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

Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

nohello.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 134 posts

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#91

Post by danaris »

throwaway598 wrote: post #4

> It's as if you called someone on the phone and said "Hi!" and then put them on hold! Typically you both say a greeting then a conversation starts. > Instead of being polite, you are just making the other person wait for you to phrase your question, which is lost productivity. Please don't count every second of your life in productivity lost to someone else. The root of the problem might be frustration with not gett…

Honestly, the example given in your first quote is a bad one, because a synchronous medium (like a telephone call) is fundamentally different from an asynchronous one (like a chat—or email).

It's actually much more like sending someone an email that just says, "Hi!"

You'd find that weird and off-putting, wouldn't you? Not putting at least some part of the point of the conversation in the initial email completely violates the expectations for how email works.

Chat works fundamentally the same way. Yes, you can treat it as being synchronous—but until you have established an active synchronous conversation (ie, until you and the other person are clearly online at the same time, talking in real time), proper etiquette should be to treat it as asynchronous, like email, and plan one's opening communications accordingly.

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#92

Post by LinuxBender »

Please Don't Say Just Hello In Chat

There was a point this had become so pervasive I set my Slack status to "I am currently busy working on a prioritized issue. Please open a jira and then speak to management if the case is urgent." then moved slack to another workspace and muted sound. That was my form of time management and it worked well for me personally, most of the time. One can always check with their manager if they are cool with this.

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#93

Post by Chris2048 »

CipherThrowaway wrote: post #64
Chris2048 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I might not send it anyway, that's the issue.

That's even worse. You're sending out rounds of "Hi's" to multiple people, distracting them to prepare them for a question you might not even ask? Candidly, you sound like an incredibly selfish communicator.

let's say you go up to a group of people working on desks.

You ask "Is anyone free to help me with ?".

Is this a "selfish communication"?

What about messages posted in a group chat?

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#94

Post by Chris2048 »

nkrisc wrote: post #76
Chris2048 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I might not send it anyway, that's the issue.

Why would you message everyone “hello” if you’re not going to send the message? “Hello” “Yes?” “Nevermind.” What?

What is the implied delay between "Hello" and "Yes?"?

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#95

Post by Chris2048 »

smeej wrote: post #55
Chris2048 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I might not send it anyway, that's the issue.

You might be gathering this by everyone's responses to every single one of your comments, but you're using this tool fundamentally differently than everyone else and than it's meant to be used, and you're doing it in a way that inconveniences everyone who has to use it to interact with you. Since it's a communication tool, you'll get better results if you use it like it was designed and like everyone else does.

I gather by the responses that there are a lot of HNers that feel strongly a certain way, but I do not confuse HN, or the participants of a pile-on, with "everyone"; nor am I fond of promoting this reddit style group-think.

I'm not asking for a poll, but reasoning (which is the explicitly stated purpose for this forum). If a thousand (apparently annoyed) HNers agreed on something but could not reason why, I wouldn't care for it. In fact, I've seen exactly this kind of cultish thinking among developers specifically, hence the existence of flamewars over notation preference.

The tone of some of these replies also suggest to me there's some projection going on, that also makes me defer to the explicit reasoning provided rather than the sentiment.

> you're using this tool fundamentally differently than everyone else and than it's meant to be used, and you're doing it in a way that inconveniences everyone who has to use it to interact with you

I disagree, but if you've already made up your mind, there's no opportunity for discourse here.

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#96

Post by brisketbbq »

This annoys me, along with people asking about a jira but just sending the number. That means I'll need to copy it and go to my browser to type in the URL and the jira number.

Chances are the colleague was just looking at the jira in their browser, so why wouldn't they copy/paste the link...

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#97

Post by jpl56 »

d1sxeyes wrote: post #66
smeej wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Person sharing the screen is 100% responsible for making sure such notifications are turned off, not the other person sending the message.

While that is true, nevertheless it’s nice to consider that people are human and make mistakes. It can be quite difficult to ‘correct’ that mistake once made, as in order to disable notifications, you often need to open up the chat app itself, which makes all of your conversations flash up on the screen. Yes, of course you can always just stop sharing, disable notifications, and re-enable, but nevertheless, I always…

I hate Teams for that. There's no simple way to temporary hide notifications but going deep into the menus. I would need a "hide notifications for the next 5, 10 ou 15 minutes" you can activate without having to think.

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#98

Post by protl »

michaelt wrote: post #61

It depends on the nature of your work. In some types of work, individuals are supposed to do their own time management, and carve out chunks of time for activities that require sustained concentration, and respond appropriately to occasional requests, which are a mixture of low- and high-urgency. For example, someone who needs to read complex academic papers, but occasionally might be interrupted for an urgent produc…

There is absolutely zero overhead for the person messaging to simply add more context to their opening message regardless of the situation. They're going to have to give the context anyway. If it's an emergency, just say "Hello, there's a fire", if it's informal say "Hello, you heard about Eddy?".

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#99

Post by kevincox »

brisketbbq wrote: post #96

This annoys me, along with people asking about a jira but just sending the number. That means I'll need to copy it and go to my browser to type in the URL and the jira number. Chances are the colleague was just looking at the jira in their browser, so why wouldn't they copy/paste the link...

I think this is in part people's memory. People will often just mention a ticket by ID and lots of in the people in the room seem to know what they are talking about. I find it nearly impossible to remember associations between "random" numbers so I will always need to build that into a URL and look it up.

But yes, when written please, please, please just use the URL. It is at worst the same if people recognize the number, much easier if not. Plus people can quickly just check it to make sure they remembered correctly. Also shout out to ticketing software that puts the title into the URL so you get the confirmation and reminder without even clicking the link.

GitHub and GitLab are awful here. Their default merge and squash messages reference tickets with stupid short forms like #123 or other/project#123 which aren't clickable except in their web-UI. It feels like a form of lock in. I would much rather that they just put a full URL so that I can click it when reading a Git log.

Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat

#100

Post by sys_64738 »

The whole pleasantries is a waste of time. In chat, tell me what you need in the first message. At the start of a meeting, get on with an agenda. I don't give a damn how your weekend was or want to discuss it. Get to the point and stop wasting my time. In email, don't tell me you hope you find me well as it is irrelevant and empty. Tell me what you need in the least words possible. In other words, stop with the flaff and get to the point.
Post reply on HN