Ask HN:When to expect reply to emails? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN:When to expect reply to emails?

4 pointsyearsinrock6 comments

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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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".

yeah even i think a phone is a better option sometimes

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..

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.

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!)

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.

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