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No Hello

nohello.net

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Re: No Hello

#231

Post by whoisyc »

simonw wrote: post #122
TeMPOraL wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And some people, like me, are... what do you call TCP but without initial handshake? Like: ---- Other person: Hi, what time was that thing? Me: Hey, 14:00. ... ... Me: Hey, 14:00 ! ... ... Me: walks in their face Hey you, the thing you asked, it's at 14:00. Other person: Yes yes, I heard you first time! Me: boils internally, muttering to themselves so why the fsck didn't you say so? ---- Please don't hang on "Hello",…

Weirdly I really enjoyed MrBeast's line on this in his leaked internal production memo: "Since we are on the topic of communication, written communication also does not constitute communication unless they confirm they read it." https://simonwillison.net/2024/Sep/15/how-to-succeed-in-mrbe...

This is why emoji responses on Slack are so useful. You can ask others to affirmatively confirm that they have read a message and they can make the confirmation without clogging up the channel with tons of text messages.

And no “read receipt” as it is usually implemented would not cut it, because it only means “this message showed up on the recipient’s screen once” not that they have actually read it.

Re: No Hello

#232

Post by drcongo »

danaris wrote: post #103
drcongo wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me guess, you have an American accent?

Well, mine personally shifts frequently to British—but yes; I can see that that could cause a problem for some people, especially if their accent is not a specific one that Siri's been trained on.

As a Brit, let me tell you, there is no such thing as a British accent. Our accents vary wildly by region, and sometimes those regions can be under ten miles away, let alone the huge differences between the four home nations. My own is basically what Americans imagine an English accent to be, a bit Hugh Grant but not as posh. Siri can do the basics for me, but playing some random song when any of us have asked it to do something completely different has become a running joke in our house. It's great when the kids try to set a timer or something and it suddenly starts blaring out some very sweary hip hop.

Re: No Hello

#233

Post by d--b »

newdee wrote: post #214
d--b wrote: post #85

Let people be people for god sake. If people saying hello on a chat pisses you off, take it as a sign that you need a vacation. I bet when you're back from 2 weeks in the Bahamas, when someone pings you with an empty "hello", you'll reply with a nice "oh hey buddy, what's up?", rather than spending one week building a fancy website to post to HN people who already agree with you.

Hi

Hey

Re: No Hello

#235

Post by Mawr »

int_19h wrote: post #217
macintux wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me a depressingly long time to figure out that when people (offline) ask me how I am, they don’t expect, or want, an answer.

The whole "How are you?" ritual is quite possibly the most nonsensical thing about the Anglo cultures. Like, I get that the point is to feign polite interest in the other person. But then by asking this question with the expectation of the same formulaic reply "I'm fine!" (and confusion if the response is something else) - even if the other speaker is emphatically not fine - it literally does the opposite, making it…

I had a coworker who took this to the extreme. When they'd come up to anyone they'd say, without any pauses in-between: "Hi. How are you? So I wanted to tell you x, y, z [...]", not leaving any time to respond, even with the formulatic "I'm fine.". Really driving home that they're just reciting, without caring one bit how you feel.

Pretty overwhelming to me personally, but I could tell other coworkers were taken aback by it too.

Re: No Hello

#236

Post by danaris »

drcongo wrote: post #232
danaris wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, mine personally shifts frequently to British—but yes; I can see that that could cause a problem for some people, especially if their accent is not a specific one that Siri's been trained on.

As a Brit, let me tell you, there is no such thing as a British accent. Our accents vary wildly by region, and sometimes those regions can be under ten miles away, let alone the huge differences between the four home nations. My own is basically what Americans imagine an English accent to be, a bit Hugh Grant but not as posh. Siri can do the basics for me, but playing some random song when any of us have asked it to…

Oh, certainly—mine is vaguely East Midlands, as that's where my father comes from. But without knowing that the person one's talking to is British, just saying "British accent" is going to be much clearer.

Re: No Hello

#237

Post by agentultra »

xattt wrote: post #44
agentultra wrote: post #39

No hello but time for goodbye? /s I get it. It’s the same on IRC when people ask if they can ask a question. Just ask the bloody question!

When I’m in a Smart Alec mood, I’ll usually respond “you already did” if they ask if they can ask a question.

Mine is, "I don't know, can you?"

Re: No Hello

#238

Post by macspoofing »

JimDabell wrote: post #127
macspoofing wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another reason for 'hello' ... it's a way to make sure you have the other person's attention before launching into a topic or question.

That’s exactly what’s rude about it. Don’t make sure you have their attention. Just send the actual message. If it’s urgent enough that the actual message isn’t enough, “Hello” isn’t going to cut it either.

>That’s exactly what’s rude about it.

By the way, I also hate the "hello"-only message. I am, however, guilty of writing "Hey. Do you have a second to chat" - typically in cases where either through chat or video conference I want to go through something that is more involved, and I also want some confirmation of understanding and acknowledgement.

Re: No Hello

#239

Post by jrs235 »

matsemann wrote: post #205
dosnem wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes you do it because if you just ask the question you get ignored but if you say hello and get a response ppl are less likely to ignore the second question. Thats the bigger reason than any rudeness reason i would think.

The opposite is true as well. If someone pings me hello, I might not answer immediately because I don't know if what follows will be a big or small thing, but after having replied I feel obligated to continue answering. So my decision is to not answer until I'm less busy. If they however ask a question no hello style, I can quickly gauge if I can answer it immediately, or I should wait until a better time for me. So…

And if they ask the question and I determine I don't have the bandwidth to switch or immediately answer I can kindly reply such information. They're more likely to get a reply faster by skipping the hanging and dangling hello. "If it's important, they'll leave a message."
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