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Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

nohello.net

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Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#101

Post by wenc »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #73

I tend to agree with this, but a friend of mine and I have had a number of conversations that could be potentially embarrassing if anyone else saw them, like during a presentation or meeting. If this is going to be a potentially "eyes only" convo, we'll start with "cyt" for "can you talk". Any answer but an affirmative is taken to be "no", including no answer. Works great.

Agree with this.

Even in real life, it’s good practice to say, “hi I have a question. Is this a good time?” It gives the party the option to say “yes” or “give me 5 minutes?”

Just saying “hi” isn’t good online etiquette in my opinion.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#102

Post by zelos »

jasode wrote: post #33

>People who do this are generally trying to be polite by not jumping right into the request, like one would in person or on the phone - and that's great! Different people have different reasons but I notice that many people that do a naked "hi" / "hey" are trying to see if the receiver is present for an immediate reply. In other words, the sender deliberately wants a synchronous instead of asynchronous convo. They do…

But what it means is that they then take up more of the other person’s time as they sit and watch the typing notification. At least have the question ready typed so you can copy paste it into the message box.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#103

Post by JulianMorrison »

jonbronson wrote: post #68
JulianMorrison wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanting a synchronous conversation is a pretty arrogant grab of someone else's time. This is also why phoning me is bad and please use texts like a civilised person.

That's pretty presumptive. There are any number of factors that might make a synchronous conversation desirable or even necessary. Merely seeking that out implies nothing about how someone values other people's time.

The fact it has potential excuses should make it clear it's default selfish without them.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#104

Post by dfboyd »

lancebeet wrote: post #75
dfboyd wrote: post #39

I am the original author of the document this document was based on. It was an internal Wiki page at Google written when I was an SRE. After I wrote the original page, someone put up an internal shortlink at "go/nohello". After I left Google, someone took the Wiki page content and [illegally, since it was Google confidential, simply from being on the internal Wiki], and put it up on the net at "nohello.com". The link…

How do you know it was unauthorized if they copied it from the internal wiki after you left Google?

If it had been authorized, presumably they'd have kept my name on it, no?

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#105

Post by _underfl0w_ »

jonbronson wrote: post #68
JulianMorrison wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanting a synchronous conversation is a pretty arrogant grab of someone else's time. This is also why phoning me is bad and please use texts like a civilised person.

That's pretty presumptive. There are any number of factors that might make a synchronous conversation desirable or even necessary. Merely seeking that out implies nothing about how someone values other people's time.

Could you please name at least one that would warrant a "naked greeting" like that though?

"Production issue" comes to mind, but that would just as likely warrant a quick summary of the situation, since waiting for a response to "hi" wastes even more time.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#107

Post by hezag »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #53

I ALWAYS say hello as the first thing in any chats that have some kind of importance. Why? because the person may be presenting to 200 people and my message will be displayed. They may be with someone and they cannot communicate. If this is a message of the kind "lunch at 12?" then fine, but anything remotely sensitive starts with hello, and I wait for that person to respond.

You can just ask the person to let you know when they are available to talk to you. This way you are less prone to interrupt the person and also don't expose sensitive information.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#108

Post by tuwtuwtuwtuw »

hedora wrote: post #52
jethro_tell wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it can also be a privacy thing. Sometimes I want to validate that my chat is not going to got onto a presenters screen somewhere.

This is why I use slack in a web browser, and don’t give it permission to display notifications. I wish there was a way to permanently disable the “you have disabled notifications” prompts though.

Hmm I just disabled notifications in the normal slack client. Not sure why you would use the web browser?

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#109

Post by _underfl0w_ »

ballenf wrote: post #91
GordonS wrote: post #27

Gods, but this drives me absolutely nuts at work. Like OK, what?! It tells me nothing about the urgency of the matter, let alone what it relates to. So I can put it to the side and keep working - but it's going to be nagging at me "hmm, what if it's about x?". So now I've got to break focus and waste time just to find out how important it is, and what it even relates to. I much prefer "Hi, I have a question regarding…

Seems like a great use case for a slack bot. Monitor for naked hellos and show a link to this page. That way it’s not personal.

I think you are legitimately on to something. I may actually build that this week if I get some downtime.

It would need to be _polite_ though since most people who do this do seem to be generally well-meaning, if unwittingly annoying.

Re: Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

#110

Post by Cederfjard »

mackatsol wrote: post #35

I don't mind that 'hello' or 'hi mackatsol' .. as I know more is coming. What drives me crazy is people who say "can I ask you a question?" I really try hard not to say "you just did". None of those compare to those folks who do not understand that to help them we need details. How do I infer what a problem is without any details? I used to ask all sorts of questions so as to be able to help them. Now I tend to post…

”Can I ask you a question?” obviously isn’t that literal, but more of a shorthand for ”do you have the time, energy and inclination to have a discussion with me right now to figure out the answer to a question I have?”.

I personally try to ask the question straight away, with some caveats and pleasantries added if needed to avoid friction and stressing people out, but I do think it’s fair enough to do it like above as well. You show that you’re respecting the other person’s time by not dragging them too far into a conversation before they’ve agreed to have it, and you don’t have to write out the full question right then and there if it turns out the person is not available for it at the moment.

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