Forums such as BlazerForum.com work off of the cumulative knowledge of all of its members. This knowledge is not only offered up to those that are in need by way of new posts, but also recorded for reference by others that may be experiencing the same problem. By using the private messaging system to request technical assistance from one member, you are restricting your answers to that one persons knowledge and experience as well as depriving other members of the discussion that were to take place through private messages.

To put this on a personal level... Regardless of my insight, I know there are things to which I am not fully experienced with. This does not limit my attempts to try to help others; to study their particular problem in efforts to understand and gain that experience, but during that time, even my advice might not be directly on the mark. The same is true for the vast majority of the active members here. Our cumulative knowledge is our strength. What one person may not have directly experienced another likely has. By PM'ing one member, you cut out the greatest strength of a forum. Even if the member you have contacted has the knowledge and experience to help you with your situation, the use of PM's still deprives future members from that exchange. Both of these short-comings can be easily avoided by posting up your questions in the appropriate forum section and patiently awaiting responses. Also, gentle and sometimes blunt requests to use the search function are not in an effort to discourage question asking, but rather as a means of not repeating the bulk of what many of the veteran members know is available in other threads.
To speak for myself a little further... The volume of Private Messages I handle on a weekly basis sometimes rivals the number of new threads on the board (). Lately it has gotten a lot better, but there are times when it is a lot to respond back to. I try to respond to everyone (both in the open forums and through PM) in a timely manner, but some things get overlooked and for that I do apologize. As many members are aware, no one here gets paid to provide this service and we all have jobs/families/hobbies outside of the forum that require our time and attention.

Please do not take this thread (or the others in the Administrative Links section of my signature) as an insult. Threads like these are meant to give members a nudge in the right direction in terms of forum etiquette. Anyone directing your attention to any of these threads is doing so in effort to help you make the most of your interaction with others on this forum.

Thank you!