[hackerpolicy]

I can see the system working the author, but not for everyone. Actually, the "Reply within 24h" for clients is terrible advice, in my experience: if you take long enough to reply, they will call you, and this call might last forever. It takes only a few seconds (with GMail/GApps shortcuts) to reply "Ok, investigating the issue."

I read somewhere that you should delete e-mail from people that are e-mailing you for the first time and/or you feel it's not going anywhere. If they really want to contact you/need your help, they will send a second e-mail. And that e-mail is worth a reply.