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Pinging Guidelines

A ping is when a person is @-mentioned in a way that they will receive a notification. This gives the @-mentioned person the responsibility to read the message and respond to it. (In most cases -- see guidelines on pinging more than one person and a group of people or the entire team for exceptions.)

In our asynchronous work, messaging and pinging people are very important and become a daily occurrence. Therefore, it's essential to understand how to ping efficiently to get the expected response and avoid unnecessary noise from sending extra pings.

Things to consider before reading these guidelines

When to ping?

A ping is necessary in most cases, but we always have to ask ourselves: Are the ping(s) I'm sending correct and necessary?

Here we list some common cases, but there may be others where it is better to use best judgment:

  • If the message needs a response, asks a question or requests help, then yes, you need to do a ping.
  • If the message is informational, off-topic, or you don't need a response, then you don't need to do a ping.
  • It's possible that you might be in an asynchronous conversation (not Mattermost/Slack) and send messages without a ping, assuming the other person in the active conversation will read and reply. However, this is a mistake, as the person may have a filter in their Gmail and not receive the notification of the message that continues the conversation. It's important to include a ping to notify the person.
  • If you need input from the entire team or from a cell, use a Forum thread in the announcements category. Ping @team or the name of the cell (e.g. @falcon) to send the relevant notification to the group.
  • A private direct message, in Mattermost or Slack is usually considered a ping.
  • Responding to conversations on Mattermost/Slack (synchronously) can lead to many situations that cannot all be described here. You need to use best judgment, and if you really need a reply ASAP, then use a ping.
  • In GitHub/GitLab, if you need to leave many comments in a review, leaving a single ping in a summary comment is enough; you don't need to ping on each review comment.
  • It's nice to ping people when leaving "thank you" or "ack" type messages so they see them, but no response is expected.

Who to ping?

Before sending any message, it's always necessary to take a moment to think: Who is the message intended for?

When sending a message, we can fall into one of these situations:

  1. Ping a single person
  2. Ping more than one person
  3. Ping a group of people or the entire team
  4. Do not ping in the message

Each one can be used well in specific cases; we will give recommendations for each of them:

Ping a single person

This is the most common case of all. You ping the person you want to reply to your message directly. These can be different types of messages:

  • Communicate with your reviewer.
  • Ask direct questions.
  • Inform someone about something.
  • Remind someone of something.

In informational or question-based messages, you should also ask yourself: is it necessary to ping more people? If it's a direct communication, it's not necessary, but if you feel you need to add more pings, you may be in one of the following situations.

Ping more than one person

If it's an informational message or you're not expecting a response, this is the most common case; if there are many people, you can ping a group or the team (on Forum or Mattermost).

If you have a question or are waiting for an answer, ask yourself first: is it necessary to ping multiple people? Sometimes doing so creates unnecessary noise for those who don't need to be mentioned. If you then find it necessary to send multiple pings, you need to carefully consider how to structure your message. Sending multiple pings and waiting for a response can lead to the bystander effect, where everyone assumes someone else will reply (even if there are only two people). The best approach in this case is always to send a primary ping to someone, the person you want to respond or who you think might have the answer, and use CC for subsequent pings. This way, the person you ping as primary is responsible for responding, and you've made it clear to others that they may or may not respond.

Ping a group or the entire team

This is only recommended if your message is informational or you don't expect an answer. Pings like @here or @all of Mattermost are not obligated to be answered. If you need input from the group (e.g. polls), use a Forum thread in the announcements category and use @team or the cell name (e.g. @falcon).

If you need a specific answer, it's better to send specific pings.

One common occurrence is pinging the entire team in search of tasks. This is bad practice, as the probability of a response is very low. In this case, you should read and follow what it says in Dealing with sprints without enough tasks.

Do not ping in the message

It's only correct to use this approach if you're not expecting a response in an asynchronous conversation. Used in general informational messages or Off-topic messages.

What to do when you receive a ping?

The response to a ping is straightforward and obvious: "Reply." We must respect the expectation of responding to pings within the response times and always provide a reply. There can be various reasons why a ping might not be answered, but they all have a solution:

  • Busy with other things: At the end of the day you can check your pending pings and comment that today you haven't had time to respond and you will do it the next day.
  • The answer is very long or it takes time to put it together: Answer that you need time to think about your answer and you will do it the next day or later in the day.
  • There are many people pinged and you don't have an answer: Say you don't know the answer and ping someone you think might.
  • It's an informational message: An emoji or an Ack! is enough, but a text or reaction indicating that the message has been read is always necessary.

What to do if you don't receive a response

If a ping message has not been answered within the response times, it is recommended to follow these steps:

  • Check the calendar to see if the person is off. That's a valid reason for not responding to messages.
    • You can wait for the person to return.
    • Or, you can ping someone else who can answer your question/message.
  • If the person is not off, don't hesitate to send another message with a direct ping, making a friendly reminder.
  • If the ping is not answered within the established timeframe a second time, you should contact the person directly through Mattermost.
  • If there is still no response, that's something out of the ordinary; you should ping Xavier for help in this case.