Ask HN: Neutral Emoji for Acknowledgement

1 points by jcartw 7 hours ago

What have you found to be a neutral emoji to acknowledge a comment or feedback from a coworker? Is it the thumbs up or a green checkbox for example? Could also be text responses (e.g. OK). Seems like thumbs up can sometimes be interpreted as passive aggressive.

pavel_lishin 7 hours ago

At work, we have an "ACK" emoji we sometimes use in Slack.

In general, though, I prefer an actual text response - I won't see, or be notified, of an emoji reaction unless I go and look for it.

  • jcartw 7 hours ago

    Do you have any type of text responses that you feel are ambiguous in terms of if there's any meaning behind them other than an ACK?

    • pavel_lishin 6 hours ago

      I'm not sure if you mean; sometimes people will write a response that makes me wonder if they understood what I meant, but then I'll ask to clarify.

      And sometimes "ok" can be ambiguous, too, I guess - depending on contxt.

JohnFen 5 hours ago

In my social and professional circles, this is done either with a thumbs-up emoji or the text "OK".

It never occurred to me that a thumbs-up could be considered passive-aggressive (I still don't see how), but that seems like the sort of thing that is dependent on the exact social circle involved. You do have to conform to the communication norms of whatever group you're communicating with.

  • jcartw 5 hours ago

    > You do have to conform to the communication norms of whatever group you're communicating with.

    That's an excellent point. It does make sense to observe the way certain common forms of acknowledgement are being used within different context to understand the way that the group interprets them.

    A thumbs-up can be used in a dismissive way at times. As one example, see the Giant Thumb Guy meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/giant-thumb-guy.