There are a few reasons why we don't want members to post emails.
1) Poster remorse - after people realize that their email identifies them, and that it will live in Google et al forever, they want their post removed or edited.
2) Spam harvesters scour sites to pick up email addresses.
3) Due to the popularity of CC, we experience frequent instances of commercial or other promotion. While some of these are blatant, others are more subtle. We don't know if a member who invites other members to send their essays for review (for example) is merely being helpful, is looking for ideas to plagiarize, is running an essays-for-money website, or hopes to sell rewriting services. Since we aren't psychic, we don't permit any such invitations.
4) To make CC the most useful possible resource to our present and future members, we expect discussions to take place here in the forums. Members discussing an admissions topic by email won't benefit the rest of the members. (That's one reason why we don't allow most links - they may not be accessible in the future due to changes on the remote site. Keeping the discussion here in the forum insures that the thread will make sense in the future, too.) For topics that are better discussed in private, we have the facility to send both private messages and CC emails (which don't reveal the recipient's address unless a reply is sent).
5) Posting an email address on the web makes it visible to everyone - including weirdos, stalkers, etc. For the protection of our members, we don't want their info out there. While a weirdo/stalker COULD register and send a PM to someone, there are inherent safeguards. First, the member getting the PM can ignore it, or even reply, without ever exposing any personal information (like their email). Second, if a member is found to be sending problematic PMs, we can turn off that ability. Finally, for internal site communications we also have a permanent record of IP addresses - in the event that we need to file an abuse complaint, we have the data for an Internet Service Provider or even law enforcement.
In short, we want our members to have a positive, stress-free, and safe experience here at College Confidential.
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the heck am I supposed to e-mail a long list of forum users that way
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We really don't want anyone emailing a long list of forum users. Unless someone has requested such a contact, it is likely to be unwelcome. Spam complaints can result in a loss of CC privileges and may be reported to the appropriate ISPs. Fortunately, this hasn't been an issue yet, and we hope to keep it that way!
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