On: No hello – please don't just say hello in chat

[lamontcg]

There's also vaguebugging that usually goes along with this, and which gets used in public channels:

"Hey team, is anyone seeing a problem with <product>?"

(well, I have a bugtracker with around 300-400 issues in it, so yes... what is your specific problem?)

That is counter productive because I get this mental image of you with a fishing rod with bait on the hook waiting for me to bite, and my natural reaction is to not bother respond to you. If you'd just post what you're doing and what the error message is, I'd be way more likely to point you in the right direction if I know what the issue is.

EDIT: oh there we go its the other related post today on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30639225

[unfocussed_mike → lamontcg]

This, for what it's worth, is much more annoying to me than a bit of conversational flow.

"Vaguebugging" is such a useful word that it is now noted for future use.

[sshine → unfocussed_mike]

I like this term, too, but I don't understand why apparently it has negative connotations.

If someone doesn't have a clue, and they don't want to stand up and announce it, how do you suggest they go about it?

At least in a public channel, no one person is committed to answer, and the most patient / the person who knows the least what vaguebugging means, can answer.

[lamontcg → sshine]

they can just post what it is they or the customer are trying to do and the misbehavior they're seeing or the error message.

"is there an issue with the latest release?"

vs.

"i've got a customer that just upgraded from version A.B.C to X.Y.Z and the <specific feature> configured in <specific way> trying to do <specific thing> is failing with <specific error message>, could this be a regression or did something change deliberately?"