Halcove:About

Welcome to Halcove! If you're looking for chat, assistance, queries, or something else, this is where you can find me.

Instead of having to look up information, you can also feel free to chat with me. However, I do uphold a set of standards and expectations based upon mutual respect, which will be listed below. Please also click the subheadings under each new line for further information, when applicable.

Yes, this is a manual for how you should approach me. This exists in order to prevent issues from occurring, since these expectations are applied to everyone, be it a peer or a police officer.

No, I am not memeing. You should be able to see that all I ask in each of these sections ensures equity and respect during the interactions we might have.

Yes, I encourage you to program a LLM chatbot that completely mimics my personality just with this information alone.

Summary

Speaking of chatbots... I asked ChatGPT to summarise this page in a few bulletpoints. If you can't be assed to read the whole page, at least read this...

Directness: The author emphasizes clear and concise communication, discouraging unnecessary pleasantries and filler.

Assertiveness: They set firm boundaries and are upfront about their expectations in interactions.

Logical and Analytical: The writer values reasoned arguments and evidence-based discussions over emotional appeals.

Self-awareness: They acknowledge their own tendencies and biases, and expect the same self-awareness from others.

Equity and Fairness: The author strives for fairness, treating others based on their actions and demeanor.

No-nonsense attitude: They prefer efficiency and straightforwardness, avoiding what they consider to be pointless social niceties.

Defensive: There's a protective element, as they use this guide to prevent misunderstandings and confrontations.

Intolerance for Assumptions and Disrespect: They have a low tolerance for assumptions and disrespect, expecting others to communicate directly and respectfully.

Reflective: The writer mirrors the behavior of others, responding to aggression with aggression and politeness with politeness.

Overall, the personality comes across as someone who values efficiency, directness, and respect in interactions, with little patience for ambiguity or rudeness, with no guarantee of respect if these values are violated.

If you're looking for help...

Limit pointless filler.

Time is valuable. You can be polite while being upfront about your message intent while you're waiting on a response, rather than expecting someone to respond to a random "hi".

If it's a simple message like "hello" from an account I'm not familiar with, why would I respond if I don't even know that you're not a random bot?

There are also a few assholes who habitually segue a greeting into a personal request, so don't be one of them. It's no different from those coworkers who only appear on your phone when they need a shift taken. It is very shitty to lure someone into a conversation that only ever was meant to be a personal sidequest, especially when making a request during live communication can be seen as pressuring someone into a response. Be upfront about what you want.

Don't "ask to ask".

Asking if it's "okay to ask" is already asking a question. If you think asking a question is bothersome, why are you doing it twice?

Eliminating this pointless fluff of "politeness" allows the question to be answered as soon as it's read, instead of making someone potentially prepare for an entire conversation that they may not be ready for. Allow people to efficiently interpret your question so they can efficiently answer them.

There is also no indication of urgency in "hey, can I ask you something?", so why uphold an expectation of an immediate response? Please be upfront in your message intent in your original message.

Ask about your problem, not your solution.

This is otherwise known as "the X/Y problem". Say you want to change the Facebook app theme color. You then read online, "sending this special command to your phone via your PC can force the Facebook theme to change to dark".

Instead of asking how to change Facebook's theme, you then ask me "How can I send commands to my phone from my PC?".

Instead of addressing the issue you wanted, you're trying to get help with something that may not be relevant to your end-goal at all. I could have told you to simply click a button in the Facebook app itself to achieve the same task. Less time is wasted for both parties when you ask for what you actually want.

Since there's now an entire secret boss to the question you actually asked, it's probably gonna be hard for me to stay involved with your issue once I find out there's more to the question than what you asked...

If you're looking to chat...

Avoid assumptions

Assumptions have the funny effect of loudly showcasing your subconscious conclusions. In that, things you may have never asked about may be incorrectly "true" or "false" in your personal headcanon. Your subconscious is highly influenced by internal biases. In making an assumption, instead of asking for clarification, it can be highly insulting as you are taking certain aspects of a person as a given.

If you engage in this behaviour, I'm likely to reflect it. I do hold many internal biases, but I try to actively contain them. If I notice that you either failed to contain yours, or otherwise felt that your assumption is "such an obvious conclusion from the information you had", I will reflect this behaviour and intentionally fail to contain my own biases. If it wasn't an issue for you to do so, it shouldn't be an issue for me to do so as well. I will also track this failure to properly research / ascertain information, so I may lose trust in what you say and lower credence to your statements.

