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Zulip was started in 2012 by four SIPB alums, to spread Zephyr's unique conversation model outside of MIT, and to modernize the protocol to support web and mobile clients, emoji reactions, file sharing, and more. Zulip today is used by Fortune 500 companies, alumni groups, standards bodies, and others who need a reliable chat system that can support dozens of simultaneous conversations in an organized way.
How is this different from Slack?
In Slack, IRC, and nearly every other team chat application, users subscribe to chat rooms ("channels"), and get all the messages sent to each channel in a chronological dump. The model is largely designed to support real-time conversation; if there is a conversation in a busy channel at 3am, and you come by even a few hours later, you aren't going to be able to meaningfully respond to or continue that conversation.
In Zulip (or Zephyr), there is one additional layer of organization: messages have topics (like "puzzle: duck konundrum"). That makes it very easy for someone to come back after 8 hours (okay, 4 hours) of sleep, catch up on the state of various puzzles, and answer questions even if a question was asked many hours ago.
Is it free? (beer)
Yes. We provide free hosting for all MIT mystery hunt teams, student groups, and research groups.
Is it free? (libre)
Yes! All of Zulip (the server, web frontend, desktop apps, mobile apps, and even our deployment configuration) is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. We also make it easy to export your data from a zulipchat.com hosted Zulip and import it into a self-hosted installation.
Can I integrate Zulip with my current puzzlehunting software?
Yes. Zulip has a well thought out API, and it's easy to write bots that send things into or out of Zulip.
How do I sign up?
Create an organization here, and email support@zulipchat.com to tell us you're a mystery hunt team.
Where do I go for further information?
Come find us on the Zulip community chat! Feel free to post in #mystery hunt or anywhere else that seems appropriate.
This is not a puzzle.