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I wonder if there's a feature availabe in SO that let us ask a specific user (one that apparently has some knowledge about the matter at hand) to take a look at our question?

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  • Short answer: nope
    – Bart
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:22
  • 2
    No. And we would like to keep it that way. Answers come it rather quickly if you post a good question anyways - why harass people for giving good answers?
    – Oded
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:23
  • If this is a question as to whether it exists, it should be tagged "support" not "feature request". If you know it dosen't exist and are proposing it be added, then it should be tagged "feature request". If the latter is the case, you'll need to indicate why you think it should be added, and why the benefits will outweigh any potential problems.
    – Servy
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:24
  • you can Ping them in the chat if they have a chat account. Not sure how effective that would be.
    – rlemon
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:24
  • @Servy Actually I didn't know if such a feature exists or not so I had to decide between support and feature request and I go with the latter.
    – Beatles1692
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:31
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    No, because everyone would just ask Jon Skeet
    – Daniel
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:58

2 Answers 2

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Individual users can be contacted in one of two ways:

  • via the information they publish on their profile page
  • via targetted comments on questions they have interacted with

If they do not publish contact information or interact with a particular question, they do not want to be directly contacted.

The system provides no way to override that decision.

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  • Well I had a messaging feature in mind.I mean instead of publishing their own email address or personal contact info people can have their SO email address (or something alike) and those who are interested in receiving messages from other members could make their address visible to public.
    – Beatles1692
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:34
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That's pretty much the opposite of how StackOverflow/StackExchange should work. This is a community site, not a help-me-specifically site; the idea is to get community feedback. If the specific expert is interested and available, they probably will be reading it and answering anyway - it's not like it's hard to monitor a tag, unless it's or something.

Also, as Servy noted, bounties are an effective way of drawing attention to a specifically difficult question.

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  • The problem is that some times they might be interested but your question is lost in a pile of newer questions and they will never see it.
    – Beatles1692
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:28
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    @Beatles1692 The problem with notifying specific users is that the top users in each tag would soon by buried in a pile of notifications, so they'd never see yours.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:32
  • I don't think it would be necessary to notify and bother other members cause I've been using SO for a few years and usually I've got my answer in just a few hours.But there are times that there might be a complex and difficult problem and you would like to ask a real expert to take a look at your problem.
    – Beatles1692
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:40
  • @Beatles1692 That's what bounties are for.
    – Servy
    Jun 5, 2013 at 20:40
  • Incorporated in the answer.
    – Joe
    Jun 6, 2013 at 13:40

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