Table of contents:
- No Hello π
- Less Messages β©οΈ
- Always* Reply in Thread π¬
- Channels Privacy π
- #general π #random
- Be Generous with Emoji Reactions π
- Add a Profile Photo π§βπ€
No Hello π
Slack is foremost async (as opposed to a phone call or a face to face meeting).
So greeting "Hi!" and waiting for someone to respond before actually asking your question is counterproductive for both of you.
We're definitely not against politeness - just string both parts together, for example: "Hola! Are we compliant with WCAG level A?"
Learn more: https://nohello.net/, https://nohello.club/, https://no-hello.com/...
Less Messages β©οΈ
When writing more than one paragraph, don't send them as separate messages.
Why?
- In a teeming chat, fragmented messages might get scattered around other members' messages, therefore harder to follow
- Someone might not notice you're still typing and ask you a question regarding your first paragraph which you're already about to answer in the second one
- Fragmented messages cause unnecessary notifications (and some of us would rather not mute certain channels)
You can:
- Either press
shift-Enter
to start a new line within the same message - Or better yet, change your preferences so plain
Enter
always starts a new line (and useβ-Enter
(Mac) orctrl-Enter
(Windows) to send)
Always* Reply in Thread π¬
π Replying in a 'main' message triggers a notification for all channel members.
π Replying in a thread triggers a notification only for members who also replied to it.
This not only reduces noise, but also allows for better organized discussions.
(* it's less of an issue in a direct chat with someone)
Channels Privacy π
When creating a new channel:
- If sensitive information will be discussed in it (anything that relates to customers, investors, prospect employees, etc.) - set it to private. If in doubt - set it to private.
- Only if no such information will be discussed (book club, basketball team, lan party, etc.) - it's probably okay to leave it as public.
While we're on this subject: don't discuss sensitive information via WhatsApp.
#general π #random
The #general channel is meant for company-wide announcements (e.g. "There's an electricity maintenance at the office at 19:00", "Next month we're hosting a meetup - save the date!", and so on).
#general is the only channel you cannot leave. Once the company gets big enough, we might restrict who can post to it.
On the other hand, the #random channel is the digital equivalent of a water cooler conversation - meant for casual stuff, non-work related, nerdy humor, etc.
Be Generous with Emoji Reactions π
In 2014 Slack added 'read receipts' (arguably their most requested feature) to their backlog:
Slack@slackhq@hermansje @svencharleer Planning on something like read receipts. π Thank you for the kind words! (And welcome @svencharleer)23:20 PM - 26 Aug 2014
Year after year, they kept postponing it. Until 2018 when they actively decided against it:
Slack@slackhq@godismyjudge95 We decided against adding read receipts, but many people use emoji reactions on messages as a sort of voluntary (and, dare we say, more fun) version of a read receipt. π22:55 PM - 09 Oct 2018
So if you read a message like "Today's all-hands meeting will be held 30 minutes earlier", nobody can tell whether you read it or not, so it's a good citizenship to react with an emoji (π, π, etc.) to signal you actually did.
Add a Profile Photo π§βπ€
Slackβs default avatars are... uninspiring:
An actual photo is great, but any picture can add a personal touch and will help everyone with the #1 general netiquette rule: remember the human.
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