My EVOKE inbox has 79 messages. All of these go to my regular email address too (I know, I can change that setting, but then I'll miss the ones I DO want to see). I understand, and patiently tolerate, people's need to drive others to their posts by sending out messages to their entire friends network, or worse, to the the wh*** community -- I know I get messages from people not on my friends list.
I want to speak up for the value of personal connection, but even more, for the value of serendipity. Chances are, if you email me some spam asking me to go look at your post, I won't. I do sometimes, but only if I know you and I've already read your posts and I'm intrigued by your description of what you wrote. The way I prefer to navigate Urgent EVOKE is by serendipity.
There are many serendipitous paths through the community. If you comment on one of my posts, I'm very very likely to follow the link back to your profile and spend some time browsing yours. (I'm a little behind at the moment, but I'm catching up. I'll get to you.) If you comment in a discussion thread I'm active in, and I'm interested in what you say, I'll go look. I like to check the Latest Activity bar and follow up on titles that interest me. Sometimes I search for tags of interest.
And very often, I follow a meandering path that may start with one of those, but that then leads me to look at posts by people who commented on posts I've read, or things they link to and call out. I've learned so much that way.
I just want to encourage everyone to try serendipity and see where it gets you. It feels more satisfying than spam.
(As an aside -- one type of email gets deleted instantly when I see it. Those are the ones that appear to be responding to an ongoing thread, but are actually just a list of links to the sender's posts. If you're going to spam people, at least be up front about it.)
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