There are times when a conversation that’s important to some participants spontaneously starts in chat and it’s too disruptive to ask less interested (but important) participants to “move it to email.” Suggesting that might cause the conversation to fizzle out which the more interested parties can’t afford.

Threads are a stopgap measure. But the problem is using a chat app for extended-scope conversations.

We don’t have a good way to switch from chats to more forum-like conversations, and email is perceived as too complex (and has other issues in current implementations)

why would you knowingly fragment information when you have the option not to?

Why not?

Do you usually randomly chat about a topic with multiple people over the course of days, without writing down points and/or making a gist?

Over days, yes. Without writing down notes? No. I write notes and you can throw them in slack if they're sharable. I don't really see the issue.

Can you remember what messages you’ve read and which you haven’t, from which conversations, over the course of days or weeks?