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A case for using punctuation in Slack

blog.mitchjlee.com

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Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#221

Post by [deleted] »

adjkant wrote: post #171
Twisol wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a small group of emoji that I turn to for this kind of color. :sweat_smile: for a note of self-aware awkwardness. :thinking: when I'm posing an idea without standing behind it too hard, or when my thoughts are continuing beyond the message I've just sent. A few others are not uncommon, but more situational. (I'm using their Slack codes here, since I'm not sure I can just embed them directly in an HN comment...…

This type of use is exactly what I was talking about in my original post. It does wonders for positive communication. Even if some don't see the need for it, as the article discusses, you need to consider your full audience!

[deleted]

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#222

Post by chasing »

Punctuation, capital letters, proper spelling, etc. exist for a reason: They're a standardized set of tools for making our writing clearer and easier to read. In a professional setting, they also indicate a level of thoughtfulness and attention to detail. In my mind, at least.

If you can write clearly without using these tools or if you're writing in a situation where style is more important than clarity, fine. Go nuts.

If you just can't be bothered to make, like, five extra keypresses... C'mon, man.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#223

Post by viraptor »

robocat wrote: post #193
elwell wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An example is responding back to a message with "Ok.". I see many over, say, 50 do this much more often, but to many under, say 30, this is taken as very passive aggressive. Definitely have experienced this. > shear sheer > What one things is clear communication with no ambiguity, another might disagree. thinks > todays today's > age combined with the lines being blurred between work and home makes age, combined wi…

Correcting someone’s English is usually seen as a sign of social posturing, because higher education is often related to someone’s self-perception of social status ranking. It takes a extremely skilled approach to do it without causing offence. It is especially poor form on HN, because you cannot know whether English is their second language, or whether there are other reasons for mistakes (such as being in a hurry,…

The worst case for fixing someone's typo is when you know their first language isn't English and assume that's where the mistake comes from. 99% of the time I make mistakes due to swipe/predictive input changing something I don't notice. Yet it gets pointed out by someone repeatedly writing "should of" or asking for simple spelling advice.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#224

Post by greggyb »

phist_mcgee wrote: post #187
greggyb wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a one-word response would seem more negative or less enthusiastic with a period, then I posit it was not carrying a positive or enthusiastic message in the first place. If I want someone to interpret a one-word answer as enthusiastic, I'll put a bloody exclamation point on it. And you get back to the real core of my point (though I could probably have been clearer). > Sounds pretty reasonable to me for SMS/WhatsAp…

Cool bro, you know how to use big words, but you don't seem to know when to use them. That doesn't make you smarter than most, it makes your writing more obtuse.

Yeah! Like I said, too big for my britches. (;

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#225

Post by fractionalhare »

Jedd wrote: post #148
tashoecraft wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're writing small, short sentences, there is something off putting about periods. It's just part of the how text based communication has become. Emojis are good because words can be interpreted with a tone that was unintended, and can lead to all sorts of communication problems. It's small and simple, but an appropriate emoji helps convey our emotions in a way that is more difficult to in short, text based me…

> When you're writing small, short sentences, there is something off putting about periods. Well, that may be the case for some people, but I am not convinced it's the general case. Also, how do you write (delineate, identify, etc) small, short sentences without periods? I'm assuming people in a hurry - that don't have time for punctuation - do have time for tautological constructs? (small, short) ; )

If the message is long enough to actually have multiple sentences, each individual sentence has a period. The last sentence simply drops the period.

It's not the use of periods on a per-sentence basis, it's just the last period. For certain demographics this evokes a tone of abrupt and unfriendly finality. But it depends on context.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#226

Post by powersnail »

tobr wrote: post #105
iamdbtoo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this odd because, to me, attributing malice because of the presence of a period is something you do in your own mind. You don't know the emotional state of the person who sent it, so you think of the worst possible outcome, but both are equally likely in the moment. You're just as free to give them the benefit of the doubt.

