Aussie1, thanks for your concerns on this issue. The reason why we locked out "mailroom" members from contact forms is the inevitable abuse that will take place from bashers/spammers, etc.

If we didn't do it, then someone could register on the site, earn no credibility - but start spamming everybody from Day 1.

You are 100% right that this is the day of communication - but this is also the day of massive amounts of spam (discussion forums, e-mail, blog posts, blog comments, etc.). Just look at the spam abuse on SH because they chose to leave the flood gates open.

As such, knowing where to limit communication is sometimes the best communication of all.

Hope this helps clarify things.

Regards,
George