5 ms·

I keep asking people to switch to PTT but nobody likes it, so I keep hearing their keyboard and shirt noises :(

wlll 6y ago
A better microphone would fix that, and has the added advantage that when you Do P to T your audio quality isn't crap for the duration you're saying stuff. I use a Blue Snowball, it's great, there may be better alternatives. PTT (in my experience) has some significant disadvantages in terms of interactivity. You can't have a real spontaneous conversation, and you can't hear people laugh.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  Huh, why not? I just push the button whenever I do something that I want people to hear, including laughing.
  - wlll 6y ago
    Because it's weird. I've done it, pressing a button to laugh feels really strange and fake. You can solve the issue with a decent quality mic (which you should have when you're using PTT anyway) and by using headphones, so there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to having PTT on permanently.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      If people don't want the zero-cost solution of PTT, they definitely won't buy a $100 mic.
      - wlll 6y ago
        It's more a $60 mic. Most of the time people just don't know their audio is a problem, and all of the times I've pointed it out it's got fixed. PTT isn't 0 cost if you take into account the reduction in fluidity of a conversation. If I didn't have my mic already I would consider it a reasonable price to pay to get good audio quality, especially since you still need good audio quality when you're actually talking.
    - GekkePrutser 6y ago
      It's only weird when you're not used to it. I keep on mute most of the time and it's automatic.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- NoPicklez 6y ago
  I think you can allow people to choose to use PTT or not. However if someone doesn't use PTT the user needs to be aware of their mic sensitivity to ensure that background noises are not impacting the call. Examples of this are dogs barking or power tools being used nearby and even breathing into the mic.
  - hobs 6y ago
    I dont think you can choose to do this actually, otherwise you get the tragedy of the commons - those who dont care make loud mouth noises, chewing, and constantly talking to people in the background. Those who are polite with their communication are drowned out by those who are not. It really doesnt suffer interactivity problems, mouse 4 exists on most non-shitty mice.
    - wlll 6y ago
      I run a couple of programming groups currently over zoom. Usually between 5 and 15 people. I will tell people to get headphones or fix their audio issues (breathing/mouth noises) and I will mute them if they don't make progress on these issues. Perhaps it helps that most of these people I consider to be friends, but earlier today I did switch the CTO of a company from Slack to Zoom citing the quality of his audio. I've found that most people seem to fix things themselves after being told a relatively small number of times.
  - wlll 6y ago
    yeah, Zoom has PTT of a sort, you can mute and unmute yourself as you wish (and I will mute myself when I know I'm not going to be taking part in a call for a long period). That said, you still need a decent mic if you're using PTT, dealing with someone's crap audio when they do P to T is still a bad experience.
- NoPicklez 6y ago
  The problem with not having PTT is that in large calls, a small noise from potentially tens of individual people becomes a larger overall interruption in the call. Its a blunt stick when you cannot trust people to keep quiet or appropriately position their mic when they aren't talking. Atleast you only need to deal with their mic quality when they're talking, which at that point you can directly ask the person to fix it if need be.
- yellowapple 6y ago
  > A better microphone would fix that The Model M sitting on my desk would laugh in that better microphone's general direction.
  - wlll 6y ago
    My Blue Snowball cackles at your Model M in the "it was free" dialect of Internet put-downs ;)
  - tomjen3 6y ago
    There are microphones with cardiod pickup patterns that would probably not pick up the model m, if it was placed behind the mic.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
I sooo wish Teams had PTT. As a ham I'm totally comfortable with it. I suppose I should just rig up my own mike to do it in hardware
- probably_wrong 6y ago
  Microsoft has a website for you to vote for desired features. PTT [1] is right now in backlog behind (among others) multiple organizers, Outlook integration, spell check, live voting, hashtag support, more emoji reactions, multiple Teams accounts, link shortener, compact mode, and, following Zawinski's law, e-mail reader. So it may take a while. But you can vote for it if you want to increase its chances. [1] https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/18837436-allow-users-to-enable-push-to-talk-in-group-meetin https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/su...
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Oh yes I know about uservoice and I have direct contact with MS also because I work with O365 :) I think PTT is already there in some usecases but only when you're talking to people with galaxy phones (walkie talkie mode). https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/walkie-talkie https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/walkie-talki... As far as I've heard there's no plans for push to talk in regular meetings for now.
m463 6y ago
Maybe they have configured all 104 keys as the push to talk key.

wlll 6y ago

A better microphone would fix that, and has the added advantage that when you Do P to T your audio quality isn't crap for the duration you're saying stuff. I use a Blue Snowball, it's great, there may be better alternatives. PTT (in my experience) has some significant disadvantages in terms of interactivity. You can't have a real spontaneous conversation, and you can't hear people laugh.

