Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

slack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 124 posts

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#71

Post by bhawks »

onion2k wrote: post #62
ge96 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also if you sound dumb it's out there for the public to see.

It's the job of everyone on the team, especially leads, to reply in ways that make sure everyone knows asking a dumb question is significantly better than being blocked. I would prefer to answer dumb questions all day long than have people on my team grind to a halt for a day because they're scared of asking for help.

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.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#72

Post by triyambakam »

LesZedCB wrote: post #55
multiplegeorges wrote: post #15

> Less messages means more efficient collaboration I think this should be "Fewer messages...". Good grammar improves communication, as well.

if it was good enough to get the idea across in order to be corrected, it succeeded. grammar is fake. language is made up, didn't you know? pithy response aside, i work with a lot of ESL international folks, caring about grammar comes _way_ after being gracious in communication. edit: also, period goes inside quote, even with ellipses. https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/ellipses . secondly, the extra comma before "as wel…

> also, period goes inside quote

Not in the UK

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#73

Post by kuu »

enriquto wrote: post #21
gkoberger wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This... is an insane take. It's "humiliating" for you to use the communication platform your company has chosen?

I'm an activist for software freedom and I refuse to use non-free software in my life, as a matter of principle. When I'm forced to do so it's certainly very humiliating for me. Besides, I don't work for a company, but in the public sector (which by the way I think it should not impose non-free software nor secret protocols into the citizens).

> as a matter of principle

> by the way I think

"Maybe" it's you the one putting that burden on yourself.

I got that you prefer to use open/free sw, but to feel humiliated by it... As the other commenter mentions, it's over the top...

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#74

Post by lnxg33k1 »

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.

I was dreaming of a world where slack doesn’t exist and we use only mailing lists ;0

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#75

Post by tallanvor »

kome wrote: post #58

Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack: use email. - "1. Never send a direct message that just says “hey” or “hello.", write longer messages -> use email. - "2. "Write longer messages that scan quickly" -> don't use a chat app for your messages, use email. - "3. Use threads for effective team collaboration. Seriously." -> use a mailing list. - "4. Replace short follow-up messages with emoji reactions" ->…

I hate emoji reactions. I understand that not everybody will view them the same way, but to me they're phony - if I've helped you, say thanks - don't send a thumbs up emoji.

And recognize that in large group settings, maybe a response isn't necessary - I'm sure a lot of people get annoyed by the flood of "thanks!" "good bye" and such messages that get sent at the end of large meetings.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#76

Post by Cthulhu_ »

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

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 though.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#77

Post by Cthulhu_ »

gbjw wrote: post #51
forbiddenvoid wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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."

Sure -- or people don't want to clog up channels with what they perceive to be minutiae or very context-specific questions requiring some back-and-forth.

Which is fair, as long as it's concrete, the addressee is actually available and on the clock, and the question can only be answered by that person.

I'm active on a programming language Slack space, what sometimes happens is that people are DMed directly with a generic / open question that dozens of others could also answer.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#79

Post by Cthulhu_ »

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…

Well yeah, but if it's a quick question then it's just reading & replying once, it's a "hey" and you engage with it, it's a longer context switch. For both parties involved; the sender obviously has something they need you for, the faster they can have that issue resolved, the faster their context switch has finished.

Re: Collaborate with kindness: Etiquette tips in Slack

#80

Post by Cthulhu_ »

multiplegeorges wrote: post #15

> Less messages means more efficient collaboration I think this should be "Fewer messages...". Good grammar improves communication, as well.

If "less" is used more often than "fewer", doesn't that mean these fairly arbitrary grammar rules should be updated? Language evolves, after all, and American English has diverged from UK English a long time ago.
Post reply on HN