How we use Slack
- Threads: Use threads to group communication for topics.
- Tagging: Liberally @ the person you’re responding to / want the attention of to ensure notifications are sent
- Reactions: If somebody has directed communication your way and you don’t need to respond, "react" with an emoji as follows (you may need to enable in Preferences > Show once-click reactions):
to confirm you’ve seen the message.
- Completed or Fixed
Agreed
- Notifications: Keep Slack notifications on, but they can be paused during intense coding/work sessions so as to not become distracted
- Group thoughts in the same message. Don’t send three back-to-back messages, send one message comprised of three sentences, with line breaks. If you think of something to add to your message immediately after sending it, edit the message
- Use Slack’s text formatting and emojis
- Bullet points, italic, line breaks, code blocks,
backticks - inserting a link into a word or phrase (select the word and CRTL/CMD+SHIFT U) instead of pasting the whole URL.
- DMs: the default for communication to happen should be in public channels, not DMs. This allows for passive info transfer and good team comms. This is the case even if it’s just relevant for one person: best to put it the relevant channel/thread, then tag that person directly.
- DMs are still encouraged for
- friendly chat & jokes
- more sensitive messages (e.g. personal constructive feedback).