Catherine Becic <73414.2603@compuserve.com> asks:
> About how much email do you average a day?

Email...maybe 60-80 per day, sometimes more. In public forum
messages, on various systems...hundreds.

I try to answer as much as I can, but often the questions are
too complex, or ask for elaborate story discussion ("Can you give me
the history of Minbar before Earth made contact?"), or have
multiple-subquestions to the point where I can't deal with ANY of it.

See, the problem is, everyone thinks "Well, it's just me, after
all." Well, according to our ratings, there are between 10-15 million
"me's" out there. But often folks don't understand that.

For instance, a guy sent me a piece of email recently with 13
*very* elaborate and detailed questions, much along the lines of the
one just quoted above. I couldn't get into any of them, there were
just too many, and they were much too involved. A week later, I got a
VERY angry and agitated letter from that person saying what a jerk I
was for not answering his questions, that he had taken the time to
write them so I had an obligation to answer them, he's the Fan who is
keeping the show alive and we owe this to the fans who support us...he
got fairly abusive about it. "It shouldn't take too much of the BUSY
PRODUCER'S TIME to answer ONE LETTER!" he said in conclusion.

Sure, if it WERE just one letter. But it ain't.

Other times, people will leave public or private mail
*demanding* I answer something, as though I were under contract to
them, or paid to be here. Suffice to say that I generally ignore such
notes.

It's worth noting, though, that those remain the exceptions to
the rule; most of the online crowd is well-behaved and intelligent and
courtous, especially among B5 fans.

jms