Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nohello.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 362 posts

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

#251

Post by detaro »

kempbellt wrote: post #192
joshmanders wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can't play nicely on a team then maybe a different job is for you? This is a bullshit copout. It's a cultural issue if people cannot be respectful of their co-workers time. It is very common that if something is important to use important modes of communication such as phone calls. My team for example is very asynchronous because that is our culture. Our team is located all over the country and some people i…

No, the bullshit copout is showing that you are available when you are not, to give the illusion that you are working I have nothing but respect for my coworkers personal time. I couldn't care less, personally, if you need to take hours, days, weeks, or even months off of work for whatever reason. Do what you need to do. However, if you are on Slack and suggesting to people you are available when you are not, that is…

How do you suddenly go to "not working" and "taking time off" from this? That's a massive strawman.

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

#252

Post by saghm »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #226
kempbellt wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common theme in my workplace. Especially with everyone working remote and odd hours these days. We use both email and Slack, but most conversations tend to be asynchronous regardless and I frequently wonder why we even have an instant messenger. That said, I find that even if a message is asynchronous, it is much easier to track conversation flow via slack than email. Reply chains and indentations get messy…

I disagree, because putting the whole request in at the outset puts the responsibility on me, even if I'm not available. Consider the following exchange: Co-worker: Hi, AA. Me: Hello. Co-worker: I need some help, are you available? Co-worker: Well, I'm actually past my shift, and you probably saw me available because I was reading an email. Can I hit you up in the morning? Coworker: Sure. ---VS----- Co-worker: Hi, AA…

If you have a boss that conditionally blames you for messages you haven't seen based on the content of those messages, I think you have a bigger problem than Slack decorum.

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

#253

Post by ht_th »

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…

> What drives me crazy is people who say "can I ask you a question?" I really try hard not to say "you just did".

Yes! And the same things happens in real life as well. As a teacher, I get quite often this same question: "Can I ask something?" To which I always reply: "Apparently!"

In the classroom I am trying to establish a local "classroom culture" wherein students feel safe to ask anything. I suppose we should also try to establish a local "chatroom culture" with norms, expectations, responsibilities, and so on.

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

#254

Post by iujjkfjdkkdkf »

oauea wrote: post #215
iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha I can understand why that bothers you of course, but I find it amusing that I feel exactly the opposite way. I would usually much prefer that someone try phoning me or (of initiating a call on slack or zoom) that go through the "hi, time to chat? When is good, etc?" Slack has icons to indicate availability, if mine is green, I really wish people would just call.

You seriously want people to completely distract you from whatever you're doing, using loud noises and popups? If my status is green it means people can send me a message, and expect a response within a reasonable amount of time. Any calls will be instantly declined with a message, "Why are you calling me??"

I'm easily distracted so getting a message breaks my focus anyway. If that's going to happen, I'd rather it happen in one call than in a prolonged back and forth by chat, and then eventually a call. If I really need to focus I just turn notifications off.

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

#255

Post by vmception »

kempbellt wrote: post #152
happyopossum wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would appreciate a more standardized practice around, "If Slack says you are available, we can expect you to respond relatively quickly" than seeing a green dot and not hearing back for hours or a day. No. Slack does not know if I’m at my desk, busy, or even taking a protected me-time lunch break. And no, you cannot expect me to manually update my status in Slack, Teams, Zoom, and every other communication tool I…

Slack sets you to "Away/Offline" after 10 minutes of inactivity by default, and by "relatively quickly" I mean, within an hour or two. If you can't close Slack or update your status to let people know you are unavailable for long periods of time, what is the point of being on Slack? Or a team for that matter? Barring an emergency, I'm not going to call someone directly because they're too busy working to (team)work.…

So tell me, does slack set me to unavailable if Im in a different slack workspace? I have about two dozen communities I could be in, fortunately most of them moved to discord or telegram to avoid people like you

Does it say I’m unavailable if I have slack open in a browser tab and I’m using other tabs

What about the desktop app?

What about the mobile app?

Surely they all influence the status of each other

My life doesnt revolve around slack and slack status, why does yours?

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

#256

Post by abeppu »

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…

> They don't want to type out a bunch of words for a question if the reply isn't going to happen for a few hours.

But if I'm not immediately available, they'll presumably need to ask someone else, or accept that they have to wait for a reply. Either way they will need to type the question at some point. So type it now, and if I don't immediately reply, paste the same question to the next person, etc or better yet put it in a channel, where my teammates can jump in.

And frankly, the norm that people should try to ask a clear question, or frame an actionable request up front often seems to improve the understanding of the requesting party. I've many times had the experience where pulling together the relevant info to frame a question answers it, or fully describing a task reveals a way to streamline it.

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

#258

Post by vmception »

_abox wrote: post #95
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…

If it's someone I don't know (megacorp here too!) I just ignore it altogether... They'll eventually give up and ask the actual question. It's harder if it's something I can't ethically ignore like my boss or a coworker. PS: One thing that really helps to get my attention is being someone that's actually nice to talk to. I have a LOT of time for people who are not all business and actually care about people. And the b…

I hate it too! For someone I don’t know I want to say “how can I help you” but even then that is presumptuous!

Sometimes they reply with “how are you”!

What.Do.You.Want?!?!

On Telegram I archive them immediately. And I check the archives once a month, maybe.

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

#259

Post by lisper »

Arainach wrote: post #236
lisper wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just a question of personal preference. I often find myself in situations where I can solve a problem in <1 min if I can ask someone a question. I also know I can solve it without their help, but it will take me many tens of minutes (as I reverse-engineer their code or something like that). In a situation like that it makes sense for me to inquire if they can answer my question now, but an asynchronous inqui…

Then include that in your initial message. Awful: "Hey" Bad: "Hey, are you around?" Tolerable: "I have a question about foo" Good: "How does foo audit log requests?" Great: "How does foo audit log requests? If you don't know offhand, no problem - I'll keep looking at baz"

The problem with your "great" formulation is that my interlocutor does know, and I know she knows (because she wrote the code). What I don't know is whether she is in a position to give me an answer right now, which is what I need for it to do me any good.

So I usually open with "Ping..." which everyone I deal with knows means, "Are you in the mood to be bothered with a quick question that needs an immediate answer?" And I only do this with people I know prefer chat over email all else being equal because they will initiate chats with me. Otherwise I go straight to email.

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

#260

Post by ogre_codes »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #226
kempbellt wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common theme in my workplace. Especially with everyone working remote and odd hours these days. We use both email and Slack, but most conversations tend to be asynchronous regardless and I frequently wonder why we even have an instant messenger. That said, I find that even if a message is asynchronous, it is much easier to track conversation flow via slack than email. Reply chains and indentations get messy…

I disagree, because putting the whole request in at the outset puts the responsibility on me, even if I'm not available. Consider the following exchange: Co-worker: Hi, AA. Me: Hello. Co-worker: I need some help, are you available? Co-worker: Well, I'm actually past my shift, and you probably saw me available because I was reading an email. Can I hit you up in the morning? Coworker: Sure. ---VS----- Co-worker: Hi, AA…

People understand that chat/ messaging/ Slack is asynchronous.

There is no onus placed upon you here except perhaps in your hypothetical head.

Far more likely is:

> Co-worker: Hi, AA. We have a client with a problem, and I could use your help. Please do X, Y, and Z. Okay thanks, bye.

> AA: Crickets...

> Co-worker (5 minutes later): You there?

> AA: Crickets...

> Co-worker: Oops, just noticed it's 5:54, I should have known you'd have punched out already, I got it.

Post reply on HN