Over the past years since joining the BHO, I’ve opted occasionally to send emails or private messages to other members (rather than publically posting them on a forum); usually to compliment them (or offer words of encouragement) on their banjo playing performance, viewpoints, observations and more. About 99% of the time, recipients would reply with a “thank you,” or similar words of appreciation.
That’s not true with the remaining one percent. For whatever reason, they don’t reply. Perhaps, they simply forgot, became side-tracked, the moment wasn’t opportune, they simply didn’t care or they were reluctant, fearsome or otherwise uneasy about replying to someone who’s not in their circle of friends or luminaries. IMO a “silent’ reply promotes speculation as to why a reply wasn’t sent However, depending on the specific text of what I had sent and who was the recipient that didn’t reply, I may now have a jaded opinion of that person—justified or not.
All that said, in most cases, members elect to express openly their appreciation or support of others achievements and talents, points of interests and more on different BHO forums, especially the Sound-Off forum. Now that’s a good thing. I believe that compliments and words of encouragement, most definitely, are appreciated by their recipients, regardless of whether they openly acknowledge it or not. However, getting a reply means that that person had received the message and that they appreciated it.
(Note: The above is something I’d wanted to get out of my “craw” for a while. Now it’s done! In retrospect, I may have made a mountain out of a mole hill. )
What say you?