StavrosK 6y ago
Huh, why not? I just push the button whenever I do something that I want people to hear, including laughing.
- wlll 6y ago
  Because it's weird. I've done it, pressing a button to laugh feels really strange and fake. You can solve the issue with a decent quality mic (which you should have when you're using PTT anyway) and by using headphones, so there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to having PTT on permanently.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    If people don't want the zero-cost solution of PTT, they definitely won't buy a $100 mic.
    - wlll 6y ago
      It's more a $60 mic. Most of the time people just don't know their audio is a problem, and all of the times I've pointed it out it's got fixed. PTT isn't 0 cost if you take into account the reduction in fluidity of a conversation. If I didn't have my mic already I would consider it a reasonable price to pay to get good audio quality, especially since you still need good audio quality when you're actually talking.
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    It's only weird when you're not used to it. I keep on mute most of the time and it's automatic.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
NoPicklez 6y ago
I think you can allow people to choose to use PTT or not. However if someone doesn't use PTT the user needs to be aware of their mic sensitivity to ensure that background noises are not impacting the call. Examples of this are dogs barking or power tools being used nearby and even breathing into the mic.
- hobs 6y ago
  I dont think you can choose to do this actually, otherwise you get the tragedy of the commons - those who dont care make loud mouth noises, chewing, and constantly talking to people in the background. Those who are polite with their communication are drowned out by those who are not. It really doesnt suffer interactivity problems, mouse 4 exists on most non-shitty mice.
  - wlll 6y ago
    I run a couple of programming groups currently over zoom. Usually between 5 and 15 people. I will tell people to get headphones or fix their audio issues (breathing/mouth noises) and I will mute them if they don't make progress on these issues. Perhaps it helps that most of these people I consider to be friends, but earlier today I did switch the CTO of a company from Slack to Zoom citing the quality of his audio. I've found that most people seem to fix things themselves after being told a relatively small number of times.
- wlll 6y ago
  yeah, Zoom has PTT of a sort, you can mute and unmute yourself as you wish (and I will mute myself when I know I'm not going to be taking part in a call for a long period). That said, you still need a decent mic if you're using PTT, dealing with someone's crap audio when they do P to T is still a bad experience.
NoPicklez 6y ago
The problem with not having PTT is that in large calls, a small noise from potentially tens of individual people becomes a larger overall interruption in the call. Its a blunt stick when you cannot trust people to keep quiet or appropriately position their mic when they aren't talking. Atleast you only need to deal with their mic quality when they're talking, which at that point you can directly ask the person to fix it if need be.
yellowapple 6y ago
> A better microphone would fix that The Model M sitting on my desk would laugh in that better microphone's general direction.
- wlll 6y ago
  My Blue Snowball cackles at your Model M in the "it was free" dialect of Internet put-downs ;)
- tomjen3 6y ago
  There are microphones with cardiod pickup patterns that would probably not pick up the model m, if it was placed behind the mic.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

I sooo wish Teams had PTT. As a ham I'm totally comfortable with it. I suppose I should just rig up my own mike to do it in hardware

probably_wrong 6y ago
Microsoft has a website for you to vote for desired features. PTT [1] is right now in backlog behind (among others) multiple organizers, Outlook integration, spell check, live voting, hashtag support, more emoji reactions, multiple Teams accounts, link shortener, compact mode, and, following Zawinski's law, e-mail reader. So it may take a while. But you can vote for it if you want to increase its chances. [1] https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/18837436-allow-users-to-enable-push-to-talk-in-group-meetin https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/su...
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Oh yes I know about uservoice and I have direct contact with MS also because I work with O365 :) I think PTT is already there in some usecases but only when you're talking to people with galaxy phones (walkie talkie mode). https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/walkie-talkie https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/walkie-talki... As far as I've heard there's no plans for push to talk in regular meetings for now.

m463 6y ago

Maybe they have configured all 104 keys as the push to talk key.