Why are so many dis allowing email, or IM contact at this point in time ?

I, myself have pondered this question and come to the terrible conclusion that many people are receiving some kind of abuse from other members.

I love to hear from people also and have made many international friends in this way. I guess some others like to remain completely anonymous but I always allow and answer emails.

I don't have IM but I do allow e mails. I quit that for a while and I will tell you why. I answered a question on here 1 time and this person wrote me and bawled me out for disagreeing with them.. I ignored it and I continued to get e-mails from this person. I don't mind helping people at all but I don't appreciate my mailbox full of people who want to tell me off because they disagree with me. I have had several people write for "help" and I help them all I can and they continue to write for more answers..even after I told them I had no more answers. I even had people writing me asking me if it was ok if they broke the law.. what did they expect me to say...

I think that's the issue..not that people are being mean but people don't want to be harassed

dictum est may be on the right track, I have received abusive e mail from users of this feature, but in the long run I have received more interesting conversations, there are more sincere people out there than there are idiots.