PLL, what you have to remember is, someone (like Marc) who starts and runs a big forum like this has become over 15+ yrs, is bound to be besieged with tons of emails every day. Ie.: everyone "has an idea" or a question, or an issue, or ..... whatever. It's easy for you and I to think "what's so hard about returning an email?", but when you or I get a couple of emails per day, we just can't comprehend. And believe me, everyone of those people who try to email him, to
them, it's of utmost importantance
To them, their idea is just "common sense". To them, Marc should be their best friend, and they just don't understand why they're not getting a reply. You know, people with questions on how to post pictures, how to delete, and other such tech-questions. Advertising ideas, issues with other posters, treasure that marc should look into, blah blah blah. I got a small taste of this a president of a brick & mortar club. Every new guest brings their gripes, ideas, issues, etc... to me, as if I must somehow answer them, address them, prove or disprove their latest treasure lead, etc....
Example: I know a fellow, for instance, who was 40 yrs. into this, with much technological back-ground in electronics, detecting, etc.. And he had a "heart of gold" and loved to help people. He'd chime in to threads, etc... And sure enough, people saw his intellect on the various matters, and sought him out for personal one-on-one with their individual questions, comments, etc.... Well, it turns out that
another fellow who used to live in that guy's city and state, re-located to my area of CA. As I began to hunt together with this guy, he told me that this tech fellow would literally be on the computer for HOURS every night, *just* to answer the emails, and give each of them due attention, consideration, feed-back, etc.... In fact, it even got to the point where he was on the phone with beginners, etc..... If it hadn't been for his being semi-retired, and a love of typing out things, he wouldn't have even had time for that. And we're just talking one guy who just chimes in on threads, like the the rest of us. I only give you that, as an example of what you don't often see, behind the scenes, of someone who takes it on themselves to do such things, is that they get bombarded.
Before I heard of the hours and sweat it took to nightly read and answer this one guy's emails, I simply had no idea. In fact, I too had emailed this fellow (before I became friends of the person who actually knew him) for more specific technical followup on a vintage machine. And I remember being sort of quizzical of why it took him days to reply, or why he hadn't fully answered a question, or why I had to ask two times, etc... It simply never dawned on me, that ...... unlike myself, he got dozens upon dozens of emails per day, and each one, thinks that they're the only one, or the most compelling email that simply must be addressed, etc....