Yes, your story. You said that you wanted them "to let me know if they found my work useful or not." This is exactly the kind of expectation that they would be highly unlikely to fulfill before or after 9/11/2001. In other words, you were seeking validation for the intellectual effort that you put in. It was an unrealistic expectation on your part for reasons that should be manifestly obvious.
Now, I got what you like to tell me. Thank you.
It is natural that there is always a certain misunderstanding for a while because, we like it or not, there are different worlds (different in many aspects) on the same planet, called Earth.
For example, if I were an American, I wouldn't join their forum in the first place and offer them a gift, because I would know in advance that having trust (them and I) in others is non-sense while there are rules made to regulate almost all sorts of transaction.
On the other hand, when I visited China for business, about 15 years ago, I lived the inverse of this. To Chinese, at least the ones I met, friendship and trust come before rules and contracts. So, when I returned home, and a payment might be delayed by banks, they didn't mind sending me the goods (to save me time) even before they received their money because we were able having a mutual trust. Also, I used to believe them when they had some technical problems which prevented them to send me the goods at time.
Also, I recall when I was 23, I went to 'Nantes' (a city at the west of France by the Atlantic) as an undergraduate trainer at the offices of the 'Electricite de France' for two months (in summertime). I needed a full month (30 days) before I discovered that looking for a male friend means to the locals there that I have to be gay! Naturally, after this great unexpected discovery, I didn't hesitate to talk with the first beautiful local girl I met where I work. From the first minute, she was very friendly while I was introducing myself. On the same day, she invited me to her house where she lived with her mother (her father was dead a few years earlier). At last, I had there a good friend to talk with (yes, just to talk
) besides visiting many places in her city including various restaurants every time we needed a break, till she had to leave for a sort of camping. My point is that what I lived in Nantes was
exactly the reverse of what I live in my city. Here friendship could exist between two of the same gender only, though they are all natural sexually (as it is the case everywhere, there might be some exceptions
). For instance, I got the name 'Kerim' (with the French ‘errrr’) from the girl of Nantes who used calling me with this name. Unlike all names of my relatives of my age or younger, my ID name is Abdul-Karim (the slave of the generous, to Muslims it means slave of Allah
) which happened to be the name of my grandfather (a Roman Catholic).