Well, I can understand why some actually consider a message "hey, can we talk" more polite than simply calling without asking first, especially for developers. After all, they may currently be in the middle of doing something and would prefer not to be disturbed. OTOH, a message is already a disturbance, and most of the times checking your calendar should already give someone a hint about whether you are busy or not. Either way, providing a hint of what you want to talk about, e.g. "hey, can we talk about that spline reticulation issue?" is of course much better.
> After all, they may currently be in the middle of doing something and would prefer not to be disturbed. OTOH, a message is already a disturbance [...]
That is what has not sunken in yet in our new and fancy asynchronous world.
> Either way, providing a hint of what you want to talk about, e.g. "hey, can we talk about that spline reticulation issue?" is of course much better.
This is the big thing. "Don't be spooky" doesn't mean "interrupt me freely", it means "tell me cagey, coy, or avoidant and tell me what you want asynchronously before we start a conversation".