Always Reply

A clear reply saves your team from chasing an update. This rule shows how to say what is done, what is stuck, and what comes next. Start in the thread where the person asked, and give them the status and next step.

If that already feels obvious, send the status and go back to work. This page exists so we stop writing novels at people who will not, and so we stop using Dennis as the team’s VA.

Whoever asked you should not have to search Slack, Basecamp, and three Gmail threads to learn that you saw it.

This guide is part of The Checker That Isn’t You. Next, explore Basecamp Basics – The Foundation of How We Work, or If You Can Do It, You Should.

If the question is to you, answer on that thread within 24 hours. Another thread is not a reply. A period from the person chasing you is not your reply.

Where this task fits in the Content Factory

This task supports work across the Content Factory (our four-stage process for using real content). Its inputs and next handoff determine which stage uses it.

1. ProduceCapture real work

2. ProcessTurn sources into useful assets

3. PostPublish and connect approved assets

4. PromoteShare proven work and measure results

Follow the numbered stages from Produce to Promote. Each stage links to its part of the Content Factory guide.

Start, finish, and next step

Start when

Someone has asked you to act in a thread, or your status changes while they await the result.

Have ready

The exact thread
Actual work state and evidence
Next owner and date or blocker

Follow the steps

Return to the thread that asked
Choose done, doing, blocked or parked
Include evidence or the next date/needed owner
Name coverage if you will be away

Use the detailed instructions in this article for each step.

Finish with

A useful status reply in the original thread within the standing twenty-four-hour rule.

Measure the result

Done includes proof
Doing includes a date
Blocked names who or what is needed
Parked names the living owner
A separate-thread update is not counted as a reply

Hand off next

The named owner takes the next action; reply again when the state materially changes.

Before closing the run, name the actual next task, receiving owner, and trigger in the execution record. The assignment and findings determine that handoff.

Reference material for the inputs

Basecamp Basics – The Foundation of How We Work

Open this article’s tasks in the Task Library (our directory of tasks and recipes; see current Task Library). The library connects the current recipe, its smaller tasks, and the records of work performed.

Close the learning loop. Write a meta article: the record of this execution with the starting state, recipe version, result, checks, failures, and next owner. Link it back to this recipe and register the run under the same Task Library task. Reuse one execution ID for revisions and retries. A partial or failed run stays labeled that way. Public release follows the recorded publication authority; writing the run record is part of doing the task. Writing and revising that record belong to the original execution; they do not start another meta-article task. Use the findings to propose and verify a recipe improvement. See how recipes and execution records work together.

RACI in four tiles

We already published this. New people still treat every @ as a request that Dennis track. RACI is how a team works without a babysitter. One letter is the job.

RResponsible — doing the work.

AAccountable — the loop closes here. If Dennis is chasing you, this seat is empty.

CConsulted — asked, then you answer. You do not become the owner.

IInformed — you were copied. You do not owe a novel. You also do not ghost a direct question.

Practice it on threads: trim the list to the people in the letters. Do not tag Dennis to “make sure he saw it.”

The reply is one of four lines

That is the whole protocol. Not a mood. Not a period. Not “I’ll look.”

“Done” is the one state that gets checked. A reply of done with nothing behind it is reopened by a script the next morning, for people and agents alike. What counts as proof, and who checks: The Checker That Isn’t You.

Done.What shipped, where it lives.

Doing.Next date, on this thread.

Blocked.Who, and what you need.

Parked.Closed or not yours — name the living owner.

Sick, travel, grandma, wifi: the same four lines, plus who covers the inbox. Silence is not an excuse. We already wrote Don’t Make Me Chase You. This page is the two-minute version you actually send.

Dennis is not your VA

When you do not answer the thread that asked you, the asker has to hold context across Basecamp, Gmail, and whatever you posted somewhere else. That is VA work. New people dump it on the person with the most context. That is how a CEO becomes everyone’s reminder system.

Boomerang coming back is the detector, not the job. If too many emails Boomerang back, something is wrong — with reliability, not with the reminder tool.

A period from the chaser is an alarm. It means the owner still owes a state. Activity on cc is not a status. An auto-“thanks, we’ll look” that clears the reminder is worse than silence.

Agents make this cheap. They do not fake it.

If you run agents the way we do, they draft the four-state reply from the thread plus live state. A human sends it. A trusted agent may send only when the classification is unambiguous (work already closed, owner already named). They never auto-ack. They never treat another thread as the answer.

That is how Boomerang stops coming back without turning the inbox into a bot farm. The skill file is at the bottom of this page.

This is a selection standard

Independently motivated, organized people read this once and comply. We wrote it at that altitude on purpose. It is not a course for people who cannot hold a one-line status.

Reliability is the ticket. Excuse-making is the tell. No SOP mints basic follow-through. Sending the old essays on a loop is how we pretend training will fix a hiring miss.

If that describes the wrong seat, the honest page is already live: why we sometimes have to let people go. Save everyone the circus.

Day one

Start at the canonical hub: New Team Member. Then this page. Then the rest of what you should have done by now.

Read the start-here page.
Read this page.
Read team dos and don’ts — the 24-hour line is the same rule.
Answer the last thread that asked you something, on that thread, in one of the four states.

Then go do the work. If someone has to chase you after this, it is not a documentation problem.

QA

Check	Pass
Direct question, To: you or @ you	Reply on that thread within 24 hours
Body	Done / doing+date / blocked+who / parked+owner
You posted the answer somewhere else	Still reply here. Link the other place if needed
You are out	Coverage named on this thread before you go dark
Work already decided	Parked + why. Do not leave the subject open
Agent drafted it	Human sent it, unless the close is unambiguous

# always-reply
When you were asked on a thread, answer on that thread.
One of: done / doing + date / blocked + who / parked + living owner.
Another thread is not a reply. Do not auto-ack. Do not send a period as the owner.
If you are out, name coverage. If the work is already closed, say so here.

THE DELIVERABLE

One thread. One of four states. Twenty-four hours. Nobody hunts you.

Don’t make me chase you Team dos and don’ts

Standing rule, Aug 18, 2026. Pairs with why VAs should not ignore messages, practice RACI, and how we stopped being the team’s VA. Related: The System · persistent agents.

Part of Level 1

One inbox. Do, delegate, or delete it the same day. Every handoff is a Basecamp to-do with an owner and a date. Answer on the thread that asked. Done means you looked. This page is one piece of that loop.

Getting Stuff Done → The Level 1 hub, with the map of every piece.