How many times have I heard the same thing about people with the "bigger" sites won't take the time to answer e-mail to the "regular" people. Before I say anything, I will point out that there are web masters of "larger" sites that have become jerks mainly because of their inflated ego. But most of us aren't really like that. [note that I'm putting myself in the larger web site maintainer category] I guess I can't speak for everyone out there, so I will speak for myself, since a lot of people just don't seem to get it. First off, I am not a very happy person. Very rarely am I in a good mood, and it's only when I'm in a good mood that I usually reply to e-mail (and make web pages), unless it severely pisses me off (like when I get chain letters). And since that is sort of rare, I often don't get around to answering right away, but that isn't enough for some people who demand an instant answer. If you want instant gratification, go smoke crack, because it might be a week or two before I reply. Contrary to popular belief, there are some people who have lives that do NOT revolve around their e-mail.
Another thing I find is that people treat the larger web masters like they're servants. I do not owe any of you anything, so don't even try demanding anything of me. I feel obligated to help people that ask questions of me, and I'm glad to help (it makes me feel useful), but then there are the people that DEMAND you do things for them. Along with that is the ever popular dangling carrot, e-mail (which goes back to loony toons where Elmer Fudd tries to bait Bugs Bunny with a fishing pole with a carrot dangling at the end). "If you do [insert action here] for me, I'll link your page." Guess what, I really don't care who in the hell links my page. I don't want my page to be linked because I prostitute my services, I want people to link my page because they LIKE it. This is also why I don't add just anyone to my links list. I hate going to huge link lists of a bunch of crap. I want people to see a small amount of links that I liked, not a pile of junk from a link exchange. Am I such a bad person for operating this way?
And yes, many of us "larger" web masters just aren't as friendly as those with smaller pages. Is this only because of ego? Let me tell you the tale of a little anime page made by Archen. It was only a few years ago that I started making a web page (a Sailor Moon page at the time), and I remember being all happy and starry eyed just like you see many people out there. I remember how happy and grateful I was for each e-mail, and I would cheerfully reply to all of them immediately. Then I started to get the negative mail, and for those of you who don't know, Sailor Moon mail is about as vicious as it gets. It doesn't matter how many good comments you get, it only takes one bad e-mail to ruin your day, and when you get at least one a day, you tend to become rather unhappy with e-mail in general. Some people say "just blow it off", which of course is what you should do, but its just not something that I can do. And yes I took about the first 100 negative e-mails rather personally. The worst thing, is that the more popular your site gets, the more negative e-mail you get. By the time people consider your site to be rather large, you get tons of insults about everything all the time. And you know what? We get sick of it. How many times have I seen an e-mail message open with "you are a total idiot...". Eventually what happens is that you harden yourself to e-mail in general. Even if you don't want to be, your just not as open and friendly to everyone as you used to be. I think most of us manage keep a fairly friendly attitude, but generally we're not going to be your best friend instantly like you may expect.
And last but not least, don't judge my personality by my page. People think that because they consider my page to be "humorous", that I'm this happy jolly guy that cracks jokes all the time. I hate to break this too you, but I'm not very jolly. In fact I rarely ever smile. I do however have a good sense of humor, and I'm very cynical about things. I'm glad if you find my page makes you laugh, but please don't assume you know who I am. My site to some extent does reflect who I am, but it only reflects a PART me. People do the same thing to movie stars, who they confuse with a character the actor plays. There are many different sides to an individual person, and most of them are probably not reflected on a page which is not even about that person. I'm just so tired of hearing "you seem so friendly by your page, but your really a jerk".