HowTo: Emailing the Webmaster

Mark Hensler's picture

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

Anyone here have rants about receiving email from users on sites which you are incharge of? What sets you off? What do you appreciate?

When you email the webmaster, please make sure you mention which site the email is concerning. Some (many) webmasters are incharge of more than one website.

Lately, I've gotten a lot of emails inquiring about purchasing advertising space, which did not mention which site they wanted to purchase space from.

Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

thats why you should use a contact form with set subject line so you know where its from and whats its for. If it hasn't got your subject then it's spam.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Contact forms are all good, but some people prefer to use their regular email client. I've drifted into the habit of avoiding contact forms where possible... simply because I prefer to use a non-foreign system that I'm used to. I take care to mention as much detail as I can when I email webmasters. Smiling But I still provide contact forms on sites.

I don't usually get any emails regarding any of the sites that I run (or help run), as they aren't really community sites. So for me, it's easy to deduce what site emails relate to even if the sender doesn't say. Smiling

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

With contact forms I don't get a copy of what I've sent. That is annoying to me, as I like to be able to keep track of that sort of thing so I can follow up with non-replies.

But yes, even with my limited sites, I get people sending email that doesn't make sense. I have a different email address for each site, and those email addresses pre-sort in my mail application. That was my solution, though I have a *lot* of accounts.

Mark Hensler's picture

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

Another thing that bothers me is when people I don't know send me an email without a salutation (put your name at the bottom). Then I don't know who to address my reply to.

Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

I used to get really irked by people who wrote:

Hi, Suzanne!

And then spammed me. But now I'm amused when people write:

Hi, WebsiteURL!

hahahahahaha...

Yes, a lot of people do this in phone calling as well. It's like they didn't learn the basics! Introduce yourself!

They have: 601 posts

Joined: Nov 2001

Just look at the To: address. I manage a number of sites too but each has a different contact, webmaster@site1, webmaster@site2. Although they all get directed to the same inbox, I know where they were originally sent to.

- wil

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