I get quite a few emails from posters. That’s OK, it’s part of being an administrator. I answer a fair number of them. Some of them, however, I never even read. You might ask “WHY, oh WHY won’t you read my email? I have an urgent problem that only an administrator can solve!” If you have a problem, and you wrote to me, and I didn’t write back, it could be because:
[ul]You didn’t put SDMB in the subject field of your letter. Likely I tossed it into the old bit bucket, unopened. I get enough spam with vague titles that I don’t open up stuff from strangers any longer, unless the subject is clearly something that I want.
You didn’t tell me your screen name. What, I’m supposed to guess? If you can’t be bothered to tell me, I can’t be bothered to help you. Even if I’ve corresponded with you before, that doesn’t mean that I’ll remember you, unless you were particularly nasty. And if you WERE, I’d suggest not drawing any more attention to yourself.
You wanted me to do something to your user status, but didn’t mail me from your SDMB address. When I go into a member’s registration, the first thing I check is to see if the address is the same. It’s a security precaution. I’ll make exceptions, but you’d better have a damn good reason for me to do so.
You were abusive to me. I will accept criticism, and sometimes I’ll even act upon it. But I am not required or inclined to accept abuse.[/ul] I just had a hunch that a couple of letters in my inbox today were actually from SDMB members this morning, and not actually spam. So I opened the letters, and found that yes, indeed, they were letters from members. Nine times out of ten, though, my hunch is wrong, and I find myself with yet another piece of spam to dispose of.
I don’t know the email policies of other mods/admins, but you WILL get a quicker response from any of us if you’ll put SDMB in the subject field. And write to more than one moderator or administrator, it’s quite possible that one or more of us are taking a break or are unable to get online or are sick.
And while we’re on the subject of email, keep a valid email address. If I have to write to you for some reason (I might want to give you a private warning by email, rather than embarrass you in front of the whole board), and the email bounces as not a valid address, I’m quite likely to suspend or ban you until I hear from you. The Straight Dope Message Board does not sell, rent, or otherwise make available the addresses of its registered users.
