Violating Your Privacy

 Posted on 3/3/1996 by J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com> to CIS


Every once in a while, I get something along these lines,
though so far usually it's enough just to tell them to please back off
a little. Their desire is usually well-meaning, just...overly
enthusiastic. For a while, I was getting 7-8 messages a day from a few
different people, in email, asking extremely detailed background
questions, literally dozens at a time, every day. Eventually, I had to
ask some of them to just back away and stop it. So far they have, some
with greater grace than others.

A related problem I have sometimes is that people will send me
email with 5, 8, or 20 questions (literally), each question requiring
an elaborate explanation to be clear. I don't think they understand
the sheer volume of email I get on a daily basis. If a person sends me
one or two questions I can answer fairly briefly, they'll usually get
an answer. If it's something like this, I go into overload, and either
say "sorry" or just don't reply. If I were to engage in that kind of
detailed email correspondence, I'd a) never have time for the show, and
b) 2/3rds of the rest of my email would never get answered. It's hard
to fault them, because it's clear that their messages spring from real
interest in the show. I just think they don't really understand how
*much* email I get on a daily basis. (So in general, if it's a general
question of any sort, from which others might benefit from the answer,
*always* post it publicly instead of emailing it. This also saves me
from having to answer the same question in email 50 times.)

Then there was the one person I told to avoid sending me email
with 15 questions...who solved the problem by sending me 15 emails with
1 question each.....

jms