How the hell is "Oof, we're so sorry about this." remotely similar to "uwu we'we sowwy dis isn't wewking anymowe.. pwease don't be angwy wiff us"

I get it, some forms of communication aren't your bag. But I think it's at least reasonable to focus on a company's intent even if the verbiage isn't what you'd prefer. FWIW I'm quite older than a millennial, but I didn't find anything infantilizing about Notion's response - I'd much prefer a genuine expression of regret, which is what this FAQ appeared to be, than some nonsense corporate-speak.

The word "oof" affects a casual, breezy tone that is inappropriate in a professional response to a customer concern.

Yes that's casual. But how it that inappropriate? It's not a legal document.

Or it’s a genuine expression of embarrassment and anyone who would be bothered by that is an asshole. It’s three letters. Who cares?

it's insulting because it is attempting to minimize the customer's stake in the problem by appearing to be concerned and empathetic.

if they were concerned or empathetic, the issue would not have lasted as long as it has.

in short, it's disingenuous and it's an attempt to minimize the customer's concerns.

Do you have special crystal ball that lets you peer into another company’s dev processes? If not, who are you to claim people have no empathy? That’s not only a really dark view of humans but it ignores the possibility that they cannot fix it right now.

God people, have a touch of respect for our colleagues.

Probably Notion should not have put them into this situation in the first place? Maybe they should have been more clear on the issue they’re having so nobody has to make a guess? Shortly explain the details of the issue they’re having and give some timelines? Like mature companies do? It would be good enough for me if I were their customer but oof, who am I to suggest.

I have respect for my colleagues at other companies.

They lose it when they talk down to me. "oof, sorry about that, but this is not important enough for us to fix right now" is not how you keep my respect, when the functionality has been broken for months.

In my experience, it's mostly the Millienial developer who writes error messages like these and the Gen X that takes offence (probably because this reminds them of their condescending Boomer parents ;))

gee wiz

I laughed. thank you.

Interesting. To me, its a strong signal that the person on the other end is not an offshored, overworked drone but someone who is treated well by the company and cares enough to express empathy.

Don't try to be funny in your docs. If you want to convey information, make it clean, precise, and to the point. Do not assume and do not distract.

Please.

P.S. Jokes are not totally forbidden, but they should be more subtle and not so intrusive as "You are asking me a question, but here I'll give you a performance instead of an answer".

Yes, the word ‘oof’ denotes a performance. The etymology dates back to early vaudeville days when Barker Malarkey used it to start the Famous Malarkey Family’s drag show…

Except that’s not true. That whole paragraph is a load of malarkey.

It’s a word. You don’t know the person involved and you’re making more awful assumptions based upon three letters.

Now, reverse it backward. Not only I don't know them, but neither they know me. Can you see the issue now?

There is such a thing as technical writing style and it is about the relevance of information pieces and the relations between them.

it's not empathetic, it's an attempt to disarm and minimize, and it's insulting.

There is no person on the other end. There is a program, so definitely a drone, maybe wrote by offshored developers maybe not, definitely overworked or they'll have the time to fix the bug or implement the feature instead of replacing it with a message.

A person doing the export manually would be OK as a workaround and instead all they have is that message. That's not OK.

Consider the platform demographic before responding this way. It can be an advantage and a disadvantage.