Hello

The more we know about each other’s communication preferences, the smoother contact will go[1]. So I try to be transparent about how I prefer to be in touch, and why.

In general:

  • I have a strong preference for asynchronous communication.
  • Be brief. To the point. Direct. Open. Honest. I’m Dutch, I’m used to it, no need for pleasantries.
  • My name is Niels, my nickname is Nizzlay. Address me with either. I will notice it if you misspell them, and it will influence my opinion about whatever else you say[2].
  • If you have multiple topics, send multiple messages. I like to be able to reply to one thing, even if I’m not able to reply to the other yet.

Please don’t reach out about:

  • Placing ads. This is my personal place on the web, and it’s not for sale.
  • Doing guest posts. Again, the personal thing, not a place for anyone else to post.
  • Link exchanges. It’s an outdated strategy that will probably do more harm than good[3].

Email

Probably the best option.

Keep it short though, I can get intimidated by a wall of text.

I’m not checking it 24/7, so please don’t expect an instant response, but I’ll get back to you. Feel free to follow up if I haven’t replied after a week or so.

You can reach me on: hi@nizzlay.com

Text message

Text messages somewhat force you to be brief, so there’s a clear benefit for it. And I do check it more frequently. But it tends to be harder to talk about multiple topics at the same time (which is easy for email).

You can reach me on:

Please do stick with text messages, not voice messages[4].

For WhatsApp, I couldn’t find a way to share without sharing my phone number, which I have regretted doing in the past[5]. So, sorry, that one’s out.

Social media

I left Facebook decades ago. I have left Twitter when it became X. I have never had BluesSky, Threads, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever else is out there.

I do still have LinkedIn, but I dislike it as a platform. I mostly use it as an online resume, and maybe a tiny bit as an address book, I do not use it for ongoing communication.

In the context of social media, you can reach me on Mastodon as @nizzlay on indieweb.social.

Phone call

Phone, teams, Zoom, whatever, the same applies to all. By far the worst option for me. Both of us would need to have time, at the exact same time.

It baffles me that there are people (and companies) who just call out of the blue, and assume someone would be available to answer. My phone is in “Do not Disturb” mode almost 100% of the time, and I’m very annoyed whenever I have to turn this off[6]. If you call me out of the blue, I will not answer.

If you really insist on calling, we might be able to make it work, but scheduled calls only. This way we won’t interrupt each other, and there’s actually the opportunity to prep before the call.

  1. Which is also what Alastair Johnston thought, so he decided to list a bunch of these “Hello pages” in which people (I’m on it too!) share their preferences. ↩

  2. Copy/Paste is not that hard, is it? ↩

  3. And even if it did work, don’t you think it’s a bit spammy? ↩

  4. There’s no benefit in voice messages. They’re annoying to listen to. If you insist on talking to your device, use the dictation. ↩

  5. People called me, out of the blue, ignoring the fact that the phone number wasn’t intended for phone calls, and I definitely do not like (unscheduled) phone calls. ↩

  6. The only times are when I’m expecting a call, and there’s no way to add the expected caller to an allow list. ↩