Wrong number

[ewx]

[Poll #1083179]

(To clarify I mean the reader's contact information and the reader's attempt to contact someone.)

Comments

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

By "contact information" do you mean (as suggested by your subject line) something other than an email address? Because then for question 2 I want
[X] Why would I ever want to do that?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do mean other than just an email address.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Because my friends keep moving and the only way I can send them a birthday card is by raiding their memories...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Email only also rather assumes you never want to be contacted in a more timely manner than by email.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

It's not in my memories, but it's linked from any page on my journal or from the userinfo. This is where I'd look for other people's link.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Similar for me: my contact details are in a friends-only entry linked to from my userinfo.

I did add it to my memories for a lark, though.

I also tend to add entries of other users to my memories when they announce their contact details there.

[lnr]

By contact information I presume you mean more than just an email address? I give that publicly on both LJ and my own webpages, though they're different addresses which might not be read as often as my main one.

Whenever I see someone else post a contact details post I add it to my memories. I keep an email addressbook online with my mail. I also have a card-box at home which I use for snail-mail addresses - mostly of people who aren't (very) online.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Usually more than just an email address. Some people might deliberately only want to be contacted by email (with all the implications that has) in which case their email address would be all their contact details.

[lnr]

And I've now linked to the contact details directly from user-info too.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

My phone number is on the public internet, in a slightly nonobvious place, but the email address next to it is now unused due to 100% spam. My address is harder to find.

My order is, if I'm not sitting next to someone who will tell me,
- google
- my email folder of saved contact details emails
- grep remaining mail
- look for an LJ memories post
- ring someone who is likely to know

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

[x] My parents are ex-directory, you insensitive clod! :P

Most people that matter already have my contact details; if people ask for them I usually text or email them, and LJ memories only crops up if that seems the quickest and most convenient way of sending such details...

[j4.livejournal.com]

2. [X] Check their facebook profile.

[mair_in_grenderich]

2a. [x] check if they have joined any 'X has lost their phone, please supply numbers' groups and posted their phone number on the wall.

[j4.livejournal.com]

... and if they have, change your phone number. :-}

[simont]

[X] I look through my email from them, particularly party invitations. In fact I have an email folder containing people's contact details, in which I save mails they send me containing those details and also mails I send myself containing things they told me by some other medium. Not everything I need is always in there, but it's a good first place to look.

Using an email folder for this purpose works well because it also naturally timestamps the information; so where a paper-based mechanism might land me in the situation of not quite being able to remember whether the six-digit number I scrawled beside their name is their phone number in this year's or last year's place, I can now just check the date on the email and make a good guess. (In fact, I'm a big fan of timestamping absolutely everything these days; I so often find myself wishing I'd timestamped completely random things that I now almost habitually write down the full ISO 8601 date and time when jotting random notes to myself.)

My current contact information is available online to members of the SGO VPN, in the obvious place (TINC). At least, it's current now, though it wasn't ten minutes ago; thanks for reminding me to update it :-)

[atreic.livejournal.com]

As in, the link to my contact information is in LJ userinfo, not the actual contact information.

I only sorted this out about a week ago, when I wanted to contact someone and was either pleased that it was easy, or annoyed that it was not. Can't remember which now.

[gerald_duck]

My contact information can be found…
[x] By means I won't divulge in a public poll

If I'm trying to find someone's contact information…
[x] I rummage my e-mail from them

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Like lots of other people, there's a link to a Friends-only post of mine in my userinfo. The other place I'd try looking as well as userinfo and memories is people's tags - if there's a tag called "contact details" or similar then I'd look there. Admittedly my own Friends-only contact details post didn't have this tag until a minute ago, but there you go.

I sent something through the post to an LJ friend's old address just a week and a half ago, alas. :-( (My mail bounced. Meg suggested "Why don't you try looking at the list of people's addresses for wedding invitations?" and that's where I'll try next. Probably should have thought of that first time.)

[aldabra]

I don't know whether my contact information is accessible anywhere. I don't remember setting it up, but I suspect I wouldn't have had spare headspace to remember in either case. If I want to find someone and they're not in my mail archive or my phone then I grind to a halt.

I ground to a halt some years ago, and therefore rarely have need to contact people.

[armb.livejournal.com]

Where by "look in" I mean "Google for", so public LJ posts might count.
And if an email address doesn't count as contact information, then the answer to the second question is probably "I email them and ask".

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

regarding clients - I have a business web page with my contact details on.

Don't people keep address books anymore?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

See "am organized and noted it down last time they told me new details" for the people who keep address books reliably l-)

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Depends on definition of "contact information" as well...it's very very easy to find an e-mail address for me (both official and unofficial ones), and if you had to get something to me urgently, doing it via the department would work. My departmental address is included in my e-mail signature from work and no one cares if I get the occasional personal package/letter to there. However, my home address isn't on the internet.

[imc.livejournal.com]

Another vote for "link in userinfo" for myself and "look in userinfo" for others.

I may have been organised enough to note it down last time someone told me their contact details, although I've been less organised recently and indeed I think I may have let the batteries in my PDA go down again through disuse.

I'm not organised enough to note it down every time someone tells you their contact details.

[pm215]

My email address is readily available online. Anybody who doesn't have my contact details is probably better off using that anyway; it's usually the fastest and most convenient method of contacting me. (If you phone my mobile, it's usually off. If you phone my landline, you usually get the answerphone, which will then email me to tell me that I have to check its messages. Snailmail is at the mercy of the Royal Mail.)

Conversely, if I want to find somebody's snailmail/mobile/etc details, I generally send them an email.

About the only exception is that it's handy to give and receive mobile numbers when you're going to be meeting somebody somewhere; in this case I send an email in advance to do this.

My previous employer did have an address book with coworkers' home/mobile phone numbers; that was occasionally handy.

[emperor]

[x] in a suitably-tagged LJ post

[x] I check their tag list for likely posts

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I'd not though of tags (and had to guess how to find an arbitrary user's tag list). It turns out it wouldn't have helped anyway...