A case for using punctuation in Slack
blog.mitchjlee.com
A case for using punctuation in Slack
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Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#2I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#3I agree, and disagree. Remember that context matters a ton. Are you posting in a company wide channel, or DM-ing you're close coworkers? Are you posting about an update, or just sharing something random to your team. All that plays into this more than the author expands on (he does quickly mention it in the last section). I think you just have to be a human, esp. in times where everyone is working from home. I think if you followed this advice in every channel, in every scenario, your company Slack culture would start to suffer a ton, and feel very cold (not that the author says that, just an FYI). This is good advice generally, don't get me wrong, but just be smart to when you apply it. Don't ruin your culture, and come off as a robot/cold person in every message you post.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#4I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
I feel like periods mark the end of a sentence. So I use them all the time, even in text messages.
I've had people get actually angry with me for doing it.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#5I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
I feel like periods mark the end of a sentence. So I use them all the time, even in text messages. I've had people get actually angry with me for doing it.
ok.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#6I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
I frequently hit return rather than typing a period. However, I feel that's not really good practice, as I often see myself sending a lot of small messages which could probably be better summarised with a couple well thought out sentences.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#7I think this entire post can be distilled into the following:
The time you spend composing a message should be proportional to the number of people in your intended audience.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#8I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
Same, but not sure why now that you mention it. I'm a stickler for grammar, oxford commas and all, but in messaging, periods feel...rude at times. I can't explain why, perhaps it is the 'conclusion in thought' aspect.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#9I feel like (so, of course, this is how I use instant messaging) periods at the end of a message suggest the logical conclusion of a thought, and are far too formal to use with every message. Email, sure, but not chat. (I do use question marks and capitalize in general, but periods in particular seem strange to me.)
I agree with you that for your final sentence it's optional. That said, I still do it.
But that's kind of ancillary to the point of this post, no? The main point it's trying to drive home is be as informative as possible. Don't assume your audience knows your tone, your conventions, your abbreviations.
I suspect this is largely for those who have newly entered the work force, who may only know texting style communication (with friends, shared corpus of knowledge), and formal business communication, and this is to warn them that Slack, while less formal than the latter, doesn't imply the shared context that the former would often have.
Re: A case for using punctuation in Slack
#10lol no