Man that blog title sounds so darn official! A public service announcement (PSA) for my terms of service (TOS)? That’s not how I mean it to sound, but it will at least catch someone’s eye. The purpose of this post is to have something to point folks back to in the future and hope some people take note of it going forward.
Like many other people, I’m on Twitter (@andrewconnell), Facebook and LinkedIn. Each of those services have ways to send private messages to other users… and for the most part I can’t stand that service (although I’m an occasional user of Twitter’s direct messages). Each has email notifications when you receive a message but I’ve disabled those. Why? Because without fail there is no way to reply to them from within a email client.. you have to go to their site to respond. That is a really annoying interruption when trying to triage a full inbox. So, you’re going send me an email telling me that someone left me a message and while I appreciate you may include the email, I have to go back to your site and respond through your site? No thanks… I don’t get those email notifications.
That’s crap IMHO. There’s a really effective way to send someone a message. I discovered it back in 1995 and have been using it since… in fact, I use it every day. It’s called email and it works great! You should try it! Don’t have my email? Oh… that’s why I created this handy little contact form on my blog! Oh… and if you’re asking a technical question… I’ll read it and will get back to you, but i can’t promise when. Like you, I’ve got a job with customers demanding my time. I’d recommend you post to the MSDN forums where you’ll have a much bigger audience looking at your question… including me! I jump in the forums and answer questions when I have some time.
I do not check my Facebook or LinkedIn inbox / messages… MAYBE every few months, but not regularly. As for Twitter… I check the direct messages when I open my client. That may be a few times a day, that may be while I’m stopped at a railroad crossing, it may be in two weeks. If you’re trying to reach me please use email… that way I’m sure to see it.
At first I thought this would come across a bit high-brow until a few weeks ago I ranted in my Facebook status that I hated these email/messaging like services. I was quite taken back with how many people jumped on the band wagon with me! So I figure this would help some folks down the road…
BTW, I don’t have, and don’t have interest or plan to setup, a FriendFeed or TripIt account.