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Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

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Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#101

Post by watwut »

verve_rat wrote: post #92
bhawks wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they're not blocked and they are asking for help. They're just doing it via DM instead of in the 'public' chat. Slack is literally telling folks: 'You are holding it wrong'. In reality their product isn't that great for q&a or knowledge sharing. Horrible search, bad notification, high noise to low signal.

They are blocked when the one person they DM'd ignores the message because they are busy with other stuff.

Then they can ask someone else. Or move to public thread. But quite often, they are not blocked and the person they are asking responds.

And quite often, you get better and faster response when you ask a person instead of forum.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#102

Post by stavros »

donatj wrote: post #98

> Use threads for effective team collaboration. Seriously. Threads are where messages go to die. I don’t have time to read every single thread clicking into it individually. You’re just making work for me, having to figure out what threads I have to read. If it’s in a thread and no one @‘d me, assume I missed it. I read very quickly, I just want to be able to scan all messages in a channel chronologically. My team be…

Slack's threads design feels like they don't want you to use them. They take a small fraction of the screen, they're awkward to find, and they're awkward to keep open. Zulip has gotten the entire chat thing entirely right, yet Slack continues to treat the most important unit of conversation (the thread) as a fourth-class citizen.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#103

Post by chestnuttrees »

commandlinefan wrote: post #4

> Never send a direct message that just says “hey” or “hello.” I first started hearing people suggest this recently (within the past month or so). I never really understood why these message bothered people so much - they never bothered me and always actually seemed a bit more polite than just barreling forward with a question. But I guess if even Slack themselves are saying don't do that, it must really get on other…

I think it’s actually pretty silly. The same people demanding you no-hello them (that is, try to enforce a social solution on everyone else to solve something they can easily solve technically) will also tell you to e.g. use an as blocker, or go on about Postel’s law.

If a random slack message is going to ruin your concentration, that’s a you problem. Fix it on your end.

I agree, it doesn’t especially bother me. But if I don’t want notifications, I mute them. I don’t demand other people accommodate my inability to manage my own attention.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#104

Post by chousuke »

fleddr wrote: post #85
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they only say "Hey" with no follow-up, I'll just assume it was nothing and they got distracted. In smaller environments it could work to link them to e.g. https://nohello.net/en/ and / or educate them though. But turning off notifications works; it keeps your focus, and making them wait for a reply trains and reminds them that it's asynchronous communication. A lot of people have grown accustomed to fast replies t…

Your assumption may be wrong though. Especially if you work internationally, the greeting ritual may be a form of civil courtesy. I do hate it though. Just ask the damn question, don't wait for me to say "hey" back.

I wish we could just get rid of that particular form of "courtesy".

I can't help but be annoyed or distracted by naked hellos, regardless of the intent behind them, so to me, they are rude. I understand that they might be some sort of social ritual, but I can't for the life of me understand how it's in any way courteous to ask for someone's attention with an expectation of a synchronous reply before revealing anything about why they want your attention.

But I suppose the majority feels the opposite for some unfathomable reason.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#105

Post by micromacrofoot »

nishs wrote: post #97
micromacrofoot wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, in what way is it humiliation?

not op, but if i felt humiliated in a similar situation, it would be humiliation that i'm not in a position powerful enough where i could bring about the change i want to see.

I suppose, but you’re joining the club of the vast majority of humanity in that case

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#107

Post by BeefWellington »

joseph8th wrote: post #67

At risk of repeating what everyone else has said... My PM does the "Hey" thing. I do not multitask. I'm a serial tasker. So I turned off all notifications on Slack. The only way I know I have a message is the red dot that appears in the panel icon. Now, it's async again. When I even glance up to see if there are new messages... Red dot or no red dot

The only way "Hey" is acceptable is if there's an immediate followup with whatever it is the person is asking for.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#109

Post by benhurmarcel »

joseph8th wrote: post #67

At risk of repeating what everyone else has said... My PM does the "Hey" thing. I do not multitask. I'm a serial tasker. So I turned off all notifications on Slack. The only way I know I have a message is the red dot that appears in the panel icon. Now, it's async again. When I even glance up to see if there are new messages... Red dot or no red dot

I'd love if chat apps had the option to notify you only once per contact in the span of a a minute. Bonus point for delaying the notification by 10s after the last message, in case another one is following.

A colleague just sent me a single question in 11 messages (and yes the first one was "hello"). People use the enter key as punctuation, which shouldn't be a problem and is fixable by software. But as of now it spams notifications.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#110

Post by troyvit »

donatj wrote: post #98

> Use threads for effective team collaboration. Seriously. Threads are where messages go to die. I don’t have time to read every single thread clicking into it individually. You’re just making work for me, having to figure out what threads I have to read. If it’s in a thread and no one @‘d me, assume I missed it. I read very quickly, I just want to be able to scan all messages in a channel chronologically. My team be…

I went from a company of 900 people to a company of 80 and wow what a difference. There was so much noise in the larger company that I'd spend probably 2 hours a day reading slacks (and they rarely threaded messages even). Fast forward to here and it's like a breath of fresh air. They're very conscious about threading and while I now have time to read every thread I can tell at a glance if I should. Doesn't really help your problem except to say that assiduous threading does seem to make it easier at a certain scale to know which messages to ignore.
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