Now I am finding this more interesting. A private msg can actually help in making more enquiries rather than asking a public message when it not required
Some members have restrictions on PM from newbies so if you don't have troubles to ask publicly, don't go with PMs. They choose the restriction because some of newbies are scammers and they send multiple annoying PMs to older members just to try their advertisements or try to scam as many victims as possible.
Profile > Personal Message Options > Allow newbies to send you PMs. (you can check your profile too).