17

I've posted one or two 'tumbleweed' questions which I'm sure the mighty Jon Skeet could answer while sleeping. He doesn't seem to have noticed them yet (probably beneath him) but I'd still like the benefit of his encyclopaedic knowledge of C# and the .Net framework.

Would I be damned for my impudence if I were to contact him directly to enslist a few milliseconds of this time?

Improve this question
5
  • 3
    @5arx ~ On MetaSO it's considered acceptable practice to downvote things you merely disagree with rather than it being poorly written or what have you. Also, downvotes don't normally carry a comment here. Best of luck
    – jcolebrand
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 18:01
  • 1
    @PopularDemand - I meant OP as in Original Post here, I tend not to suffer from delusions of grandeur and refer to myself in the third person or use the royal 'we' ;-)
    – immutabl
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 20:58
  • 1
    @Drachenstern - how can you disagree with a question/ predicate? "How do I get to the railway station?" "No, I disagree" Eh?
    – immutabl
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 20:59
  • 1
    @5arx ~ I have no clue. Also note I didn't downvote you. I'm just telling you what the general attitude is. Also see: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66092/…
    – jcolebrand
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 21:21
  • @Drachenstern - noted. In which case I find the 'general attitude' incomprehensible ;-)
    – immutabl
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 21:24

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
40

Update to a very old answer: I would rather people didn't email me unless the question is very clearly related to something I'm specifically involved with. I'm fine with having my attention drawn to Noda Time questions for example, but would rather I didn't get "I'm having problems with Java servlets" emails.

People do email me questions all the time. I rarely get cross about it :)

If you've already asked the question on Stack Overflow, waited 24 hours and not seen a suitable answer, that's fine. That's much better than just emailing me directly, bypassing Stack Overflow completely. In particular, it's better than repeatedly emailing me despite my answer always being "ask on Stack Overflow" which has happened a few times...

Of course, quite often I'll ignore a .NET-based question because it's in an area of .NET I know very little about, like WCF... but I can always say so by email. And if it's a genuinely language-based question that I happen to have missed, I'll be grateful for the heads-up :)

Different users will have different preferences, of course. I deliberately make my email address very public - I want to make it easy for people to contact me. If someone doesn't make it obvious (e.g. it's not on their SO profile) then I think it would be slightly rude to start trying to find their contact details elsewhere.

Improve this answer
4
  • I thought of you when asking this one as its pretty obscure and so far the only person who responded seems a bit ... unusual. I'll understand if you don't, but I'm going to leave it here for everyone to see anyway: stackoverflow.com/questions/4376765/…
    – immutabl
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 15:30
  • 11
    Well, this is obviously the canonical answer! Just keep in mind that not every user is necessarily as generous about this as Jon is. I know I'm not :)
    – Pekka
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 15:34
  • 1
    When Jon Skeet answers your question.. YOU WIN!
    – karlphillip
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 15:58
  • 3
    "Scholar, Gentleman and, quite possibly, robot and/or hyper-advanced extra-terrestrial" ;-) Many thanks again.
    – immutabl
    Commented Dec 7, 2010 at 16:10
16

This is really what the bounty feature is for. If your question has fallen off everyone's radar then either:

  1. Edit it to further clarify it and address any questions left in the comments. This will bump the post; just don't edit for the sake of bumping alone.

  2. Consider adding a bounty to it, especially if it's not a simple question.

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    Jon Skeet doesn't need the extra bounty points ;-)
    – immutabl
    Commented Jan 27, 2011 at 0:06
14

Is it OK to email Jon Skeet and Ask Him to Answer Posts Which Mere Mortals Cannot?

Of course only Jon can answer this specific question, but generally: No. When people have time to donate to answer questions, they will come to Stack Overflow. E-Mailing them help requests is rude, pushy, and tactless.

If you must contact a user, use the comments function underneath a random contribution by the user. But be careful even with that.

It's always best to edit and improve your question instead, attracting new attention to it the normal way.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .