I'm sorry, I can't accept questions. Every day
my sites
get over 20,000 visitors; there are thousands of you and only
one of
me, and I already have over 10,000 messages in my In
Box. It's
impossible (not inconvenient, but impossible) for me
to act as
a helpdesk or dialogue with even a fraction of my readers.
Thank you
for understanding.
If you're writing for some other reason, please use
the menu above. Thanks.
Trust
me, I've heard your argument before. I stopped
hearing new arguments on this topic about fifteen
years ago. In fact, pretty much everyone who insists
on writing
to me anyway about this simply repeats a point that's
already refuted
in the article, indicating that they didn't even bother to
read it
properly before trying to argue against it.
What's more, the overwhelming majority of arguments
I've gotten on this subject are incredibly weak,
horribly misspelled, and often laced with insults and
profanities.
So after years of receiving crazed / uninformed
arguments and insults -- none of it illuminating -- I
stopped
accepting mail about this
subject.
Please realize that this site gets thousands of
visitors a day, and I simply don't have time to debate
the entire world on a 1-to-1 basis. There are a lot
more of you than me.
So, let's just agree to disagree. If it's so
important to you for your message to be communicated,
then simply do what I did: write an article and post
it online. If you do, you can be certain that I will
not email you to complain about it.
I'm
sorry, I can't accept any questions,
period.
I have, literally, over 10,000 messages in my
In Box right now, none of it spam. I simply don't have
time to be a helpdesk to the whole world. Please do
not
send me any questions
whatsoever.
And let me guess,
you're on a deadline so you need a response ASAP?
I don't help students with homework or papers, but
since 99% of the requests I got on this subject show the
same disappointing traits, allow me to offer you some
valuable tips, especially if you're tempted to write to
other people about the same thing.
"Research" does not mean emailing some
random guy on the Internet. The quality of that
kind of reference, for academic purposes, is just
above overhearing something that two homeless winos
said to each other on the street. Even if the person
you're writing to is a doctor, it's still worthless,
because (a) Anyone in any position of authority
doesn't have the time to respond to you, (b) You can't
prove that the person actually said to you what you
claim they said, (c) Anything important they have to
say is already published elsewhere, and you should
cite that. So, your information should come
primarily from books, newspapers, and magazines. It
can come from websites if your instructor allows and
the
website is credible. It should never come from
questions you
email directly to
people.
Since you usually shouldn't be writing to webmasters
anyway, the following points are somewhat irrelevant.
But I'm including them anyway as examples of where
students typically go wrong.
Asking for "more information" on a subject is
silly. People who publish websites do so specifically
to
share what they know. If I
write about a subject, I put what I know into that
article, because I'm trying to share what I know. I
certainly don't withhold certain crucial information
from an article, waiting for people to email me to ask
for the details I left out so I can email it to them.
That would be ridiculous. But that's what most
students writing to me expect is the case. You might
think, "Well, maybe he didn't have time to put the
extra info he knows on the website." That might be
true. But if that's the case, I certainly don't have
time to send it to you by email.
Requests must be specific. Most requests I
get just ask for "more information". That is so broad
and vague as to be useless. When you're asking for
something, you must be extremely specific about what
you want. (And no, "vegetarian information" is not
specific
enough, either.)
Don't expect the world to conform to your
timetable. Nearly every request I've every gotten
from a student says that they're on a deadline so they
need the info "ASAP". This just amazes me. Students,
realize that you're asking someone for a favor.
It's just plain rude to demand that someone you don't
even know provide you what you're asking for
"as soon as possible".
What grade are you in? Students writing me
rarely bother to mention whether they're college, high
school, or junior high.
