Contact me

Getting hold of me can be tricky. Sorry about that.

By telephone

I don't put my personal numbers online. I don't expect unsolicited phone calls from companies. If I know you, please drop me a note by email and I'll give you my mobile number.

email & spam

I don't like spam. I don't see it as a necessary part of using email. It is something we can and should fight.

My main personal tool against spam is a white-list of anyone I have had an email exchange with in the last ten years. If you mail ash@videdot.com, and you or your domain is on the list, it comes straight through.

If you are not on the list, then your mail will almost certainly be ignored. There are a few ways around this:

Magic words

There are a few magic words you can put in your subject line to get through to me. Most of them are semi-secret, and they change now and then.

Now, if you want to promise you will not send me spam – that is your mail will be neither bulk, nor an unsolicited commercial invitation – then please put the word quatloo somewhere in the subject line. If you break this agreement, I reserve the right to charge you forty UK pounds sterling, sixty euro or eighty US dollars per message received, whichever I prefer.

Special addresses

There are a number of other addresses, which I never post online which come straight to me. I hand them to people I meet out & about so we can keep in touch. If I'm working with your organisation, I'll give you a magic address; please use that, and keep it to yourself.

I also give distinct email addresses to different companies. This makes detecting phishing attacks easier, and lets me see when companies like Goldfish and Swinton Insurance manage to leak or sell my details to spammers.