Do You Respond To Feedback?

A recent column received a lot of feedback — 50/50 in terms of agreement and disagreement with my point/opinion.

Do you respond to those who take the time to write you? Why or why not?

I usually do.

 

I usually do. Maybe not if it's totally inane, and occasionally not because it just gets away from me. But I always try to write back and probably succeed 75 percent of the time.

 

I do. I apologize if I made a mistake, and thank those who took the time to write me a compliment. As for those who call me out for mistakes/transgressions I didn't commit, I'm as snarky and sarcastic as I can be without calling them fucking retards.

 

I ignore those who come hard with profanity, and those who are asking "fantasy league" questions. Then there are some folks who clearly are just venting or sharing their "expertise" and don't really want a reply. But if someone asks a legit question or makes a valid challenge, I write back. If they are complimentary, especially in some specific way about a piece, I write back. If they attack me without the #*%!#&@! words, maybe I respond, maybe I don't.

Most of my feedback lately, though, has been from folks trying to sell me cheap Viagra or offering me ways to earn $800 a day with a home-based business. They must know how tough this business has been on us lately.

 

I do respond, unless it's a tirade. If they dispute the point I'm trying to make, I usually try to clarify my position further or point out the reasoning which I used to present my opinion. If it's complimentary, I thank them for their interest and taking the time to write. It doesn't take long to acknowledge people. Even at their rudest, I usually thank people for reading it.

 

I never respond in the 'comments' section of the Web site -- nothing good can come of that.

If people actually have a valid point/grievance and leave some form of contact information (instead of anonymous phone messages, which are apparently the medium of choice around here), yeah, I'll respond to them. They probably won't like what I say, but I'll certainly tell them why we did what we did.

 

Sure, why not? Maybe they'll become your friend.

What's more rewarding -- responding to someone who already agrees with you, or getting along with someone who disagrees with you?

 

I try to respond to everyone, if only in brief.

Two or three times, we have had e-bombs go off where I have gotten a lot of traffic on a particular issue. On a couple of those – one was an overwhelmingly positive response to a column I wrote, one was a campaign to get us to provide more coverage for a college team – I wrote lengthy, carefully composed responses on the basic topic and send that in response.

 

Lately, no.

However, if someone writes in with either a sincere compliment or a cogent argument against something I've written, I'll take the time to respond.

I've written columns in which I've gotten nothing but praise from readers, and they've been long e-mails. In each case, I've written back with a detailed response.

 

The latter, which occurred this week in response to a column.

Most people who disagree do so with a knee-jerk reaction because the topic you write about directly affects them, or someone they know. They respond with tunnel vision and do so emotionally.

I broke down the argument/opinion of my last column to one such reader and she responded two more times — favorably, both times.

She actually apologized in one of them, following up with "I now realize the sun can't shine in every story."

 

Technically, it is company policy that we have to respond to all emails we get, so long as they are civil and warrant a response.

I don't have to respond to "you fucking idiot douchebag" and I don't have to respond to "I really love Bumfuck and want them to win! Yay!"

But anything else, positive or negative, we're required to respond, and I try to. This policy is completely unenforceable, but it's a decent policy. If someone takes the time to write a civil email, I should take the time to respond, if only a sentence or two. People actually seem to appreciate it.

 

I try to respond to anyone who lets me know their name and gives me a medium to respond to.

Anyone who bitches at me anonymously will get nothing. If you can't put your name behind your word, your word doesn't count.