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No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

nohello.net

11–20 of 79 posts

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#11
post #9

If you're asking a quick, informational, easy thing, then "Hi! What is the test server name?" is good. But dropping something upfront that is ambiguous or requiring thought isn't great. If you drop a thorny problem on someone, you may kind of force a context change on them, causing them to drop their train of thought and focus on what you need instead. You can pre-compose your longer thought/question. Then paste it o…

"Hi, got some questions regarding ComplexProject, ping me when you have a few minutes to spare."

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#12
I think there's a dichotomy of people here.

I'm one of the ones that minds because it can disrupt my work. I realize that sometimes interruptions are necessary but I want it to be efficient. So get to the point already

Then there are the people that don't mind the interruption and sense of suspense.

A "hi" feels to me like someone has just come up and poked me, but is just staring at me waiting to respond. Over chat it feels even weirder because then it is as if I have said "yes, what do you want" and I get to stare at them for a minute or two while they compose a request they should have already had ready.

Also keep in mind that while saying 'hi' is perfectly fine irl, there is a crucial bit of context missing. If I see a colleague deeply concentrating on his work with headphones on, I'll wait. If their body language indicates that they aren't focusing hard, then its probably fine to interrupt.

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#14
Mh, for me it's a bit of a process of getting to know people, and to educate people how to get what they want from me quickly. Somehow that sounds arrogant.

The thing is, if people ask me a direct, simple question via chat, I can answer many things without even losing my train of thought. Something like "Hey where do I configure DNS records for XYZ" or "where in ansible is X" and such often get answered while thinking about other stuff. Some new employees are kind of hesitant because it seems rude to them to just poke me with questions like that straight up, but that's the getting-to-know part. I don't need cuddling, and tea, and house shoes, and comments about the weather if you just need some simple information.

Or, if they are unsure about the entire situation, be straight about it. Let me dig myself out of my hole, tell me the context you're in and then let's have a call and screenshare about the entire thing. I still prefer to know what this is about, because it allows me to prepare for a call, to make our call more effective for both of us.

But the thing is, those kind of ticks and preferences I have are a relationship thing with other employees. People just start polite and careful and might just be like "Hello" and such - developers write less, marketing writes more. Usually they just aren't sure how to approach me. So I can't really be to mad at them. Just answer with a funny smiley or a waving one when your heads context is switched to chat, their first message won't be business critical.

And the latter is another important point. We have escalation and communication channels and communication and escalation plans for different severities of problems. Someone saying "Hi" to me cannot be a critical incident by internal definition, so it has a few hours of SLA at minimum and might be forgotten at worst. If it was critical, our head of support would call me directly. If it was more than critical, our head of operation would call my physical phone.

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#16
I know I am going to be downvoted so hard for this, but this is the most Hacker News thing ever.

People have all sorts of different ways to converse; people have different models of politeness, people are shy, uncertain or awkward in all sorts of different ways.

Some things just can't be blurted out. Some things need the scene setting.

People are people. Not robots. Producing a website to demand that people address you in an efficient way is a perfect example of why people dread asking us questions at all.

It's staggeringly entitled.

Now, I will follow that up by saying that when I want to get an answer from a website chat support person, I _always_ plan out, draft or bullet-point exactly what I need, so I know I am not asking a dumb question. And then after I have said hello (!) I explain I have done that so I can paste bits in as needed.

But this website goes a bit too far. "No hello"? Really? This is the framing?

If anyone is considering forwarding this to any internal mailing lists: don't.

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#17
post #9

If you're asking a quick, informational, easy thing, then "Hi! What is the test server name?" is good. But dropping something upfront that is ambiguous or requiring thought isn't great. If you drop a thorny problem on someone, you may kind of force a context change on them, causing them to drop their train of thought and focus on what you need instead. You can pre-compose your longer thought/question. Then paste it o…

> You can pre-compose your longer thought/question. Then paste it once any pleasantries are over and you have the other person's attention. They don't need to wait for your typing and you can take your time to compose the right message, if you need it.

Exactly. This is what I do, and advise people to do when they say "argh the web chat was so annoying". Plan your requests, but be cordial.

Re: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

#18
post #13

I very much agree with nohello, but using it as your status message on slack/teams/etc. is taking it too far and doesn't make me want to talk to you unless I absolutely have to. Maybe it's just me though.

People do that?

What an appalling way to conduct work.

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