My contact form scares off people. It’s supposed to. So this was asked of me at GeekGirlCon:
Your card doesn’t have your email. Why do you make it so hard to contact you?
It’s not that I don’t want to have people ask me for more information about my site, or a class I gave. I love that. I’m happy to answer those. I tell people ‘Go to halfelf.org and use the contact form.’ Sometimes I’ll reply personally, sometimes I post on the blog, sometimes both. But yes, if we’ve met in person and you have a question, it’s okay to ping me.
But I hide my contact form behind a couple ‘are you sure?’ layers because people are weird and unreasonable.
People contact me for the one thing I don’t offer, and that’s consultant work.
People want to get free help on very complex problems.
People want to be friends.
Okay that last one is nice, but if I meet you once, we’re going to be acquaintances unless we hit it off like gangbusters… And at that point, I probably gave you my email and phone number and said “When you come to X, we have to do coffee!” It happens!
But if you’re trying to ask a long question about how to write code to do a very complex thing, consider this. Would you otherwise pay someone to do it? Would you, if you were asked by someone, ask for payment? If yes, don’t just drop me a ‘hey can you help?’ Don’t drop anyone that question. Shoot them a polite message, asking if they can help you with a project. Offer to pay. And ask if they’re busy, can they please direct you somewhere?
And do check out [https://halfelf.org/get/help] – Because yes, I keep a list.
Comments
One response to “Mailbag: Why Don’t You Tell People How To Contact You?”
Hello Half-Elf,
You are one of the most giving people I have seen on the web, and there are many. I can’t believe the time people invest in going to forums and trying to help people.
It seems you have invested countless hours in answering questions that people could have themselves invested a few more hours in to find their answers.
When I have a question, especially the obscure ones, I Google and Google and sift through all the forums, and help pages I can find. I usually see the answer sooner or later. Many times from yourself, Half-Elf, and that is how I “know” you.
For all you questioners out there, and probably most do not read your blog, I am better for the searching and finding of the answer myself.
Just wanted you to know, thanks so much.
Denise