

Ask HN:When to expect reply to emails? - yearsinrock

Of the many mails I have sent to different people over the internet (mainly CS stuff) sometimes I get detailed explanation/responder s view  of the topic and some time not even a reply.
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CyberFonic
You don't say whether you are talking about people whom you know or happened
to have come across in a forum, or some such.

If you e-mail people you don't know (well) with questions then you run the
risk of the RTFM / Just Google It! reaction. For CS questions, might be an
idea to have a look at StackOverflow and/or ServerFault and if not already
answered, raise the question there. The more knowledgeable people are also the
more time-poor and more likely to be irritated by people asking questions
without having a go at finding the answer.

As for people whom you _do know_ well, well you can always ask them.

My general response to people asking why I didn't respond to their e-mail
quickly (and that's a subjective thing) I just say "If it's urgent, pick up
the %#@&* phone".

~~~
yearsinrock
yeah even i think a phone is a better option sometimes

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bjw
I think it depends on how you phrase the question. If the question can be
easily answer (or even have an answer) and is properly written, people will be
more keen to answer back.

But things that are too subjective or easily find on google, you will probably
not get many answers..

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RiderOfGiraffes
My guidelines:

If your email is short, very clear, acknowledges that the recipient is likely
to be busy, and only requires a short answer, usually you will be answered
with 30 minutes of it being read, or never.

If it's long, unclear, rambling and makes no effort to demonstrate that you
are in effect asking a favor, or if the reply requires thought and detail,
then a week, or never.

Ask yourself: what have I done to motivate the person to answer this email?

Also, read this:

<http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/smart-questions.html>

Don't take all of it literally - pick, choose, and use common sense.

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growt
If you comment on a product or website that is "hot" at that time, the authors
may be overwhelmed by the feedback they get and keeping the servers stable at
the same time. Happened to me once with goosh.org, I got approx. 500 emails in
a few days after the launch. I tried to answer them all anyway. But I think
big corporations that have the money and manpower should answer every single
email (yes google I'm looking at you!)

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skarlowicz
In at least two places where I worked, either the consensus or outright
explicit policy was that you cannot expect reply to an email earlier than 24
hours after sending (that is, you are not expected to whine or escalate or
send another email about the same issue.) On the other hand, there was an
expectation that if you receive an email and cannot do what is requested in
the timeframe specified in the email or within 24 hours if not specified,
you're expected to send SOME reply - decline the request, ask for more time,
recommend another path etc.) Overall, SLA for stuff requested by email was
"next business day" :) anything more urgent should be done by instant
messenger, phone, walk-in and such.

