A former Gizmodo writer changed his name to ‘Slackbot’ and stayed undetected for months

<figure> <img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f21MqzNgeS2jQ7JBIA76Ze_3lww=/0x60:360x300/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73160556/slackbot_icon.0.png" /> <figcaption><em>There’s something a bit different about this Slackbot icon...</em> | Image: <a class="ql-link" href="https://x.com/thetomzone/status/1760835067117437260?s=20" target="_blank">Tom McKay</a></figcaption> </figure>

<p id="ZKSq6y">Hiding on Slack isn’t all that hard, apparently; you just have to pretend you’re a bot. That’s what <em>IT Brew</em>’s Tom McKay did when he left <em>Gizmodo</em> in 2022, and he went undetected by the site’s management for months.</p> <p id="T4MrI6"><a href="https://twitter.com/thetomzone/status/1760833981904228508?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1760833981904228508|twgr^|twcon^s1_&amp;ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc">In a post on X</a>, McKay shared some screenshots of the new “Slackbot” persona he took on after he officially left <em>Gizmodo</em>. He also confirmed to <em>The Verge</em> that this silly prank really happened.</p> <p id="oC9uiW">If you’re not glued to Slack for most of the day like I am, then you might not know that Slackbot is the friendly robot that lives in the messaging service. It helps you do things like set reminders, find out your office’s Wi-Fi password, or let you know when you’ve been mentioned in a channel that you’re not a part of.</p> <div[...]