6 ms·

I've generally seen it used in Slack, which can be sync/async depending on context, but most commonly sync. I've never seen it used in online forums or e.g. ema

I've generally seen it used in Slack, which can be sync/async depending on context, but most commonly sync. I've never seen it used in online forums or e.g. email so not really sure what you're getting at with your comment. Either way it was intended as an analogy - being annoyed that a nontechnical user isn't given you everything up front (because they don't know how) is essentially just being annoyed with having to talk to somebody. The solution to that isn't something the nontechnical user should be burdened with, imo, & doing so doesn't tackle the crux if the original issue in any meaningful way.

ninkendo 24d ago
> Slack, which can be sync/async depending on context Right, the nohello people are saying “don’t treat initial communication on Slack as sync.” At least not until after the conversation has started. Since you don’t know if I’m available to reply yet, just batch your question and the pleasantries together. It’s a super easy idea to grasp and it really ought to be universal. Just batch the question and the pleasantries together. > I've never seen it used in online forums or e.g. email so not really sure what you're getting at with your comment. Right because forums and email are more generally understood to be async. Slack has a lower latency for a message to be delivered, which can enable synchronous communication (for people who can type really fast at least) but it doesn’t mean you should just assume someone is going to be able to reply at typical synchronous communication times: they may be busy, they may be talking to someone else, they may have stepped away for a second. So until the conversation is “underway”, treat it the same as email and forums. Batch the pleasantries and the question together. > being annoyed that a nontechnical user isn't given you everything up front (because they don't know how) is essentially just being annoyed with having to talk to somebody It has zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. To do with technical anything. It would be exactly as important for, I dunno, sales reps to use this communication style between themselves. Or between a clothing tailor and a client. Or between, I dunno, farmers or something. (For scenarios you could imagine them using Slack at least.) In every case, if you have something you need to ask, you can just ask it in the first message. You don’t have to wait for someone in the channel to acknowledge your presence via pleasantries first. It’s not about being “annoyed with having to talk to someone”, it’s about not wasting people’s time. It matters in every place where people’s time is valuable. So, everywhere. (To extend an olive branch I’ll posit some places where the hello/pleasantries style is totally acceptable… group chats among friends or family, purely social channels, anywhere where the purpose of the communication is the pleasantness of the communication itself, ie. leisure.)

ninkendo 24d ago

> Slack, which can be sync/async depending on context Right, the nohello people are saying “don’t treat initial communication on Slack as sync.” At least not until after the conversation has started. Since you don’t know if I’m available to reply yet, just batch your question and the pleasantries together. It’s a super easy idea to grasp and it really ought to be universal. Just batch the question and the pleasantries together. > I've never seen it used in online forums or e.g. email so not really sure what you're getting at with your comment. Right because forums and email are more generally understood to be async. Slack has a lower latency for a message to be delivered, which can enable synchronous communication (for people who can type really fast at least) but it doesn’t mean you should just assume someone is going to be able to reply at typical synchronous communication times: they may be busy, they may be talking to someone else, they may have stepped away for a second. So until the conversation is “underway”, treat it the same as email and forums. Batch the pleasantries and the question together. > being annoyed that a nontechnical user isn't given you everything up front (because they don't know how) is essentially just being annoyed with having to talk to somebody It has zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. To do with technical anything. It would be exactly as important for, I dunno, sales reps to use this communication style between themselves. Or between a clothing tailor and a client. Or between, I dunno, farmers or something. (For scenarios you could imagine them using Slack at least.) In every case, if you have something you need to ask, you can just ask it in the first message. You don’t have to wait for someone in the channel to acknowledge your presence via pleasantries first. It’s not about being “annoyed with having to talk to someone”, it’s about not wasting people’s time. It matters in every place where people’s time is valuable. So, everywhere. (To extend an olive branch I’ll posit some places where the hello/pleasantries style is totally acceptable… group chats among friends or family, purely social channels, anywhere where the purpose of the communication is the pleasantness of the communication itself, ie. leisure.)