I am a regular reader and very irregular poster to MMD.  I am often
frustrated with the fact that many people apparently send email
responses directly to the poster and not to the MMD.  Since this is
supposed to be a forum, sending a response only to the poster does
not benefit other readers.

Of course, there are unique situations where sending only to the poster
is appropriate, such as when the poster is looking for a particular
roll.  But when a poster is asking for input on a restoration question,
or something other than looking for a particular part, the whole
community benefits from a public response.

Keep in mind that many people, like me, read MMD regularly just to
gain a wide range of knowledge.  Private responses make MMD less
relevant to readers like me.  In addition, the questions go to the
Archives, but in those cases there is no response so the archives are
not helpful.

I appreciate both the work that the publishers do on MMD and the
interaction of the users, but it would be better if there weren't so
many private responses.

Gary Goldsmith