An interesting thought came up last night as I yet again was contacting Tony Karrer for advice and “how to’s”. What is the proper way to ask a question of another blogger? Many times you might see an element they have added to their page and wonder, “Just how did they do that?”. Other times you may know they are an expert in a certain field and want some advice on how to proceed with your own project.
I have thought it best that if the blogger offers their email address within their profile, or better yet directly on their blog that is the “international symbol” for FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME (with questions/comments of course). However, maybe it is better to use the comment fields that people set up at the end of their posts. I however, have not used this method when my question is of no relation to the post. I figured it would be cluttering up the bloggers post and more so taking away from the intent of the post.
A bit of the challenge though is that, my question may be of interest to many others. So how does anyone else answer it or read the answer to the question if it is only ever hidden behind the scenes in email.
Tony and I agree that neither of us mind getting emails, but also were not sure what others may think either about the whole subject. So, I’ve added a couple of polling questions to my blog. Hopefully you’ll take a moment to answer. Perhaps we will agree as bloggers-united that if you see an email address as contact information that it is indeed the “international symbol” for “I WELCOME YOU TO CONTACT ME”.
I have two ways for people to contact me privately on my blog: my email address is available, plus I have a private contact form on my About page. Those are my signs to the world to “feel free to contact me with questions.” If a blogger makes an email address available, I think that’s enough of a signal.
I’ve had people email me privately on a few occasions, including some who have sent their resumes for me to review as they try to break into ID. I’m perfectly happy with that. If it’s unrelated to my post, or someone has private info (like their resume), I think email’s the way to go.
If the question has potential interest for others, you can always blog about it later. You might even ask permission to post some contents of email if it’s relevant.
One irritation though: although most people are very grateful, I’ve had a few who don’t even bother to thank me. I just had one of these. I spent at least an hour answering his questions and reviewing his resume, but the guy didn’t even bother to acknowledge I’d sent an email until two weeks later when he had another question. A two word email (“Thank you”) would have been sufficient. I answer these questions because I think it’s important to share knowledge and I enjoy helping people, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask to expect courtesy too. Maybe I’m just too much of a softie though.
I’m interested to hear about what other people have experienced. Has anyone else had the problem of bad manners?
I like people to contact me in whatever way works for them. I get emails, phone calls, and questions in the comments section.
An advantage of the comments section is that other people can see the question and offer answers as well.
I very occasionally run into someone who seems to want a lot of my time for free, but it hasn’t been a big issue. If they contact me repeatedly, I send a minimal response with a closing that’s cheery yet clearly final, and that seems to work.
Thanks for raising this topic. I agree with your answers.
I’ve not had the problem of people not thanking me. I have had situations where I simply don’t have time to respond or where the person asked a question that I thought they could have easily done a Google search instead of asking me.
I’m also curious about asking an individual blogger vs. posting in a group like TrDev vs. posting on your own blog with links to other bloggers vs. posting a question on LinkedIn vs. ????
In general, if you see an email posted, you should assume that you are free to contact the person (presuming you’re not a spammer, stalker, etc.).
After all, people who post their email address know they’re going to get spam, and yet still post their email.
That said, one of the risks is that the mail will disappear in the spam filters. People who write unsolicited emails – especially ones with bad message titles – need to be aware of this, and to not simply assume the person didn’t write back.