why so few email responses?

[Guest guest]

Haribol,

 

> I was wondering if someone has a good answer to why the email response

> frequency is so poor among Iskcon services, devotees, email addresses

> advertised on websites etc?

 

I felt compelled to respond to this so that at least you won't have to

experience the fact that Free Forum isn't that much of an exception

either. ;-)

 

> I think one can easily say that about 80% or more email requests sent

> to temples, online services and shops are left completely unanswered,

> at least that is my personal experience.

 

I won't tell you that I have the blanket answer to this one, but from my

personal experience I can tell you that a major reason is that many of the

ISKCON projects -- particularly online -- are personal endeavors running

mainly on the good will and motivation of one or a few individuals. This

means that they are usually poorly funded or not at all, that there is no

adequately trained staff or not enough people (a big one!), that there is

a lack of resources, that those who are involved generally have jobs or

other engagements to sustain themselves (and their families). This leaves

little time to deal with feedback.

 

Other factors may be inexperience, lack of motivation, internal politics,

and what not. ALso, often projects are started in a fit of enthusiasm and

excitement, just to fizzle out in the long run for a variety of reasons

(that may include some or many of the above).

 

So a good amount of the Websites out there are front-ends without

back-ends, so to say.

 

Y.s. Varnadi das