are often used to organize regular meetings. Members can add topics as messages to be discussed during the regular meeting time:
Examples: Monday Sales Update, All Hands Meeting
There are three built-in features to make meetings in Mattermost easier:
- Numbered agenda items in title text
You can number and format messages as agenda items to discuss for the next meeting.
Tip
Try pasting the following as an example in a channel designated for meetings:
#### 1) Agenda item example
#### Commentary about agenda item to be discussed.
- Threaded messaging
On an agenda item message, you can select [...] > Reply to leave comments about an agenda item before or after a meeting to extended discussion.
- Header links
When meeting remotely, add persistent links to your video or audio conferencing solution, like Zoom, Google Hangouts or BlueJeans in the channel header.
When it’s time to meet, your team can click the conference link to connect.
Sub-Team Channels
Sub-teams can include people from the same discipline, project teams, people with the same manager or other groups brought together for a shared purpose:
Examples: Developers, Marketers, Offsite Organizing Committee, SusanK's Directs
As sub-teams grow beyond a manageable size for one channel, they can sub-divide:
Examples: US: Developers, UK: Developers, SusanK's Directs, SusanK's Extended Directs
Project Channels
Project channels discuss how groups of people come together to achieve specific outcomes:
Examples: Logo Design, Localization, Product Launch
Projects are often private channels rather than public channels and are used to organize a small team around a project brought up in a larger channel. The Project Channel is used to do detailed work, and updates are typically communicated back to larger channels.
Location Channels
If your teams are in different buildings, cities or regions, you can create Location channels to help people coordinate meetings and get-togethers:
Examples: Building 10, Palo Alto, Toronto, Delaware
This helps share announcements and discussions relevant to only those locations.
Data Channels
Data channels allow automatic integration. Information like new or updated support tickets or bug reports, Twitter updates or mentions of your company name in the news can all be made available in channels your team chooses to monitor.
There is a wide array of options:
Examples: Bugs, Support Tickets, Twitter, News Mentions
People might use these channels like a daily newspaper, reading about everything that’s happened in the last day, while other configurations allow notifications to alert only when their username or certain key words are mentioned.
Channel naming examples
Here is an example of what a marketer’s channels might look like in a small team:
CHANNELS
* Recruiting
* Interviews
* Marketing
* Sales
* All Hands Meeting
* Town Square
* Off-Topic
PRIVATE CHANNELS
* Website
* Twitter Marketing
* Logo Design
DIRECT MESSAGES
* [Sales People]
* [Marketers]
* [Recruiter]
* [Manager]
Here is an example of what a marketer’s channels might look like if she was working in the Palo Alto, California, office of a large enterprise, working on a product called “Pontoon”:
CHANNELS
* Geo: PA: Recruiting
* Geo: PA: Interviews
* US: Mrkt: General
* US: Sales: West Coast
* US: All Hands
* Town Square
* Off-Topic
PRIVATE CHANNELS
* Pontoon: Mkrt: Website
* Pontoon: Mkrt: Twitter
* Pontoon: Mkrt: Logo Design
DIRECT MESSAGES
* [West Coast Sales People]
* [Marketing Peers]
* [Recruiter for PA office]
* [Manager]
