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The importance of offtopic

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Re: The importance of offtopic

#31

Post by sognetic »

atoav wrote: post #13

> You can create as many Slack channels as you want, but all that is worthless if you don’t build the culture where it’s okay to use them. Well the problem with corporate offtopic spaces is obvious: It is (potential) surveillance. One of the essential properties of the coffee kitchen at the office is that only you and the person who was there know what you said. People at work will occasionally like to talk about thi…

Accepting the possibility of committing the old "solving social problems with technological solutions" fallacy: I wonder if an offtopic channel without history (or only a very limited one) could help here. Something that prevents management from scrolling up to identify the people who post too much. In my company I wouldn't even expect that (surveillance) to happen or have consequences but I always have the possibility in the back of my mind.

Re: The importance of offtopic

#32

Post by mathgeek »

watwut wrote: post #25
_w1tm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It always catches me by surprise that you can get "a cold" in summer. Despite the name you don’t get sick from cold weather but from viruses that make you sick. During cold season we stay indoors more which increases our likelihood of being exposed to other people that are sick.

Your immune system underperforms when the body temperature goes down. It is not contact with people, the weather affects your immune system too. > During cold season we stay indoors more which increases our likelihood of being exposed to other people that are sick. For most people this is not really true nowdays. We work in the same offices and use the same kind of transport when going to the office. We shop in the s…

> It is not contact with people, the weather affects your immune system too.

Did you mean not _just_ contact with people? Many folks who isolated during covid saw a reduction in illnesses regardless of season.

Re: The importance of offtopic

#33

Post by Thorrez »

gopher_space wrote: post #30
Thorrez wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this comment related to the article? Is this comment an off topic comment, to realize the goal of the article of having off topic conversations?

This might help. Or it might not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius Calling their IRC-but-we-own-everything setup Slack has always amused and infuriated me in equal measure.

It doesn't help. I don't see how that's related to either the article or the comment.

Except of course that this Wikipedia article is off topic from other discussion, and thus fits with the article's theme of off topic discussion.

Re: The importance of offtopic

#34

Post by aaron695 »

BrenBarn wrote: post #16

This is interesting because there can be a fine line between camaraderie and insularism. A feel-good atmosphere among workers is good, but if it doesn't include everyone, it can lead to favoritism towards those in the group relative to those outside, and that's not good. This can be especially important when people who aren't part of the org at all come into the equation (e.g., leading to the classic experience where…

[dead]

Re: The importance of offtopic

#35

Post by kruffalon »

Thorrez wrote: post #29
kruffalon wrote: post #2

I got some kind of summer flu the other day. It always catches me by surprise that you can get "a cold" in summer. Oh, well, I don't really mind, it is one of the few times I rest and don't keep chipping away at my todo-list. It sucks too though, because I also had plans with friends and it's harder to make new plans since many of my friends are teachers and start working soon, around the 20th.

Is this comment related to the article? Is this comment an off topic comment, to realize the goal of the article of having off topic conversations?

Yes, I thought it would be slightly cute to just comment something OT.

Especially since I'm home with the flu ;)

Re: The importance of offtopic

#36

Post by beingfit »

> I asked one of my teammembers – what’s up with that? “Oh, you know, there’s a release coming up soon, nobody wants to give an impression that they’re dilly-dallying around instead of working.”

This is what I’d worry about too. Apart from this, I don’t know how the chats will be used, who else might have some kind of access to those (IT, HR), etc. The pervasive monitoring of all network traffic makes it all seem like always being under the view of a panopticon.

I love working remote and don’t really want to go to the office (a tiring commute is one of the reasons; not having as much flexibility is another). But I’d be wary of off topic channels on Slack or Teams or any company owned/managed platform.

Re: The importance of offtopic

#37

Post by jarofgreen »

sognetic wrote: post #31
atoav wrote: post #13

> You can create as many Slack channels as you want, but all that is worthless if you don’t build the culture where it’s okay to use them. Well the problem with corporate offtopic spaces is obvious: It is (potential) surveillance. One of the essential properties of the coffee kitchen at the office is that only you and the person who was there know what you said. People at work will occasionally like to talk about thi…

Accepting the possibility of committing the old "solving social problems with technological solutions" fallacy: I wonder if an offtopic channel without history (or only a very limited one) could help here. Something that prevents management from scrolling up to identify the people who post too much. In my company I wouldn't even expect that (surveillance) to happen or have consequences but I always have the possibili…

That doesn't help with the "Who's listening?" problem. In an office kitchen you know exactly who is listening and can tailor your comments appropriately. In an online chat, it's not clear who is lurking or who will log on in 5 minutes and read back. (Welcome to the site btw!)

Re: The importance of offtopic

#38

Post by kruffalon »

gopher_space wrote: post #30
Thorrez wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this comment related to the article? Is this comment an off topic comment, to realize the goal of the article of having off topic conversations?

This might help. Or it might not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius Calling their IRC-but-we-own-everything setup Slack has always amused and infuriated me in equal measure.

This is very good, did you know about it already of just searched for slack on wikipedia?

Nice little rabbit hole to keep me occupied for a few days, thx <3

Re: The importance of offtopic

#39

Post by blooalien »

b112 wrote: post #9
kruffalon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, outside everyday, summer is my season. Although I prefer not being in direct sunlight I'm still in sunlight every day. Interesting how sunlight is helpful, do you know/think it is the light in itself, vitamin D, both or something else? My mistake, which in hindsight is obvious: I spent 3 days with a person at the end of their flu :) Still worth!

Not many people know this, only myself and a few of my clan, but reflected photons are actually no longer quantumly entwined with the sun, bouncing off of normal matter de-entangles them. Thus they become robbed of their primary source of rejuvenating power! We've been working on a device to try to force re-entanglement for centuries. Once done, we will be able to get the proper nutrition fed to us by the sun at all…

Futurama Fry: take-my-money.gif

Re: The importance of offtopic

#40

Post by mnahkies »

We were talking about standup last week, and someone commented that we sometimes get a bit off track / into the weeds.

My response was that I'd much prefer we did this (talk about the surprises we're facing, or some interesting thing we stumbled across) than have it degrade to a pointless "yesterday I did x, today I will do y" where there's very little substance being communicated that isn't already evident from the Jira board.

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