It’s because there are tens of thousands of you guys and just one of me, and I can only do so much in a day.
I do work very hard to keep the FAQ and the Encyclopedia packed with useful information, so if you have a question please look in those places for your answer first. I cannot tell you how much time I spend replying to comments and emails with basically “I have an FAQ post on this” and a link to the relevant post. Save us both some time and check before asking 🙂 (As of 2019 I will not be replying to questions that are already answered in the FAQ—I simply don’t have the time.)
My overall philosophy for Humblebee & Me is to make as much of my time help as many people as possible. As such, I prioritize correspondence in this way:
- Comments on the blog and YouTube (Because everybody can read them and reap the benefits, though I don’t necessarily reply to comments in the order they were received). At any given time I usually have over 400 comments waiting for a reply, so you may never get a reply. If you need faster answers to your questions please consider becoming a Patron; I prioritize Patron questions.
- Facebook comments and posts
- Instagram comments
- Tweets
- Facebook private messages & emails (private correspondence is at the bottom as only one person benefits from it).
Regarding comments on platforms other than the blog (Instagram and Facebook, I’m looking at you!): they kind of stink. I get a notification the instant the happen, and then they can just vanish into the abyss if I don’t reply immediately (which is rarely possible). If you have a question about a formulation I’ve shared, please ask that question as a comment on the blog, not on another network.
YouTube comments are also dumb. The comments are organized by the date the parent comment was left, so if you reply to a comment that is a year old, that comment is starting its life out at the bottom of the ocean, and I am probably never going to see it. This makes back-and-forths difficult. Say you leave a comment on the 1st, I reply on the 5th, and you respond to my reply on the 7th. Between the 1st and the 7th there have probably been 150 new comments, so your reply on the 7th is 150 deep. How poorly designed is that!?
For blog comments: I do not reply to them in the order they’re received. I sort of jump into a pool of comments, grab a bunch, and reply to those. I tend to prioritize comments on newer posts as answering those promptly can head off multiples of the same question, and newer posts get more attention. I make time to reply to 10–20 comments a day. Depending on the time of year this can mean you hear from me in a few days, in a few weeks, or possibly never. If your comment is live on the site, it has not been lost or deleted. There’s no need to re-submit it multiple times: I will delete duplicates. As of 2019, I will not be replying to questions that are already answered in the post, encyclopedia, or FAQ—I simply don’t have the time.
Please know that I have received your email and I will try to reply if I can. As of 2020, that may never happen. I’m sorry, but there’s only one of me. If your question can be posted as a comment on a relevant blog post, I highly recommend that approach instead—you will hear back much faster 🙂 If you need a reply, please consider becoming a Patron; I prioritize Patron questions.
Here are some reasons you won’t get a reply:
- Your question is answered in the FAQ or Encyclopedia
- Your question is answered in the blog post you’re enquiring about
- Your question is about troubleshooting a formulation that is not mine (either yours or somebody else’s)
- Your question is about your business
- And possibly, if your question is absolutely massive. If you write to me requesting personal, one-on-one, hands-on instruction; or asking me to develop a custom formulation just for you/your business, or asking me to explain everything I know about preservatives or emulsifiers or something to you, you won’t be getting a reply.
- “Is this natural?” queries
- “Do you have a recipe/formulation for X?” Please search for it. If I do, it’ll be here on Humblebee & Me, or in my book, Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care.
Posted in: Personal & Website
