How to ask questions to strangers, part 2
This article was originally published as part of the Pobox blog. Pobox was acquired by Fastmail in 2015.
Mark Dominus continues his series of articles on how to send email to strangers asking for help. Read the previous entry.Last week, I told you the one big rule of asking email questions to strangers. This week, I'll discuss a smaller rule:
Use an informative Subject
We all get a lot of junk mail. We all throw away most of it. If the a message doesn't have an eye-catching subject, we may throw it away without opening it. And "eye-catching" here means "does not look like spam". Spammers are very stupid, and they have a very stupid idea of what sort of subjects will be eye-catching:
- Please reply ASAP
- Seeking your expertise
- Help me!
- READ THIS!!!!!!
- Question about apache module
- Length of day question
- how to optimize for speed
Here the subjects of some messages that I have sent to famous people that have received prompt and detailed replies:
- Computing with lattices: An application of type classes
- Hegelian Taco
- Octopus anatomy
Similarly, the "Computing with lattices" message was sent to the author of a paper with that title, asking for a copy of the paper, and "octopus anatomy" was sent to an octopus expert.
Once you've gotten the recipient to open and read your message, you still have to get them to answer it. I'll return in three weeks with an article about how to keep the expert from throwing away your message in disgust.
— Feel good about your email with privacy, control, and features you'll love.
Try it free for 30 days
Try it free for 30 days