You can apply the same reasoning to any of the myriad ways we pick up social, emotional clues from people around us. Facial expressions, body language, brevity, melody, choice of words, clothing, typography, use of emojis, and so on. All of these things are nuanced, vibrant, easily misjudged hints of what another person is feeling, how they see you, or how much they care. You can’t really choose freely how to interpr…

> You can't really choose freely how to interpret them

Of course, you can.

That first moment of gut feeling is outside the control of your consciousness, but after that, it's a choice.

You can tell yourself, and persuade yourself, that you don't know the why the other person ended a sentence with a period. Because, the fact is, you don't.

Not to mention that an ending period is quite commonly added by dictation software, so it's not even certain that the other person added it by choice.

Furthermore, the myriad of social cues usually emerge in a whole package. You get to see a whole face, or a whole body, with the words, said with human voice. That's significantly more data than the presence of a period.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#227

Post by oceliker »

gundmc wrote: post #192
soggybutter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree about ending periods. I always read those messages as being irritated or overly firm. Potentially worse, though, are people who have a habit of abusing ellipses (...) in weird places. My boss does this in virtually every sentence, sometimes multiple times, and it always comes off like he can't believe you'd say something so stupid

I've noticed a quirk when communicating over IM with many of my Indian colleagues. They use two dots (..) really often and I'm not sure how to interpret it. If I view it as equivalent to a three for ellipsis, it often comes across as rude or passive aggressive which I can't believe to be the intention. Is anyone else familiar with this and can shed some light?

I'm not Indian, but I used to do this a lot when I was younger. My thought process was that a single dot would come across as serious or passive-aggressive (there's a discussion about this phenomenon somewhere in this thread) and ellipses would similarly be rude. Two dots somehow seemed like a nice way to come across as more friendly, and/or indicate a tiny pause between sentences.

I used to do this in the times when we were separately charged for every text with our cellular service. I'd try to fit as many sentences as possible to each sent message. With the rise of internet based texting, it became unnecessary to use sentence separators, because I could just separate them by sending multiple messages (and not use any punctuation at the end of each sentence, which is the current accepted "friendly" way of communication).

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#228

Post by rsfern »

jhayward wrote: post #188
adjkant wrote: post #41

The message beyond the HN title actually has potential. However, the author focuses in some odd places for me. As far as punctuation, ending periods actually have negative emotion in text vernacular now for younger audiences and should almost never be used in 1-1 messaging. Exclamation points, commas, and question marks, great! For abbreviations, it's simply know your audience. You should use them when everyone in th…

I am astounded that anyone thinks that adding emojis can solve anything related to clarity of communication. We might as well be interpreting Egyptian cartoushes, for the lack of clarity involved.

Seriously? I wonder how you feel about “/s” and similar?

There are plenty of uses of emoji that don’t add clarity, but I think it’s a bit much to say they can’t be used in a way that adds clarity at all.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#229

Post by extra88 »

Arelius wrote: post #202
pmiller2 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah! Well, I'm so old, I remember having two spaces after every period. And, I, too, hate waking up to 12 notifications, of which 3-4 are usually pings to my team alias, and then seeing a bunch of DM notifications. It makes me feel like I missed something urgent, when, often, it's just people who hate putting periods after the end of their thoughts. Maddening!

Fun aside, on most mobile platforms, hitting the space key twice will generally enter a period followed by a space.

iOS keyboard does that regardless of where you type.

Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack

#230

Post by GhostVII »

saagarjha wrote: post #2

I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)

Whenever I read a sentence with a period in my head, I read it in a very flat tone, since the period explicitly excludes any exclamation point, question mark, emoji, etc. So that makes it sound weird when someone uses a period in casual conversation, because if I was talking to them on person they would usually have some kind of emotion.

For example, I would read "Sounds good" in a generally positive way just like when someone is saying that in person, but when I read "Sounds good." I read it without any emotion in my head which sounds wierd.

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