!dev
What kind of idiot sends a random stranger “hello” on Instagram! What the fuck am I supposed to do with “hello”? Can’t you lead the message with your reason for messaging me? What the fuck are expecting me to reply with exactly? Are you fucking crazy?

Hi can we call?

I have something urgent, got a minute?

They all want the same and only one thing. They want to see your source code. Men..

On telegram rando "hellos" just mean some spam bullshit. I won't private chat with ppl I don't know. So I response "poes" and report for spam.

Why you gotta expose me like that?

It’s worse when managers say “got a minute” bc I’m always like OH NO FIRED

It is hard for me to expect an average Instagram user having any common sense and an attention span needed for further conversation. It might be just a desparate advertiser resorting to look "sentient".

hello

@Nanos if you wanna make friends, you don’t say “hello”, you write a proper message. Not “hello”.

Hi

just send back one of these

https://nohello.net/

@Nanos It's very much culture dependent, but for a lot of people just sending them "hello" is a waste of their time and shows you don't have anything interesting to say or think those conversations work the same way as IRL where you can ping pong off some hello/hi/hey/...

And with the prevalence of spammers (some who use WhatsApp, IG and the like to message potential victims) and the fact most spammers are based in India (where the empty "hello" is a common online convo starter), some people who either ignore or even block a stranger doing that.

@qwwerty Yeah or have that as your status depending on the platform/app used.

@Nanos I can see that happening if you keep going on and on from the start without enabling them to interact.

Doing that online will at least give the other person something to work with (such as what solution, opinion they can give you or what actions they need to take, ...).
Just saying hello online has the same empty energy as "Can I ask [you] a question?" from people who can't be arsed getting to the point or think that starting with an empty message will help them and others.

@Nanos IME, greeting then asking the question(s) or giving the bottom line/TL;DR next (which could be an info or an actionable item for others) then, _if needed_, some context or additional info (like solutions tried, constraints or any details with *bold*/_italic_ element to emphasis key things), in *one message* (some people I know always say the greeting then the rest in another message), tends to be the best way for written/online communications.

I usually prefer when someone is straight to the point but I'll take a 200 word message over a "Hello", as I can at least see what I can say or need to do (whilst the "Hello" will be read and I'll just wait for the person to say what they wanted to say).

@Nanos I've not seen those systems being used nowadays (although experienced something similar with a two faced person on FB who blocked me when I was typing) and most character limited communication tools have the character count, so that UX aspect isn't an issue from what I've seen.

I know some people who prefer essays over concise/straight-to-the-point messages and some who would favour splitting a big message into several ones (although I find it annoying when I get like 5 messages in one go from someone which could have been sent in one) so it might be the same in your case.