RFC: How do you like to meet?

1. I like both depending on circumstances. If there is some connection already (blog, twitter, etc) but no face-to-face, I'm inclined to email the person directly. If none, an introduction from a mutual friend or colleague is preferable.

2. Highly likely. Personally (using LinkedIn as base), it's almost 100%. It is 100% for introduction requests from existing connections. For direct contacts from unconnected members, there is some noise in that signal ;~) and I won't respond in every case. However, it is mostly signal so for the most part I do.

3. Validation of commonality and capability followed by collaboration opportunities, e.g. ways I can help them.

William W. (Woody) Williams
Project Management Consultant
| Blog | Twitter |
w3src Consulting

Matt,

when meeting someone new, there has to be some context. If there is already some information available - from blog or forum comments by or about the person, LinkedIn profile or door64 biography, then it is fine to email the person directly. If such context is missing, then an introduction from a mutual acquaintance is very helpful.

I always respond to hand-written (i.e. not form letters) introductions from people in my network. Occasionally, I will respond to people outside the network, or to mass communication.

The first thing to learn about a new acquaintance depends on the context of the introduction. For someone introduced through a mutual colleague, it's about possible collaborations, other mutual acquaintances, common history. For someone met through blog or forum conversation, it is about ideas and opinions, and what we can learn from each other.

Jane Prusakova
Software Architect & Developer
My blog

Thanks Woody & Jane. This is what I anticipated, and I feel the same way. I suspect others do also.

I am considering implementing an introductory service on door64 such that members can sign-up for periodic introductory emails between you and other members who are "like you"....gleaning information from your user profile. My thinking was that asking either member to take the initiative was less preferable than a mutual introduction to both of you. The goal is to help people network with their colleagues, even so far as making the introductions for you.

Thoughts? Ideas?

I like it. The concept also means we, the door64 family, need to focus on our profiles in order to gain "like you" and interesting intros -- nothing wrong with that ;~)

William W. (Woody) Williams
Project Management Consultant
| Blog | Twitter |
w3src Consulting

Yes, and I'm working on the profile aspect too. They will be changing...

Thanks for all your hard work on door64, Matt. We greatly appreciate all your efforts.

Here are couple suggestions for the website, use them if you wish:

* The fixed-width of the homepage is too wide for those with 1280x1024 monitors, without side-scrolling. Perhaps you could use a different style sheet for those using lower resolution monitors or devices.

* I miss the forums. It was nice to be able to browse by topic. Maybe I'm just old-school, but I liked having a topic list so I could easily find threads that were interesting to me. Now everything is just in one big list. It's sort of confusing that what used to be called "forums" is now "blogs".

Scarolan - thanks for the suggestions; I appreciate them!

1. Re: the home page: yes, it's wide. If only I was a real theme designer... :) I need to figure out how to do that.

2. The forums: The problem was that the topics weren't really segregated. People would post into any forum, so in reality it was more difficult to navigate because each forum was a catch-all. That's why I went to the blogs, since it just becomes a stream of updates. Down the road I'd like to implement some tagging solutions that would allow you to navigate conversations by their content tags...which would give you the equivalent of the discussion forums.

Matt
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By the way, scarolan -- the width of the door64 site is 1250 pixels. How is it not fitting on a 1280x1024 screen (in particular, within 1280 pixels)? Is your browser maximized?

You're right, Matt. I think I know what the problem was, I had the text size on my laptop cranked up a couple notches. When I use the external monitor (1280x1024) with it, it pushed some of the page over the edge of the window. You can disregard my post, as I can see it fits fine on my second monitor at home which is also 1280x1024.

This discussion uses the word "meet", but it seems like we're mostly discussing e-mail contact.

When I e-mail someone new, it can be helpful to have a mutual friend make an introduction, especially if I think the recipient tends to ignore e-mail. Otherwise, if I've got something actually useful to say, then an introduction is probably not necessary. I think the utility of the e-mail plays a big role. Busy people don't want their time to be wasted. If you (the collective "you", not matt in particular :-)) want your e-mail to be taken seriously, then you can't waste the recipient's time.

I think this goes to the second question about my own likelihood of responding to an e-mail. If I think the sender has actually thought out the e-mail and really has something to say, then I'll probably respond. On the other hand, if the sender just seems to be chumming for information and isn't known to me, I'm less likely to respond.

When I first meet someone (or have an e-mail conversation with someone), I think I'm trying to find out if they've got something new to tell me. They could have (or have had) interesting jobs, or have interesting hobbies, or something. Or maybe they have an idea for something they would like to do. I perceive these things as indicators of energy, motivation, and creativity, all of which I respect and value in a person.