Hello

I assume that you mean 'on this forum', because if it's about Thunderbird all mail is private by default. Yes, if you click the user's icon, you get to a user page where there is a button 'Private message'.

gp, Thanks for your reply. If the person whose icon I click doesn't want private messages, do I get a notifcation of that? SweetTasha.

I have taken a look at the settings for my account and I don't see a way to disable private messages. If someone don't answer to a private message, either voluntarily or by mistake, I don't think there is any notification.

You can select a particular person by clicking on the username or avatar and opening in a new tab to see a 'Private Message' option OR access it via your own Profile Inbox.

Sending a message means message is sent and you have a copy in the Sent folder of Profile. There will be no notification of any type unless the recipient chooses to send one.

Private messageing is normally used for eg: thank someone for their help OR to ask someone if they could look at a specific question and provide link to question or maybe chat on a topic that is not necessarilly Thunderbird related. It's often used by people who offer help on Thunderbird to converse with other people who help on Thunderbird.

It should not be used to ask Thunderbird questions which should be asked in the forum. The reason all questions and responses are posted in forum questions is so that many people may benefit from the content. It also means several people can offer assitance in one discussion. It's a community forum created and used to benefit the community. People who freely help on the forum are unpaid volunteers, but their time is valuable. It would be considered impolite to presume personal unpaid assistance by circumnavigating an open discussion.

Todd-Hall, You mention that thanking a volunteer for posting their question is one reason to send a private message, I believe that a similar reason is to discuss with the volunteer something that casts a negative light on the author of a question (me in this particular case). That type of discussion should not be public. If I'm unable to convince the volunteer of my objection, that's the end of it. The forum isn't meant to be a place to discuss the merits. In that case I might want to (privately) get the opinion of a moderator. Is there a list of moderators available to the forum users?