hello

Here are some ways to contact me, ranked in order of preference.

433 words, created on 2024-02-04, updated on 2024-09-10

I prefer email for conversation online. In fact, I am beginning to insist upon it.

I still enjoy getting email from actual human beings, and I like being able to think over a reply and possibly revise it before sending it. It is, incidentally, how I courted my wife for four years before we married.

I try to answer emails within a week of receipt. It might take longer to reply if I’m working excessive overtime at my day job or have gone offline to work on a personal project, or am out of town on vacation. I may send a quick note to acknowledge that I had received your email and will reply at greater length when time permits.

I might also wish to quote your email with attribution on my website. I will, of course, request permission first.

Guestbook

If you’re not comfortable with emailing me, or are OK with leaving messages others can see, I have a guestbook provided by atabook.org. Its operator isn’t charging, so I don’t know how long it will remain available. You can find a link at the bottom of every page on this website.

Offline Contact

If you open the ‘contact info’ bit under the ‘author info’ you will find that I not only provide my email address, but my telephone number and mailing address. Please email me before calling, texting, or mailing something to me; I would like to be able to expect you. This is especially important when calling or texting me because if your number isn’t in my contacts when you call or text, I might block you.

Parasocial Media

While I have a few accounts on various forums and social networks, I do not advertise them on my website. A social media account should lead people to your website, but not vice versa. You can still find them, however, if you use your browser’s “view source” function and look for links marked with rel="me"

If you want to follow me or subscribe for updates, however, that is why I provide web feeds. While I use Echofeed to syndicate my feed to Mastodon, there’s no point in following me there when you can just use the feed.

However, if we’re already acquainted on Mastodon or on any of the forums I frequent, I won’t insist that you email me instead of using the platform’s tools to contact me.