• Assuming the worst about a person because you were too egotistical to ask questions is the absolute number one way to end up on my bad side. Learn to ask questions, otherwise I will treat you like the asshole you are exposing yourself to be. There are no exceptions to this, and I will not change my attitude on this.

"What applies to you applies to me."

You're told from a young age to treat people the way you want to be treated.

If I am being direct, transactional, sarcastic, friendly, quiet, or anything else: I intend to get the same out of you. Please either try to match my demeanor, and otherwise let me know if my behaviour makes you uncomfortable or just seems out of place. In almost all cases, I'm also trying to match whatever demeanor you brought to the table.

General Communication

"?"

This is a question mark. It is used to signify that the sentence preceding it is an inquiry. What is shown above is a question mark, without any words before it.

Don't do this.

There are two cases where a "?" message exists:

• when the writer doesn't want to explicitly ask a question, and intentionally tries to make the recipient guess why the writer is confused
• when the writer is lazy, forcing the recipient to guess which of the many things the writer could be confused about.

Don't be lazy, and don't be an asshole. If you're confused about something, ask for clarification for what you are confused about. If you send a message that's only a question mark, I am going to assume it is an error, and ignore the message until a question is asked. It's disrespectful to force someone in this scenario, and I refuse to participate in this childish game.

Ask for what you want...

Conflict Resolution

Have you ever felt like you needed to carefully navigate how you interact with me in order to avoid backlash? Sorry, I never advertised myself as being a "chill" person to hang out with, especially given that I probably will avoid your presence as much as possible...

If you're a person who often tries to dictate and control the discussion, you'll run into issues. If you do want to talk to me, remember to think about what you say before you say it. Microaggressions and unfair prejudice towards me will be remembered and met with equal flippancy.

Otherwise, I actively take care not to show disrespect towards you as long as I was not given disrespect to begin with.

If you know how to decent without needing to be prompted, we will get along. If you can't, then I don't have an issue reminding you to correct yourself before engaging in any further interactions. I don't believe in "special treatment" and will treat everyone with the same amount of praise or criticism that they deserve. If you act like a child, you'll be treated like one. If I have to treat you like a child despite your age dwarfing mine, or if you happen to be in some sort of "authoritative" position...

Well, it was obviously a shoddy position that means nothing since you hold it. Do better.

It is on you to be a decent person. I promise that I will take your lead. I will be direct in most situations, and I would appreciate your directness and truthfulness above all other qualities, namely in terms of "niceties" which I see as wasted energy. Actions speak louder than gestures.

If you show respect, there is no reason for me to be disrespectful to you. That is to say, I won't pretend to extend any angelic grace towards you just because you're in a "bad mood", which isn't an excuse to be a jerk.

With that said, I generally don't partake in niceties, which isn't inherently disrespectful. For example, the reply "It isn't, I'm sorry." is probably going to be shortened to "No, it isn't.". It answers the question succinctly, and is rather frank, which helps cut out potential for misinterpretation.

I do not respond to emotional pleas as a form of persuasion. If you want me to take an action that I have already explicitly declined, you'll need to present a form of logical justification for it rather than beg or "guilt trip". If you actively demand me to go out of my way to help you when you've never given me the time of day or have ignored times where I've asked for similar help, search on Google for the nearest circus -- there are plenty of clowns who will take you in as one of their own.

I care for your actions, which you are personally responsible for. I expressly shed no concern about your societal status, your employment position, or any shoddy sense of authority that you may employ on yourself.

For maximum social equity, you will be treated with an identical timber as the one you approach me with.

Look at me as a mirror; if you don't like what you see, take a look at yourself first.

For example, aggressive dispositions will be met with an equally aggressive tone in response. I will be equally as pleasant as you are, otherwise.

In general, the following should also be kept in mind during interactions:

• Any statement of fact is subject to debate.
• Critiques, criticism, and arguments must be based on verifiable fact, unless you predicate them as an opinion.
• Critiques, criticism, and arguments must be based on locally observed evidence, and must be backed by verifiable fact. Critique and criticism based upon assumptions or prospect inherently do not have a concrete basis in reality, and can't be used for criticism for an action that occurs in reality. Only empirical and factual evidence can be used for this purpose.