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Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

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Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#41

Post by paxys »

_moof wrote: post #19

> …the recipient gets a notification on that first “hey” that contains no information and potentially causes distraction. The person might see the indicator that you’re typing but is still left waiting for your full message. I would turn this around and call this a product design problem. Maybe Slack shouldn't send a notification when all you've said is "hey" and you're typing a follow-up message. Really, if you have…

Not every social problem needs to have a tech solution. Slack allows sending messages between people. They don't need to start policing the content of these messages.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#42

Post by paxys »

npunt wrote: post #20

Rather than just tell / hope people follow some etiquette, I'd love Slack to build more etiquette enforcing features that operators could enable. This isn't the 19th century where the best we can do is tell people to read a book on etiquette and hope for the best. Slack is in a unique position in the history of interpersonal communication where they have complete insight into (and design of) user's and organization's…

All of this is possible to do via custom bots. Ultimately there's no single standard Slack can enforce that will work for all of their users, so it's best to stay as lightweight as possible when it comes to stuff like etiquette.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#43

Post by paxys »

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…

If you say hey and immediately follow up with your message, that's fine.

If you say hey, wait for a reply, and only then start with your actual question, that comes off as very annoying.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#44

Post by ask_b123 »

Melatonic wrote: post #23
richm31415 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be, yes. For someone who is a strong believer in and advocate of FOSS, who makes her/his livelihood developing FOSS for a FOSS software company, to be forced to use proprietary solutions where there are reasonable FOSS alternatives can be very disheartening, demoralizing, and even humiliating.

I am not sure still why it is humiliating specifically - disheartening sure, demoralizing makes sense. But why would it be humiliating if you are not the person pushing that the paid / non FLOSS app be used in the first place? Isn't this also a good chance to evangelize an alternative to whomever you are speaking with?

I also thought of that as being a chance to 'evangelize' FLOSS alternatives.

The first thing I actually thought of was this set of verses talking about evangelizing in a somewhat similar context: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+9...

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#46

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#47

Post by npunt »

thecosas wrote: post #30
npunt wrote: post #20

Rather than just tell / hope people follow some etiquette, I'd love Slack to build more etiquette enforcing features that operators could enable. This isn't the 19th century where the best we can do is tell people to read a book on etiquette and hope for the best. Slack is in a unique position in the history of interpersonal communication where they have complete insight into (and design of) user's and organization's…

It would be great to see Slack put some work in here, but could someone make an app (or Slackbot) to enforce/offer guidance? I know Slack culture can be hugely variable over time, especially for high-growth companies so there definitely needs to be some flexibility.

Part of the reason Slack culture is hugely variable as organizations change is precisely because there are few easily available, broadly understood default tools to reduce that variability.

One could say the same for code style - it's hugely variable as more people come onto the team, but with linters a particular standardization of style can be followed.

My post is basically asking: what if we had etiquette linters?

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#48

Post by npunt »

paxys wrote: post #42
npunt wrote: post #20

Rather than just tell / hope people follow some etiquette, I'd love Slack to build more etiquette enforcing features that operators could enable. This isn't the 19th century where the best we can do is tell people to read a book on etiquette and hope for the best. Slack is in a unique position in the history of interpersonal communication where they have complete insight into (and design of) user's and organization's…

All of this is possible to do via custom bots. Ultimately there's no single standard Slack can enforce that will work for all of their users, so it's best to stay as lightweight as possible when it comes to stuff like etiquette.

Alternately, defaults really really matter. Of 100 teams that adopt Slack, only a fraction will know about, let alone enable, let alone write custom bots.

If you're in a position like Slack where you have control over defaults, small changes like the introduction of some default etiquette options that orgs can adopt can have massive leverage in improving comms, which ultimately would benefit the product and users.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#49

Post by [deleted] »

forbiddenvoid wrote: post #37
kerblang wrote: post #26

> Default to public channels for better workplace communication I have tried so hard to get people to do this, but it seems like a lot of my coworkers are honestly scared of "public" channels, and by "public" I mean a channel with only 15 or so people on it. They insist on DM'ing most things, and some just refuse to use chat at all; those will only communicate via email.

"Scared of public channels" often means "doesn't have the psychological safety to say something out loud that might end up being perceived negatively or as though they don't know what they're doing."

[deleted]

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#50

Post by gbjw »

kerblang wrote: post #26

> Default to public channels for better workplace communication I have tried so hard to get people to do this, but it seems like a lot of my coworkers are honestly scared of "public" channels, and by "public" I mean a channel with only 15 or so people on it. They insist on DM'ing most things, and some just refuse to use chat at all; those will only communicate via email.

Sending a message in a public channel is psychologically akin to walking into a room full of people and just loudly proclaiming/demanding help. I don't think people are simply 'scared' to do it -- they just (rightly) intuit that it's somewhat strange and counterintuitive that it would be the preferred method over talking to an individual and building a rapport / friendship.
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