Ask HN: Instant Messaging Etiquettes
What are some etiquettes of instant messaging that people should follow?
Link to blog posts if it has your way of answer.
Link to blog posts if it has your way of answer.
Even more annoying is the people who post a message with max notification and lots of words about how it's super-urgent, and then don't respond for half an hour when you ask for more details. I guess it's not really that urgent if you can't be bothered to pay attention to responses to your question.
Or people who post screenshots of long error codes that you'd want to look up. If you want me to spend my time to figure out your problem, please take 5 seconds to copy and paste the error code so I can search it in other systems easily.
I also find it annoying when you help someone with some random thing, and they now decide that you're now their universal go-to mentor and expect you to fix all problems with everything.
ESR's page on How To Ask Questions would be a good read for a lot of such people: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
The fact that someone will go to you a second time is both natural and a testament to your helpfulness.
It is natural because if you have n choices and m are known to work and you are being risk averse you will choose one of m. Now of m=1 for far too long that is an organizational issue and I suggest either asking for more help or money.
Specifically:
- Be concise and quick. Write out a succinct message, review it, include necessary links, and then hit send.
- Avoid formalities ("Hey" "How are you" "Do you have a minute?"). Just get to the point and let them respond when they're ready.
- If it should be an e-mail, send an e-mail. If it needs to be a meeting, schedule a meeting. If it's best discussed in person, find the person. Resist the lazy temptation to use instant messages for everything.
- Watch the hours. If it's 9PM at night and you don't need a response by morning, wait until morning to send it. Or send an e-mail.
- Use group channels when appropriate. If you're discussing something the entire team needs to hear, use the team channel. If you're having a back-and-forth debate with one person, take it to a thread or private message.
- Show you've done your homework. Before asking someone for help, be prepared to list what you've tried and why it failed. Don't ask coworkers to help you with things that could be answered by reading the documentation or using Google.
I would strengthen this statement to "use group channels unless inappropriate."
There are definitely topics that shouldn't be discussed publicly, but for everything else, I think it's best to default to using a public channel.
I can't tell you how many times people give me a bunch of details in a direct message, only to have to replay all those details when someone else is added to the conversation.
Using direct messages is also rude if you are doing so in an attempt to bypass a team's normal process for handling incoming requests.
- Don't be needlessly vague. Instead of saying "we need to chat, can you hop on Zoom?" say "we have a new development in project X, can we chat about it on Zoom?" Instead of saying "I need help," say "I need help learning how to use this API." Instead of "can you look into this?" ask for what you actually need.
- Instead of sending a screenshot of text, send the actual text. It's rude to force the recipient to re-type the text to (for example) search for the error message in their code.
- Don't use leet-speak or other shortcuts. Writing 'u' instead of 'you' makes the recipient feel like you don't respect them.
- Check that instant messages are the right format for what you are trying to do. Sometimes writing a document and sharing it is a better approach.
- Follow the conventions in a channel for using threads. Threads become more important in high-volume channels with lots of concurrent conversations.
- If a channel has a welcome message with instructions, pay attention to them!
It's the fakest sounding attempt to be professional that drives me up a wall.
Basically just pretend you’re emailing.
Another good one is if you have multiple questions to split them from the main body and number them. It makes it easier for people to respond to them partially and specifically, and see they're there at all.
Don't type out "Hi" and hit send, then write out one sentence and hit send. Then have another thought a minute later and hit send. Doing that selfishly occupies my attention for too long.
Don’t email me, I won’t read it (lol seriously fuck email). Don’t call me I won’t answer.
If we need to talk or video, give me at least a days notice.
As an example, I can already see the common advice on not writing "Hi" IMs. Plenty of people at my company complain when people jump right in without these perfunctory messages. Plenty of other people at the same company complain when people do write these messages.
Whatever consensus that forms will be outdated in a few years anyway. The ground constantly shifts.
And don't even get me started on whether to end a sentence with a period!
The small talk helps set a tone that combats extreme terseness’s ambiguity, which all too often stochastically resolves to arrogance, aloofness, or coldness.
“Hey John, I enjoyed the podcast you suggested. Thank you :) Have you listened to the last episode?
“Have you had chance to look at the report I sent last week. I would like to get your feedback.”
Clearly half my company disagrees with you.
Your view is common amongst tech folks. It is the minority view in society in general.
They very certainly do not. In the pre internet days many considered that rude and people still occasionally get upset at me when I do it on IM.
You're not going to get a protocol with more than 80% acceptance.