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I agree with this and also nohello.com (as linked in the article).

I want to add a third one: ask your question in a channel if possible, not as a direct message to someone. DM'ing someone directly puts a lot of unfair pressure on that person, and also denies other people from both helping and learning. I think some people are embarrassed to ask for help in channels, and that's an embarrassment well worth getting over.

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I love asking for help in channels because I feel like it socializes the answer and process for finding it much better than a DM does. It also helps build trust within the team because someone can see a “stupid” question get asked and then answered and then also feel comfortable asking questions like that.

That being said, I have worked for some shitty bosses who have told me not to post questions and information in channels directly because they want them “vetted” first. I’ll never work for someone like that ever again.

At my office everyone does the hello ritual. It's so ingrained if there's more than about 10 mins between responses, people will start the hello ritual again. I once asked someone I thought was becoming a friend if we could skip the hello ritual since we're good friends. They were extremely offended. I gave up and just perform the ritual.

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