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Comment by i__believe | Hacker News Reader

Slack doesn't, unless I'm not finding that feature after a year+ of using it.

You can set yourself to Do Not Disturb mode, which is kind of the same thing. Notifications are muted and the sender sees a 'Zzz' symbol next to your name.

If someone sends you a direct message they have the option to interrupt you if it's really important.

> Notifications are muted and the sender sees a 'Zzz' symbol next to your name.

That's a minor thing but 'Zzz' really sends the wrong signal to the sender: if you are not available, then you are sleeping (i.e. unproductive).

Agreed, and would probably go a bit beyond "minor".

Other chat systems offer the ability to attach a message to your AFK status, which can be pretty helpful for setting expectations about when you might be back. Last time I looked, Slack seemed kind-of resistant to doing anything like that.

> That's a minor thing but 'Zzz' really sends the wrong signal to the sender: if you are not available, then you are sleeping (i.e. unproductive).

Working remotely, is that a bad thing? If you are unavailable due to deep coding or a need for a nap does it matter?

Ideally, only results should matter. But 'Zzz' somehow reinforces the default assumption that a remote worker will try to be paid for slacking off. Now, I am going back to bed.

I mean, the product itself is named Slack...

Yes, it's terrible. How can I pretend to be working with such a name...

It totally does and I use it heavily, although if urgent a co-worker can have the option to force the notification through. Usually doesn't happen as people realise you'll get back to it soon.

https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/214908388-Do-Not-Di...

One can set their status to "Away" in slack.

Yeah, but "away" and "busy" are two different statuses. "Away" seems to me to indicate "not working". "Busy" seems to indicate "working too hard to be interrupted."

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