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> Default to public channels for better workplace communication I have tried so hard to get people to do this, but it seems like a lot of my coworkers are hone

> Default to public channels for better workplace communication I have tried so hard to get people to do this, but it seems like a lot of my coworkers are honestly scared of "public" channels, and by "public" I mean a channel with only 15 or so people on it. They insist on DM'ing most things, and some just refuse to use chat at all; those will only communicate via email.

gbjw 5y ago
Sending a message in a public channel is psychologically akin to walking into a room full of people and just loudly proclaiming/demanding help. I don't think people are simply 'scared' to do it -- they just (rightly) intuit that it's somewhat strange and counterintuitive that it would be the preferred method over talking to an individual and building a rapport / friendship.
- ge96 5y ago
  Also if you sound dumb it's out there for the public to see.
  - onion2k 5y ago
    It's the job of everyone on the team, especially leads, to reply in ways that make sure everyone knows asking a dumb question is significantly better than being blocked. I would prefer to answer dumb questions all day long than have people on my team grind to a halt for a day because they're scared of asking for help.
    - ge96 5y ago
      Yeah that is a good point, it's bad when you dump hours into something that could be figured out in a couple of minutes.
    - bhawks 5y ago
      But they're not blocked and they are asking for help. They're just doing it via DM instead of in the 'public' chat. Slack is literally telling folks: 'You are holding it wrong'. In reality their product isn't that great for q&a or knowledge sharing. Horrible search, bad notification, high noise to low signal.
      - verve_rat 5y ago
        They are blocked when the one person they DM'd ignores the message because they are busy with other stuff.
        watwut 5y ago
        Then they can ask someone else. Or move to public thread. But quite often, they are not blocked and the person they are asking responds. And quite often, you get better and faster response when you ask a person instead of forum.
  - indigodaddy 5y ago
    I got past worrying about sounding dumb a long time ago. It’s the #1 thing that people need to get over imo
- onion2k 5y ago
  Sending a message in a public channel is psychologically akin to walking into a room full of people and just loudly proclaiming/demanding help. Only if that room enables people to only hear shouts that include their name, where they can pause hearing shouts, where it's acceptable to ignore shouts if you're busy, and where there's someone recording the shouts in case someone has a similar problem later. In fact, in almost all the ways that matter it's entirely different to shouting in a room.
lnxg33k1 5y ago
I was dreaming of a world where slack doesn’t exist and we use only mailing lists ;0
forbiddenvoid 5y ago
"Scared of public channels" often means "doesn't have the psychological safety to say something out loud that might end up being perceived negatively or as though they don't know what they're doing."
- gbjw 5y ago
  Sure -- or people don't want to clog up channels with what they perceive to be minutiae or very context-specific questions requiring some back-and-forth.
  - watwut 5y ago
    For which, I am thankful to them. Nothing better then dozens of irrelevant chat messages in larger group chats I am member of that I cant mute, because once in a while there is something important.
    - tomp 5y ago
      You should use threads for that.
    - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
      I mute them anyway because I won’t see the important message among all the chit-chat notifications, so I cut the middleman.
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    Which is fair, as long as it's concrete, the addressee is actually available and on the clock, and the question can only be answered by that person. I'm active on a programming language Slack space, what sometimes happens is that people are DMed directly with a generic / open question that dozens of others could also answer.
- manmal 5y ago
  I personally don’t have a problem with posting in public, but I can imagine that for many people it would remind them of being singled out in a school class.

gbjw 5y ago

Sending a message in a public channel is psychologically akin to walking into a room full of people and just loudly proclaiming/demanding help. I don't think people are simply 'scared' to do it -- they just (rightly) intuit that it's somewhat strange and counterintuitive that it would be the preferred method over talking to an individual and building a rapport / friendship.

ge96 5y ago
Also if you sound dumb it's out there for the public to see.
- onion2k 5y ago
  It's the job of everyone on the team, especially leads, to reply in ways that make sure everyone knows asking a dumb question is significantly better than being blocked. I would prefer to answer dumb questions all day long than have people on my team grind to a halt for a day because they're scared of asking for help.
  - ge96 5y ago
    Yeah that is a good point, it's bad when you dump hours into something that could be figured out in a couple of minutes.
  - bhawks 5y ago
    But they're not blocked and they are asking for help. They're just doing it via DM instead of in the 'public' chat. Slack is literally telling folks: 'You are holding it wrong'. In reality their product isn't that great for q&a or knowledge sharing. Horrible search, bad notification, high noise to low signal.
    - verve_rat 5y ago
      They are blocked when the one person they DM'd ignores the message because they are busy with other stuff.
      - watwut 5y ago
        Then they can ask someone else. Or move to public thread. But quite often, they are not blocked and the person they are asking responds. And quite often, you get better and faster response when you ask a person instead of forum.
- indigodaddy 5y ago
  I got past worrying about sounding dumb a long time ago. It’s the #1 thing that people need to get over imo
onion2k 5y ago
Sending a message in a public channel is psychologically akin to walking into a room full of people and just loudly proclaiming/demanding help. Only if that room enables people to only hear shouts that include their name, where they can pause hearing shouts, where it's acceptable to ignore shouts if you're busy, and where there's someone recording the shouts in case someone has a similar problem later. In fact, in almost all the ways that matter it's entirely different to shouting in a room.

lnxg33k1 5y ago

I was dreaming of a world where slack doesn’t exist and we use only mailing lists ;0

forbiddenvoid 5y ago

"Scared of public channels" often means "doesn't have the psychological safety to say something out loud that might end up being perceived negatively or as though they don't know what they're doing."

gbjw 5y ago
Sure -- or people don't want to clog up channels with what they perceive to be minutiae or very context-specific questions requiring some back-and-forth.
- watwut 5y ago
  For which, I am thankful to them. Nothing better then dozens of irrelevant chat messages in larger group chats I am member of that I cant mute, because once in a while there is something important.
  - tomp 5y ago
    You should use threads for that.
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    I mute them anyway because I won’t see the important message among all the chit-chat notifications, so I cut the middleman.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  Which is fair, as long as it's concrete, the addressee is actually available and on the clock, and the question can only be answered by that person. I'm active on a programming language Slack space, what sometimes happens is that people are DMed directly with a generic / open question that dozens of others could also answer.
manmal 5y ago
I personally don’t have a problem with posting in public, but I can imagine that for many people it would remind them of being singled out in a school class.