From what I've seen so far, I don't really see a lot of interesting thought here. The things said here are interesting in comparison to the outside world, but once you read for a while, you realise that you're reading the same old shtick over and over again. That's MY interesting thought of the day ;)
Many dont list their email though. I guess it leaves the option to stay private but I suspect ppl often dont list it simply out of laziness or they forget.
Being a startup site, where people may be looking for contacts, co-founders, advice, etc, I think having a tool to get in touch with each other would be very useful. I vote yes do it, but KISS.
Yes, but I'm not interested in visiting the profile, because as you say it's usually blank.
The person's website though would be something I would visit, and most people don't hide their websites on blogs.
EDIT: I should clarify: When a person writes a comment, it's the comment itself that would lead me to wonder what this person is all about. I'll click on his name. I'm not interested in a "profile", I'm expecting a website. The fact that I get the YC profile means I stop looking, and go back to reading the article. As such I never really figure out who the person is.
"No. Email does a better job. I don't want to have yet another medium to check and use."
Many times I'd rather call someone up, but I may only have their email. Point is, there are usually always better alternatives. However, choices make the end goal more possible than it might have been.
Many times I expect those people would prefer an email as it doesn't interrupt them and they can deal with it in their own time. There's a balancing act between convenience to the caller and inconvenience to the callee.
The free text box in the profile lets the user give an email address, or their home page, or anything else including their phone number. The point is, they can limit how you can contact them. I don't think adding private messages on news.yc helps.
I think it would be convenient, if there would be some sort of an inbox number next to your name. It doesn't even need to be complicated. A ping/pong kinda system is more than enough -- at least enough to develop a rapport, and then, if necessary, trade emails.
I a little more paranoid regarding privacy matters, but I am sure I'm not the only one.
A bit over a month ago i wrote a barebones PM util "addon" and submitted the link here. The feedback was generally good, while it was on the frontpage, then it whittled.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18437
(it still exists, and I think still works, unless you changed the login mech).
As for stats, around 16 messages in the first 48 hours of the submission. Perhaps they were mostly test posts, but I did receive a few messages and an offer to trade email. Unfortunately he didn't check back when I sent him it :P
I'd assumed the email address I entered on my profile was public. It was only on logging out to check just now I realised it wasn't. Perhaps I'm not alone. I've now copied it into the free text as well.
It would not have been nice to publish everone's email addr on the web for spam crawlers to find. But if you want to put an email addr (or anything else) in your profile, you can.
