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Did you email me and not get a response? Read this
Wednesday July 12, 2006
Something I find a little odd is that people will email you, out of the blue with something that may or may not be of interest to you, and just by the fact that they have sent you an email means you are in some way obliged to reply, because if you don’t… well you are all high and mighty because you are a very minor celebrity in the web standards world… sigh!
I had one gentlemen send me an email which basically showed me that he had linked to my site and that I shouldn’t link to his site if I was going to do it in a negative way. Now I don’t want to seem ungrateful or big headed but a lot of people have linked to my site in a positive and a negative way and so I didn’t think it even needed a reply but apparently so; a few days later he is sending me abusive email. And you think that is gonna make me respond in a positive way, you think I am then going to talk to you and offer you any kind of support?
Of course I accept that this is the result of my blogging style, because I swear and rant that makes it okay for complete strangers to email me and call me a fucking bastard. Fine, go ahead, maybe I’ll start a collection on Flickr.
As it happens I do try my best to reply but the last few months have been total chaos; I mean total chaos. Lest we forget I have three children, one aged 5, one aged 2 and one aged 5 months. In addition to that I have been on a whirlwind trip to the States, started writing articles for .Net magazine, written documentation for clients and have just generally being keeping on top of work related emails.
Here is what tends to happen. I read an email and figure it warrants a more personal response, needs perhaps more than a sentence, and I put it aside marked as "To do when you can‚Äù. Inevitably time goes by and the reply is not forthcoming but I keep it in my to do list and a bit more time goes by and I think, oh shit I never did reply to that email, I am a dick, they probably think I am a dick… hey ho, I’ll just archive it and try harder next time. Round and round it goes.
So, if you have sent me an email and expected a reply and didn’t get one, I am sorry. I am not an arrogant minded sonofabitch (well I am, of course but… well y’know), I am just a busy dad focused on earning cash to keep my kids clothed and fed. I read everything and appreciate people taking the time to email me. Unfortunately it is getting more and more difficult to respond in any kind of timely fashion.
But do take heart and be glad you are not family. I may have said this before but it took me months to email my Aunty back confirming receipt of and thanks for sending the kids gifts at Christmas.
Finally, no doubt, the question of how I find the time to blog yet not answer email. Yeah, good one but in the time this post was written (10 minutes spent over a cup of coffee at 5am before leaving at 6am for a meeting) I could have responded well to, oooo, one email so still someone would not get a reply.
