Though the restrictions are troubling when all you want to do is PM someone, I appreciate them. I was able to find most of the answers to my questions in a matter of a few hours. If this restriction was not in place, I believe we would have an issue with already answered questions being posted to the forum. This restriction does enable spam into the "newbie" section, but eliminates it in the important sections of the forum. Making users search for their answers is a very smart rule.
