Optimising for communication efficiency, to a fault
We recently had one of our customers and community members post the following:
The good thing i like here about the @team is how quick and responsive you guys are and the community to new ideas and suggestions. In 21 Hrs this small issue which is not a critical bug, but could improve user experience got resolved. So much respect for your efforts guys here. Claps hands
The other point could be a complaint. Whenever report something here, I feel like I’ve done something wrong. I feel the feedback i provide is either unimportant or a burden. I used to browse and contribute to Discourse community everyday. Now only when a problem pops up. Who knows what next.
We users/admin of Communities using Discourse, support you. We shall send you feedback and discuss even the tiniest details. That is what a community about, but from your side, try to make it friendly and welcoming. You can get much more from the community here, only if you show them the way.
Thank you for your time.
This is great feedback, and I always take observations like these to heart.
We should always aspire to be soft spoken, as long as — and this might sound harsh — it doesn’t waste any one’s time. I am writing this post not in an attempt to excuse our behavior. Rather, I will merely attempt to explain it.
As software developers — and, quick digression, I do consider myself part of that inner circle; I may not be a programmer, but I know that with every observation I report, or opinion I argue, I have a direct influence on the application I was hired to steward, which is why I love my job. So, as software developers, we always try to optimise, sometimes to a fault. I like to think I’m quite soft spoken, but I have my lapses in proper etiquette just like everyone else.
We are analytical people, and scrutinise the use of time every day. The software developer lives and dies by the adage of “Time well spent”. It’s a recurring characteristic of our peers: We obsess over ways to conserve time. It is through our own brand of lazy that we find the motivation to make the things we make.
Discourse is made to make communication fun and effortless, but it also tries very hard not to waste your time.
Within the team there is a strong understanding that honest critique is encouraged. I firmly believe that highly critical people make the best software. Always being critical of the status quo is key. We are making an opinionated communication platform together, at a fairly blistering rate — 3 major releases this year! The wheels keep rolling, and sometimes making a choice is more important than making the right choice. If a Close Enough consensus can’t be reached within a reasonable span of time, we’d rather end a discussion promptly and revive it later, as opposed to exploring every corner case hoping to come upon an unassailable argument for or against something. Knowing nothing is personal, we cut to the chase. This is the norm in our day-to-day dialogue, and we’re better communicators for it.
We feel so at home on Meta that we tend to speak in the same manner there as we do when addressing one another. We probably shouldn’t do that. And I am in no way implying that we need to “dumb down” our style of discourse. I certainly wouldn’t say Feynman was “dumbing down physics”. He just opted out of the language of his peers, and instead adopted the language of a wider audience.
And that is what we too, as the self-proclaimed connoisseurs of online communication that we are, could always strive to get better at. In fact, Discourse is built to empower this type of self-improvement. The next time I come off as cross, please:
1. Flag my post
2. Tell me how my behaviour is being disruptive
I promise you it won’t fall on deaf ears.
Originally published at blog.erlend.sh on February 15, 2016.
