I think "no hello" evangelists should emphasize that you can say hello if you want, as long as you follow up with your actual question/request in the same message. The point isn't that the "hello" itself is a critical waste of some human resource, but rather that interrupting somebody with "hello" and then making them wait for something actionable is disruptive and frustrating.
This may seem obvious to many, but I don't think it's universally understood.
The marketing of "no hello" (nohello.net) is contrary to what those examples say. So maybe there is a better way to market it instead of "no hello". Like maybe "just ask the question", or "start with a query", or "Don't just hello".
I think the tone being kind of sassy and put apon over a small inconvenience shifts the focus from the more constructive parts of the message and in that sense I agree with the person you are responding to - the etiquette evangelists might be more effective if they did less spleen venting.
My boss always sends a hello first, usually 1 to 5 minutes before I get the thing I'm actually supposed to respond to. If she just sent the whole thing at once, I could determine if it's something I need to break focus for immediately, or get to in a few minutes.
I don’t like just hi either, but people tell me they do it because they don’t want to disturb me and don’t know if I may be sharing my screen - so it is well-intentioned.
I once was on a WebEx when the presenter was notified by her manager about the company car she would get for her promotion in a thread with many details. Very insightful.
they can be in every tool I've used, and are also on by default, so I think this is a lot of people shooting themselves in the foot.
when I am on support, if you ping me with only "hi" or "hello" or some other simple greeting, I will simply not respond to you until you give me something actionable for me to look at. if you don't say your problem and provide some info about what you need, then I have neither the time nor the desire to pull it out of you. tell me what you need or I will not respond.
I could also have people at my desk looking at my screen as we go over some code or a project plan. Messaging services are for urgent matters which usually have some privileged info. If it’s just a non urgent question or request, send an email so you don’t interrupt people. Biggest issue with messaging services is that they easily abused for things that can done via asynchronous communication. They become big distractions.
Honestly as long as they second message comes promptly after the first this doesn't bother me at all. It's when the "Hey" is just left out there by itself that annoys me.
It's very mildly annoying when it leads to me staring at slack waiting for you to finish typing, but if that's the most annoying thing that happens on slack that day then it's a really good day.
I suppose, as long as these 4 messages arrive in quick succession you're fine.
If you wait a minute between sending each, that's where you should feel guilty :P
The multiple notifications often bother me, but I think it's a problem with the messaging app, not with the sender. It shouldn't send a new notification for each message if it just sent one a few seconds ago.
I don't think the problem described is staccatto bursts (at least I hope, I do the same thing), but adding a synchronous element to the communication that doesn't add thing.
I think what you do is pretty in line with this ethos - the other person is pretty free to prioritize your messages as they see fit
I think the "don't do this" examples are actually some of the least egregious examples of this problem.
I've got an infamous chat I here where a guy opened with "hey".. followed by a "how are you".. and like seven messages and 20 minutes later he gets to "we have a Sev1 incident, all systems down, can you look at it"?.
There is also a cultural component to saying hello/hi before stating your request. Almost every Asian/Indian person I have worked with starts a conversation this way. I asked a friend one time and they just said it is polite so I stopped caring
what is worse are people who are just clearly trolling for someone to come help them via vaguebugging.
"hey team, [although not actually on your team] is anyone seeing bugs in the latest release?"
this sounds like i'm about to get sucked into a game of 20-questions, and when you've got an issue tracker with 400+ open issues there's definitely still bugs in the latest release.
just spit the question out:
"i'm with <client> and we're trying to do <thing> and we're getting this error message <paste error message or point at a gist/pastebin if it is long>, is this a bug or are we doing something wrong?"
I would love if people would send just 1 big message instead of splitting it in multi lines and send them one of a time. I prefer to get 1 notifications not 3+ and having to check and then see the "X is typing " message
Readit News
You don't do this:
Pilot: "San Jose tower, Cessna 54321"
Tower: "Cessna 321, San Jose tower, state your position and request"
Pilot: "Tower, Cessna 321 is five miles to the southeast"
Tower (starting to sound annoyed) "Cessna 321, and your request please?"
Pilot: "I'd like a straight-in landing on runway 30 right"
Tower (if pilot is lucky) "321 cleared for straight-in approach and landing 30 right"
Instead, you do this:
Pilot: "San Jose tower, Cessna 54321 five miles southeast, request straight-in landing 30 right"
Tower: "Cessna 321, San Jose tower, cleared for straight-in approach and landing 30 right"
Succinct, intelligent, calm.
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This may seem obvious to many, but I don't think it's universally understood.
I once was on a WebEx when the presenter was notified by her manager about the company car she would get for her promotion in a thread with many details. Very insightful.
The website is hilarious too https://muzzleapp.com
when I am on support, if you ping me with only "hi" or "hello" or some other simple greeting, I will simply not respond to you until you give me something actionable for me to look at. if you don't say your problem and provide some info about what you need, then I have neither the time nor the desire to pull it out of you. tell me what you need or I will not respond.
Hey
Did you see that thread in #hn_feed?
I remember you asking about the right way to sand the wood before painting - some great ideas.
Also - cake on the 4th floor kitchen fyi
Since nobody in my entire office answers messages in the time it takes me to write those four, I struggle to feel guilty.
I think what you do is pretty in line with this ethos - the other person is pretty free to prioritize your messages as they see fit
I've got an infamous chat I here where a guy opened with "hey".. followed by a "how are you".. and like seven messages and 20 minutes later he gets to "we have a Sev1 incident, all systems down, can you look at it"?.
so instead of 8:14 "hello" 9:15 "actual question"
sent 8:14 "Hello, actual question"
"hey team, [although not actually on your team] is anyone seeing bugs in the latest release?"
this sounds like i'm about to get sucked into a game of 20-questions, and when you've got an issue tracker with 400+ open issues there's definitely still bugs in the latest release.
just spit the question out:
"i'm with <client> and we're trying to do <thing> and we're getting this error message <paste error message or point at a gist/pastebin if it is long>, is this a bug or are we doing something wrong?"
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