Ask the channel, not the person.

Before you DM someone a question, picture the next five people who will wonder the exact same thing — and won't have you sitting in their inbox to ask.

A direct message answers one person, once. A message in a channel answers everyone who's in it now, and everyone who joins later and searches. Same question, same effort to type it — a completely different amount of value out the other end.

you → Priya

"Hey, quick one — does the staging deploy pick up env vars automatically or do I need to restart it?"

Answered once. Gone by Friday. Three other people ask Priya the same thing next month.

#deploys

you

"Does the staging deploy pick up env vars automatically, or does it need a restart?"

Answered once. Findable forever. The next person searches instead of asking.

The DM isn't just a worse version of the channel post — it's a tax. It puts the whole cost of your question on one person's attention, and it puts the whole cost of the answer's disappearance on everyone who needed it later. A channel spreads both costs out: someone who isn't Priya can answer, and someone who isn't you can find it.

Next time you're about to open a DM, run through this:

Is there a channel where this question already belongs?
Would anyone else ever wonder the same thing?
Would the answer still be useful in a month?

If you answered yes to any of those, it's a channel message wearing a DM's clothing. Post it there instead, @-mention the person if you need their eyes on it fast, and let the thread do the rest.

DMs still have a job. Use them for:

Anything personal, sensitive, or about a specific person
Feedback that would embarrass someone in public
Scheduling, logistics, "are you free at 3?"
Genuinely one-off, never-relevant-again chatter

in the spirit of nohello.com