I agree with what you're saying as far as framing it around "don't say hello": it's really saying "don't just say hello and wait", but that's not as catchy.
If you ignore the literal "no hello" part and focus on the bigger point, it is really about teaching people chat etiquette. I think the "hello" message happens when people think of chat as just a text-based equivalent to a voice call. The trouble is chat is something new: email and forums are fully asynchronous, voice and face-to-face are fully synchronous, but chat is a kind of hybrid. Just as sync vs async demand different styles and etiquette, so does chat.
"Hello, hope today is going well and the family is all good. I was wondering if you can help me with figuring out the data on a report?" is fine, if you really need to include the small talk, but it's perfectly polite to say "hey, do you have some time to help me debug a report?"
In either case you're being clear about what you need and the recipient has some idea what they're getting into.
You know what's awful? A conversation like this, spread over several minutes:
"Hello"
"Hi.."
"How are you today? How is the family?"
"Uh, good. What's up?"
"I am trying to get together a report but the data makes no sense to me, and I don't know what's wrong."
"Oh. Sorry I'm about to join a meeting and have a few more this morning so I won't be available for a few hours"
If you ignore the literal "no hello" part and focus on the bigger point, it is really about teaching people chat etiquette. I think the "hello" message happens when people think of chat as just a text-based equivalent to a voice call. The trouble is chat is something new: email and forums are fully asynchronous, voice and face-to-face are fully synchronous, but chat is a kind of hybrid. Just as sync vs async demand different styles and etiquette, so does chat.
"Hello, hope today is going well and the family is all good. I was wondering if you can help me with figuring out the data on a report?" is fine, if you really need to include the small talk, but it's perfectly polite to say "hey, do you have some time to help me debug a report?"
In either case you're being clear about what you need and the recipient has some idea what they're getting into.
You know what's awful? A conversation like this, spread over several minutes:
"Hello"
"Hi.."
"How are you today? How is the family?"
"Uh, good. What's up?"
"I am trying to get together a report but the data makes no sense to me, and I don't know what's wrong."
"Oh. Sorry I'm about to join a meeting and have a few more this morning so I won't be available for a few hours"
This is what "no hello" seeks to avoid.