---
title: Contact
author: Issa Rice
date: 2018-11-01
---

The best way to contact [[about|me]] is via email at [riceissa@gmail.com][email].

If you prefer, you can friend me on [[Facebook]] and message me there.
My acceptance algorithm for Facebook friend requests looks something like this:
if 50+ mutual friends, then accept;
if 1+ mutual friends and when I look at this person's Facebook wall it actually has content that looks like it was written by a human, and this person seems like a real human, then accept;
if I've met this person in real life or they message me/email me simultaneously with the request or I otherwise recognize their online activity from elsewhere, then accept;
if the account looks like obvious spam, then reject;
else ignore the request for now to see if I can make a better decision later.
In particular, if we have few mutual friends and your Facebook wall is empty or has only link posts for random internet articles, I am unlikely to accept your friend request. (Note from 2022-10-21: I have been kind of bad about responding to friend requests lately, as I haven't been using Facebook as regularly. If you really want me to accept your request, you can email me.)

You can also message me on Discord (my username is `issarice`) or [Telegram](https://t.me/issarice).

If you would like to ask me a question that I can answer publicly, you can use
my ["ask me anything" repository on GitHub](https://github.com/riceissa/ama) or
my [Tumblr "Ask me anything" form](https://riceissa.tumblr.com/ask). I will be
notified by email (via GitHub or Tumblr, respectively) but will respond publicly (if I choose to
respond).
Content is not shared between the GitHub repo and Tumblr, so e.g. a question
posted on GitHub will not show up on Tumblr.

You can also [send me anonymous feedback][feedback] (an idea I got from [Luke
Muehlhauser][l_feedb] and [Gwern][g_feedb]).

I try to respond to everyone who contacts me, but [for various reasons][noc] I
might not; feel free to [ping me][ping] if I don't respond.
Also see ["I emailed my customer asking multiple questions. Their reply
addressed only one. What is the polite way to point this out?"][multiq]; i.e. I
will try to respond to every question or point, but sometimes I might not (for
whatever reason).
If you really want an answer, feel free to re-ask the question/restate the
point.

See the page on [[account names]] for account names I use on various websites.
You can try to contact me through those sites (if they offer a messaging
feature) but other than email/Facebook Messenger/Discord/Telegram I can't guarantee I will check them regularly.
In some cases (such as Quora) I have disabled message requests on a platform as they were used almost entirely for spam.

You can stalk me online (e.g. by following me on Quora or Facebook or by
reading what I have on this website or my contributions to other sites).
I also don't mind if you ask questions about me on Quora, if you want to
passively contact me that way, though I don't control what Quora allows.

I don't think having high standards and being very accessible/welcoming of
newcomers and inexperienced people are incompatible.
(See Duncan Sabien and Jonathan Blow -- and maybe Terence Tao as well -- as
examples of people who embody both.)
I strive to have both properties.

[email]: mailto:riceissa@gmail.com
[feedback]: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AbwmuMIyzB5X7P4ysL71vGD4WnMxsCKsAZULLc0X7V0/viewform?usp=send_form
[g_feedb]: http://www.gwern.net/About#anonymous-feedback
[l_feedb]: http://lesswrong.com/lw/8bt/tell_me_what_you_think_of_me/
[multiq]: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/44483/i-emailed-my-customer-asking-multiple-questions-their-reply-addressed-only-one
[noc]: http://lesswrong.com/lw/eua/reasons_for_someone_to_ignore_you/ "“Reasons for someone to ‘ignore’ you” by Wei Dai"
[ping]: http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/why-you-need-to-be-better-at-following-up.html "The Art of Following Up (Without Being Annoying)"