How can I reply to a user?

Question

I want to ask a question to a user on Ask Ubuntu, but I don't understand how to do it. There is no email, no nothing.

Can you tell me how to do it?

Answer 1

You can only directly contact another user under certain circumstances.

Right now, as you are a 1 rep user, you can't, unless you asked a question or left an answer and someone else commented on it then you can "ping" them with @ followed by their user name. For example to ping me you would write @markkirby in your comment and I would receive a notification about your comment or I would write @dannorris to ping you.

Once you have the privilege to comment anywhere (requires 50 rep) there are a few other ways to make contact using the same @ method above.

• If they posted a question or an answer, you can just comment below the post and the author will be notified.
• If someone else leaves a comment below a question or answer or is the last person to edit a question or answer, shown by their user card, centred, below the post.
• The only other way to contact a user is in chat (requires 20 rep), you can ping any user who left a message in chat for a limited time (24 hours?).

These are, for most users, the only way to directly contact someone on the site, please understand, this is not a social network and "chatting" is frowned upon (outside of chat of course), so the ways to contact someone are limited to only post interactions.

Some exceptions do exist, a mod can contact anyone, any time and some users will leave e-mail or social network details in their profiles, so it is worth a look if you really want to contact someone. Please also respect the fact that some users simply do not wish to be contacted off site.

This might seem a bit unfair to a new user but the limitations exist for a reason, these posts may help you to earn the 50 rep:

• How does Ask Ubuntu work?
• How do I quickly gain reputation?
• Reputation: How do I get the minimum necessary points in askUbuntu to get started?

I also recommend you take the tour and check out the help pages to get a better understanding of how this site works.

Answer 2

StackExchange sites are intended for public questions and answers. They are not really designed for private discussion.

You can ping a specific user in comments or chat. However, they are under NO obligation to respond. They are a volunteer, and answer what they please.