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A short while ago I've received a request from another user to connect via facebook. Well, apart from the fact that I'm not very active on facebook, I'd definitely not like to provide any contact details on this site. That said, I was wondering whether there is some mechanism on this site whereby one can make this possible without the danger of unwanted contacts.

I notice from previous meta questions that one cannot send private messages because "this is not a social network." I can understand that (tongue in cheek), and I respect that. So this is not a suggestion for such a messaging system, but perhaps some other mechanism to take discussions to a different medium.

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    $\begingroup$ Well, you can come to our chatroom to be a chatroom-user. If the user you want to talk is also a chat-user, then you can make a gallery chat room for you two. $\endgroup$ – user36790 Oct 18 '16 at 11:00
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not sure what the question is here. Exactly what sort of feature or 'mechanism' are you looking for? $\endgroup$ – Emilio Pisanty Oct 18 '16 at 17:14
  • $\begingroup$ @Emilio I thought it was clear that the feature being requested is a way for members to exchange off-site contact information to facilitate private communication. $\endgroup$ – David Z Oct 19 '16 at 3:57
  • $\begingroup$ @MAFIA36790, thank for the chatroom idea. I think I'll try that. Just have to figure out how that works. $\endgroup$ – flippiefanus Oct 19 '16 at 4:33
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The mechanism to take discussions to a different medium already exists: you can provide contact information in your profile, or you can share it with another user in a chat room, or in a comment (although I hesitate to really recommend using comments for that purpose).

However, note that all these methods are public. That's by design. The purpose of Stack Exchange sites is to facilitate public communication, primarily Q&A but also discussion in chat; it's not really part of our mission to facilitate private communication.

If you're concerned about unwanted contact, I'd suggest something like this: have a dummy email address (or Twitter account or whatever) in your profile that you only use for initial communication from strangers. When you actually want to connect with someone, have them send you an email at that public address (or a DM on Twitter, or whatever), and then reply with your private contact info. Otherwise, you can ignore anything sent to the public address.

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