Well that way it would be voluntary. If I just up'ed and PM'ed him, he could be like "shit, now I feel obliged to message him back but I really didn't want to talk to him." Kinda like the message receipts on here. That's just assholish. Sitting around, " I know he got that PM, I wonder why he's not messaging me back." That's why I asked nicely for him to PM me. If he did, he was interested enough to have the conversation, if not - no harm, no foul.