stupid question

Friday October 8th 2004 09:28 AM PST

to the people that know me (even just a little)...

If you DO NOT want to get a rapid response from ME, WHICH of the following modes of communication do you use?

1. My Cell Phone and Voicemail
2. My Home Phone and ANCIENT Answering Machine
3. My Email Address
4. Instant Messenger
5. Comments via my Web site

Comments:

All of the above...

Posted by: Jason D-

If I had to put them in order from slowest to quickest response, it would be in this order: 1. Cell phone and Voicemail - You will NEVER get a response this way. EVER. Why Dave even has a cell phone, I don't know.

2. Home phone - If you "don't make the cut" then Dave won't answer the call when he sees the caller ID, and if you get the answering machine you might get a callback, but it is dependent on when the message gets checked (this could be longer than a month), and the content of your message.

3. Comment via the web site - These last three are all guaranteed to get you a quicker response, but with these 3 it is largely due to the content of the message. If the message is a lame tech support question that has nothing to do with Dave (i.e. "how come when I open Internet Explorer it always gives me pop-ups?"), then it will be a while. If it is social (i.e. "what are you doing this weekend?") then you'll get a relatively quick response. If it is a legit tech support question that does have to do with Dave (i.e. "none of the sites on your box seem to work and email has been down for a week."), then you'll get a very quick response, pretty much as soon as Dave gets it.

4. Email - See above, except that Dave monitors this more closely than website comments, and is more willing to respond when asked in private as opposed to on the website.

5. Instant Messenger - This is only if Dave is actually on. If he's not, then you're SOL and should send an email. If Dave is there, you're guaranteed to get at least one or two responses pretty fast, but if it's not too terribly important or just small-talk, then it's gonna be a quick conversation.

I gotta say, for myself I totally understand the desire to be hard to get a hold of. I don't think people were meant to be universally available all the time either, so none of my assesment here is intented to impune Dave in any way, because I am just as bad (if not, worse) about this kind of stuff. :)

Posted by: Yams

Thank you Will, for illustrating my point. If you call my cell phone and leave a message, you really should not expect me to call you back. I've not charged my cell phone in almost 2 weeks. If you get pissed at me for not returning a call.... that's your problem. I've got more important things to worry about. If you really need to get in touch with me you might need to try a little harder than normal, but that protects me from having to deal with pointless bullshit. If you are trying to get in touch with me about pointless bullshit... AND you get pissed at me for not returning a call... GO FIND SOMEONE ELSE WHO CARES!

Posted by:

This is why I've programmed my very own "Davebot" with php. It simply responds to most typical queries with very dave-esque answers. Ie, you can ask the "Davebot" if it would like to come out this weekend and go to movie, and it will respond "no".

Posted by:

#2, unless of course it's an invite to chipotle for tacos and beer.

Posted by:

mostly i believe that the only time i can get any response from dave is that i've somehow magically dooped him into thinking that i might be jen on the other end of the telephone. (dooped being that he's expecting a call from her, so he doesn't check the caller ID before he answers the phone.) only because i've never gotten a response from any form of messaging i've left.

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