Member-only story
Stop saying hello!
I discovered a fun website the other day, nohello.net, which offers some contrarian netiquette.
When you’re DM-ing or messaging someone, stop saying hello, hola, heya or Dia Dhuit (that’s Irish for hello).
Excessive politeness is the equivalent of answering a ringing phone, greeting the caller, and putting them on hold.
It’s maddeningly frustrating.
I’m on board with the contrarian piece of netiquette for two reasons.
Reason 1: It rings alarm bells
I get messages from scammers via X, email, my DMs, and comments almost every day.
They use maddingly polite openers like “Hello dear” alongside AI-brushed profile pics of their sun-drenched avatars lounging at the beach.
I engaged with a few of them for kicks. After about twenty minutes, they were making promises about crypto coins with billion-dollar tech and asking for my funds asap.
People I know and trust? They get to the point.
“Beers later?”
or
“Can you pick up the kids at 2?“
Reason 2: It’s throat-clearing
When I was a freelance writer years ago, an editor took one of my articles and slashed out 20% with his red pen.
