Partner of AZB and Emails to Me

I don't know how many people know this, but I am a partner of AZBilliards (since 1999 or 2000).  If you don't know what AZB is, it's the most visited pool website in the world. We cover tournament results, have a marketplace, rank players, have a very popular pool forum, a tournament calendar for all the tours, a section of columnists, etc.

While I don't get paid (it's mostly volunteer work), I began helping out by taking pics at tournaments, writing articles, calling in bracket info, designing websites, etc.  While my role has dwindled due to obligations at home (taking care of my Mom and then her passing in late 2011), I still help out a little bit when I can.

I am listed on the Contact Page of AZB as the "media contact for several pro players, tours, and billiard companies."  Even though that isn't technically accurate, at least I'm listed!  :)  The other two people listed (Mike and Jerry (no, that's Ben and Jerry's you're thinking of)) are the main cohorts of AZB.  Mike founded it, Jerry joined several years ago.

As you can imagine with most companies, when someone has a request, problem, idea, needs help, has a complaint, needs correction, etc., they go to the Contact page. And then they email either everyone on the page, or they try to figure out the best person to email.

For some reason, I get A LOT of unrelated emails because I'm listed on that Contact page of AZB.  I have received

• complaints about certain people on the forums, 
• lots of emails that we have names misspelled,
• people trying to sell me pool tables, pool cues, or pool gadgets,
• companies wanting to improve the traffic to our site,
• lots of emails asking why their finish wasn't included in the stats,
• emails from people who want to add their tour,
• people wanting to advertise,
• people wanting to know details about tournaments that will occur in 9-12 months (I have no idea, but search the web and usually find answers for them),
• people sharing tournament write-ups and press releases,
• problems to post in the forums (can't log in or can't post a new thread),
• people needing contact info of Pros,
• people telling us we have a typo or error in our tourney recaps,
• people asking about certain pool products,
• people cussing at us because something isn't working properly for them,
• people complaining about other pool players,
• etc.

While some of these seem normal requests (and some of others are part of territory of owning a company), I'm simply not the person who should receive 95% of these emails.  I certainly cannot help someone log onto the forums (I don't approve the permissions) and I can't edit the site for errors, nor can I add results into our database.

It got to the point where I almost asked Mike to remove my name from the contact page, but when I received this one, it was so dang funny, I've decided I should keep my name up there and see what other emails I might get that make my day!

hello, my name is (xxxxx xxxxx)....i own/operate (xxxx xxxxx's billiards) in (city, state)...we have a road player by the name of (xxx xxxxx) coming into my pool room the last week or so...he says he lives in (city, state) ...... i know all the strongest players in that city...rumor has it he is from southern (state) & played on the one of too many pro tours from 2003-2007...do u have any info on this  guy??...sincerely (xxxxx xxxxxxxx)

I still can't believe anyone would email a question like this.  Seriously!  Even if I knew him, I wouldn't out him.  Maybe it's the sign of the Internet age.  Kinda like the other day someone snuck a pic of a road player and posted it on the forums asking peep if we knew who he was.  But seems kinda wild/weird to email an online pool company to see if we have info on a road player!  smh.