We are sorry that you are experiencing additional technical concerns. The team is working diligently to assist you with your issues. Please do not continue with this line of disparagement as it is in breach of our Code of Conduct.
Did you accept the friend request prior to responding to the DM? This will help us troubleshoot the issue further. Members need to be "friends" in the community in order to use the direct message feature. Stephen being an admin can DM you without that connection but in order for you to respond, you need to accept the request.
Um, there was no friend request prior to responding to Stephen's direct message. There was never any indication that I was supposed to (somehow) establish a personal relationship with him before I could reply to his message to me.
An hour and a half later, he sent me a friend request, after-the-fact. Not much good it does now.
I will ask the team to reconvene tomorrow morning to ensure that your account is in good standing.
This appears to be a perfect storm of circumstance. We experienced a site wide issue that affected replies. This issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, during that time, as stephenv pointed out, the frequency of your multiple attempts ensnared you in a spam prevention moderation setting. I believe that has also been resolved.
Pertaining the DM and friend request, I will educate the team to send the friend request simultaneously with a DM and to instruct the recipient to accept the friend request in order to respond to the DM.
We appreciate your patience as we confirm that all of your concerns are addressed.
