In regards to the local rule, I'm going to quote something I've posted previously that is surprisingly perfect for this topic:
The fact that you are making a thread directed to a single member (which is what PMs are for) in a board that disallows self-moderated threads, I'm gonna go with "local rules do not apply" here. If you want theymos to reply, message him directly. If he doesn't reply, tough luck but I guess he wasn't interested in responding.