jd,

The preference is to keep things as transparent as possible. As a help forum, we like to see actual assistance through fruition. With email addresses posted, there would be a way to circumvent the process. Some spam bots also harvest personal email address through forums so our intent is also to protect members.

We never have an issue exchanging addresses between two willing parties or worry if someone has an email address linked to their website found on the member profile. In this last instance, there has been some 'abuse' however, some members report getting emails asking for personalized help and that defeats the whole HTG forum purpose.