Steemit devs just announced that the official Slack Steemit channel will be gone in a week.  

<center> https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/69717406.jpg </center>

If you weren't on there before you might not know why a lot of people were distressed about the news. 
I joined two weeks ago and sincerely can't imagine my daily routine without it. 

I must confess that at first I didn't want to join. 
What could I do there, I wondered?!

***But now I see I would have missed out on a lot of good things:***

*I made new friends.* 
*I discovered a lot of good posts that I wouldn't otherwise.*
*I got to promote some of my posts.*
*I've learned a lot.*

And last but not least:

**I HAD A TON OF FUN!**

It was a great way to stay in touch and be part of the community. 

BUT after the hack, the gates closed and no one new could join. That wasn't good for community and a solution was necessary. 

The steemit devs being steemit devs they came up with an answer fast! 


###  The new and improved steemit.chat is [here](https://steemit.chat/) 
PLEASE  read [the official post](https://steemit.com/steemit/@cass/steemit-chat-foss-alternative-to-slack-deployed-with-rocketchat).

<center> https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/69717549.jpg </center>

Now you too can join and help the community grow. Please do it!

I strongly encourage you to join now and look around. At first it might feel overwhelming but you'll get used to it and get to crave the hyper-fast discussions in there. 

One more thing. Please be considered and don't use it as a way to spam. There are dedicated channels for promoting your work --&gt;  #postpromotion