, Ed ... owing to flagrant misuse of the PM facility by some idiotic past members, Administration reluctantly took the decision to restrict Private Messaging to those who have 'Respected' status (i.e., the ones whose usernames appear in RED) and above.

Q. How does one become "Respected", then?

A. Simply keep posting ... and, in turn, earn (what we call) "Reputation Comments" + Points for contributions which others find helpful.