Good post. This is approximately what I've been doing for the last two weeks as I try to contact specific developers to come work at famo.us. I spend time researching them, including reading their github code, twitter and G+ streams, LinkedIn, personal blog etc.
If I can't find a solid connection between what their experience and the things they love to do then that is a signed that I haven't researched enough or that there really isn't a fit and that I shouldn't bother them and waste their time.
My favorite quote about email comes from Seth Godin:
"I don't want to get email from anybody. I want to get me-mail"
I don't understand why this was down-voted, the parent commenter clearly states that he is searching for employees and this comment states that he is interested in a job there.
Maybe the downvoter thinks he should have contacted the parent directly?
Edit: It's now back to positive, but I think HN could be improved by giving more private ways to contact people - the obvious way would be Private Messages, but this got me thinking about whether replies visible only to the OP and other posters in the thread would be a good solution - and yes, I know HN could implement a lot of other features before this one :) .
I actually disagree, I think the public medium by which we can see every interaction is what makes this place so good, if you want to be needlessly bitchy, you need to do it in public where everyone else can see it.
It keeps us in check and thinking carefully about our comments and stops a lot of degradation of standards, with regards to quality of comments.
If I can't find a solid connection between what their experience and the things they love to do then that is a signed that I haven't researched enough or that there really isn't a fit and that I shouldn't bother them and waste their time.
My favorite quote about email comes from Seth Godin:
"I don't want to get email from anybody. I want to get me-mail"