I figure the "Beginner's Forum" is the best place to post this (though it is probably just as appropriate in the Troubleshooting and Programming forums), so here goes:

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Recently I, and I understand others, have received an increasing number of unsolicited PM's (private messages) asking for personal or individual help.

Please understand that it is considered very poor form to PM members of a forum asking for "private" help, unless you have been invited to do so. Think about it for a minute; those of us who freely give of our time to help in the forums would be absolutely swamped with requests for personal attention if a lot of users did this.

While there may be times, in the course of a public thread, when a forum user may invite you to PM him/her with "private" information, it is almost universally true that those of us who choose to do this kind of "public service" work prefer to have the threads be public so that other users can help and contribute to the solution of the problem *and* so that others may benefit from the answers that are given.

Responding to a public posting benefits *many*, while responding privately only benefits *one*....I'm not at all averse to helping you, but I do *not* consider myself to be a "free personal consultant". I don't want to just ignore such requests, but it is often either that, or just refusing to accept PM's at all. To do anything else would only detract from the amount of time I can spend on the general forums where *many* might benefit from my efforts

You may find it useful to read through this "classic" internet reference piece, "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" as it may help you to get more useful answers in forum environments. *Please* try to form "good questions" (as in the link I provided) and post them to the public forums - I, and others, will try our best to help you there.

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--rlparker