I mark them as spam. Or, respond and say "No."
On Feb 20, 2011, at 2:16 PM, Adrian Crenshaw wrote: > Hi all, > Many on this list run a blog/podcast/etc and I imagine like me you get a > lot of "Teach me how to hack" or "do this for me" emails. How do you handle > them? > > The categories I get can generally be broken down into: > > 1. Teach me how to hack (which is too broad to ever do). > 2. I think my boyfriend/girlfriend is cheating on me, how can I spy on them > (why would I want to get involved?). > 3. Help me break into my neighbors/schools WiFi/Computer (Why would I help > you do something illegal, and leave a subpoenable record in email?). > 4. Do a bunch of free work for me as a favor and under dubious expectations. > I had a guy recently say he wanted be to teach him how to track down spammers > so he could sue them since he put a declaimer on his Craig's List posts that > said people owed him money ($50,000, and without going to court) if they sent > him spam, and various other outrageous demands. That one first got the > response that I though he had unreasonable expectations, and when he email > again I told him I was not interested and if I got another email from him he > owed me $100,000,000. Needless to say he was not happy. I mailed the > conversation to the list, but it got rejected, perhaps for being off topic or > having too much personal info in it. > 5. Questions about things I know nothing about, or that if I do know > something about I've already put all I know in an article/video. These > questions I normally just point to the best resource I know. > > My responses are usually: > > 1. You question is to vague and sorry, I can't teach individuals over email. > 2. Ignore them, especially it they used text speak in the email (ur = your, > etc). > 3. Point them at some other materials and say I don't know much on the > subject. > 4. Sometimes, if it is especially whacked, I may have a snarky response. > > I like to help people learn, but some people just want too much time, or for > you to do all the work for them. What are your normal responses? How do you > deal with these things? I don't want to seem like an ass for not helping > people, but I'd rather speed my personal time doing other things. > > Thanks, > Adrian > > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com -- Joel Esler http://www.joelesler.net
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