Can I ask a question asking people to discuss something via PMs?

I don’t see why not. Someone did it just the other day.

@dxs I was just afraid my question would be modded…

[mod says] The question guidelines here state that all questions must be “genuine, well-written, and prompt good discussion”. If a question is framed solely as a request for users to send a user a PM for the true details of the question, it fails the last rule—to prompt a good discussion.

Well at least you got one PMer while it was up. I might be going to bed soon, though, but I’ll be here tomorrow.

Oh yeah. I’ve just posted a question like that and I was modded :P

Sorry @muppetish :(

@Mimishu1995 No worries! :) I hope you’re still able to get the help you need. Feel free to PM if you think I might be of help.

These seem like they are in bad form. I can totally understand if someone wants to sort of outline the problem for others to respond to but more details that are private are hashed out over PM.

Like if I asked how to find a AA meeting and then someone offered to help find me a local one.

May as well link up via fb, tons of Fluther gossip going on, like a gaggle of demented geese, allegedly.

Why subject yourself to the heavy hands of the mods here when you can ask Jellies on FB?

If there are personal details that you don’t want to discuss, you could open an alternate account for the purpose of anonymity.

@jca Whoa! Why didn’t I think about it before? :P

I think questions like this are like asking what will happen if the sun explodes while being outdoors on a beautiful sunny day. Wouldn’t a better use of time and energy be just to enjoy the beautiful sunny day?

@Pachy I don’t understand your analogy. The question isn’t a complaint – and someone else just asked such a question a few days ago. No big deal to ask whether that sort of question is permitted.

Though, apparently, she would have had better results if she had asked the question, rather than ask if she was allowed to ask the question. :P

un-believ-able

This might work.

Frame your question like this, “Do any of you have any information about such and such?”

Then, after the first person responds, you can make another post that says, if anyone feels like PM’ing me about such and such, that would be great too.

That way, you’ll still get real responses on the actual thread, but people will know that you are also interested in talking about the subject privately.

You can also add into your post (not the Q itself) that you would appreciate it if we could send this Q to any other Jellies who are known to have this type of information (because you might not know). They don’t need to post the names of the Jellies, you would just be asking us to forward your Q to a Jelly who has expertise with the issue.

I’ve seen that done in the past, many times.