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Why I email complete strangers

goodinternetmagazine.com

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Re: Why I email complete strangers

#11

Post by boricj »

I've received a couple of emails about ghidra-delinker-extension, but I would not limit this to only emails. I've also had numerous people contacting me through GitHub issues or Discord messages over the years, with this as a topic starter.

I've had deep technical exchanges with smart people all across the world I would've never met otherwise. I've seen people using my tool for completely insane projects successfully. I've even had a data scientist from India who was inspired and motivated by my story of presenting at ACM 2025 as a hobbyist to put his work out there.

Interacting with all these people has broadened my horizons - literally going halfway across the globe in one instance. All of that happened despite me being an introvert, who hates initiating any form of social interactions with people and sounds like a raving lunatic on my blog.

Maybe I should be the one to send out more emails...

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#13

Post by zenoprax »

I have emailed people based on a YouTube video, podcast episode, blog post, or just browsing a project on GitHub. If their email address is available I see that as permission to contact them for "wholesome" purposes. A few things that come to mind:

1. clarification on something in particular that they have already published

2. engage in genuine discussion about adjacent topics in which their opinion is specifically relevant

3. expressions of appreciation

4. corrections of information to prevent genuine harm or significant frustration for others

My success rate is probably 50-75% but I only do it a few times per year.

Cold-calling to get people try try your new app or answer a survey is rude.

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#14

Post by Waterluvian »

I’ve had about 10 emails about things I’ve said or presented on this website. I haven’t replied to all of them, which makes me feel bad because each one of them was a nice little surprise on any random day. I worry that no response makes people feel bad. I just can’t respond sometimes because of the anxiety I struggle with. But gosh do I love hearing from strangers about anything. I bet if I can get more comfortable talking with strangers I’ll really enjoy being old one day.

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#15

Post by karakoram »

mmcclure wrote: post #10
karakoram wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dang just does NOT reply though. I don't know what his beef is?

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm, but I've been blown away by the thoughtful responses I've gotten from dang. They don't always come quickly, but I would expect that given how crazy I assume that inbox is.

Nothing personally against Dang, you are right, usually replies are great, but I just have not received replies as of late.

Yeah, could be that the Mods are just really busy.

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#16

Post by antinomicus »

Waterluvian wrote: post #14

I’ve had about 10 emails about things I’ve said or presented on this website. I haven’t replied to all of them, which makes me feel bad because each one of them was a nice little surprise on any random day. I worry that no response makes people feel bad. I just can’t respond sometimes because of the anxiety I struggle with. But gosh do I love hearing from strangers about anything. I bet if I can get more comfortable…

I’m curious to hear about why talking to strangers is troublesome for you? For me maybe when I was younger but these days I just treat everyone like an old friend. What kind of pitfalls do you run into? Just a general sense of anxiety?

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#18

Post by argee »

karakoram wrote: post #15
mmcclure wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm, but I've been blown away by the thoughtful responses I've gotten from dang. They don't always come quickly, but I would expect that given how crazy I assume that inbox is.

Nothing personally against Dang, you are right, usually replies are great, but I just have not received replies as of late. Yeah, could be that the Mods are just really busy.

I suspect the emails are triaged quickly and there is a low-priority bucket which may or may not ever get a reply. In my experience if there is a clear call to action and addressing the issue will have any sort of meaningful impact, it's unusual to not get a reply.

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#19

Post by rogerrogerr »

karakoram wrote: post #15
mmcclure wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm, but I've been blown away by the thoughtful responses I've gotten from dang. They don't always come quickly, but I would expect that given how crazy I assume that inbox is.

Nothing personally against Dang, you are right, usually replies are great, but I just have not received replies as of late. Yeah, could be that the Mods are just really busy.

At least it probably means they haven’t been replaced with LLMs…

Re: Why I email complete strangers

#20

Post by Zambyte »

rogerrogerr wrote: post #19
karakoram wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing personally against Dang, you are right, usually replies are great, but I just have not received replies as of late. Yeah, could be that the Mods are just really busy.

At least it probably means they haven’t been replaced with LLMs…

Or they were running Fable :-)
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