I don't know when or why we dropped it from the Posting Guidelines. I don't remember discussing it.
We found some people had registered and never posted, but just advertised either themselves or some other service. The mods might not be aware of this.
We have stopped new users i.e. people with fewer than 10 posts initiating contact by PM so maybe we don't need the guideline anymore?
Our preference would still be for recommendations to be made publicly.
But if Gordon wants to send the name of a car mechanic to Baby Boomer, that is probably fair enough?
Brendan