I just had an alert from my web hosts at A Small Orange, reminding me in their polite way, to go and sort out my damned email box and clear the crap out of it. OK, OK, I am on the case. Now, in my sanctimoinious state, with 500 emails deleted and sorted, I can ask you guys the following questions. Hands up:

1- who doesn't check their email regularly?
2- who doesn't check their email properly?
3- who doesn't reply to the emails that should be replied to?

To set the ball rolling, I raise my hand, guilty as charged to number 2 and a little bit guilty of number 3. (In my defence I do make a point of responding to anyone who isnt a spammer, but hey, I'm human and don't get it right every time.)

Why manage email?

I can assure you that some good comes out of the mundane act of managing digital mail. After cleaning and sorting and re-reading email, (just like when you clear out an attic, you can't help but read the old cards, newspapers and gawp at long lost artefacts), I have re-discovered several gems of sites, and found lost contacts and useful info - a good return on 30 minutes of so-say boring work.

Renew old acquaintances

For instance, I forgot I was even in bloghub or klik us and this is my CBox! It will be interesting to see what is or isn't going on here.

I realize that I never even got round to confirming my account with Sharesale, and I found out that I was, after all, accepted at BuzzBums and it was me who hasn't followed through to check what is going on. (On further investigation, I do wonder why I was so keen to be in BuzzBums. I never see a hint of traffic from them, despite having had their logo in my looping ad box on every single page of The Pisstakers for weeks and weeks!)

Rediscover good sites you registered to.

I really need to call by Outpost-Earth and Eat My hamster to remember what it is that attracted me to them in the first place. (I just checked and I guess Eat My Hamster's inital lure will remain a mystery, because it now seems to be viral video charts!) I should also get a hold of Pankaj too, and see what happened to my application at 777media. I am ready for take-off, matey, where's my confirmation email?!

Rediscover old posts

I have also been reminded of some blog carnivals I entered, and wow, it looks like quite a few tech heads bothered to read a post I did about customising The Pisstakers theme to fit on a mobile device. I am not worthy of high tech critique, but thanks anyway.

Remember the good guys when they were young

And how cool to re-read the replies from owners of blogs I have reviewed. It is actually quite unusual for people to take the time to email to say thanks for the post and the links. One, who was a newbie at the time of writing, seems to have become quite a hit in the web business blog world, so cheers, Collis. (But a guy called Bill, I have no idea what you were talking about or where you came from!)

Reply to all worthy emails

As I said, I do like to jump on mail as it comes in, it is the least I can do. But I ain't no robot and make mistakes. So, when I get round to emailing a couple of people whose worthy emails slipped though the net - I will have total peace of mind.

For instance, I never recalled receiving a reply to a query about TicTap's excellent use of the Amazon database, but there it is, from Alex Choo who, in turn, has been awaiting a reply back from me! So I owe him one.

But I have just been a good boy and sent our Tell a Friend code to Natasha at dreadlocks.com - 3 months late! Ooops.

Do you owe The Pisstakers, or others, an email?

Having laid bare my inadequacies, I was thinking of naming and shaming a few big kahunas who never replied to my polite requests for assorted help. But they know who they are, at The Onion. And I suggest that others do what I just did and check their cluttered email. Sort out the lost emails, and at least say thanks but no thanks where appropriate. If not, karma will bite them on the bum.

At the Pisstakers proposed 3rd year anniversary convention in the Caribbean, 2009, I will be revealing the names of everyone who has snubbed my emails. My 50,000 members all flown in from around the world will consequently email those names to their friends. Naturally some of my members' friends will not bother reading these emails and so it will go on, year after year.