We try and avoid it. And here's why everyone should follow suite and the rules.

1. The Community. It helps all us printers when transactions, current and future, are within the MakeXYZ sphere. The fees are very reasonable for the amount of exposure and the site itself. The service we provide to the community can easily withstand this slight increase in price to keep this entire community rolling. It's easy to think of personal success but we all must think of the continued success and the expansion that comes with that.

2. Tracking. Our biggest problem is managing 100 various locations from social media, online banking, etc. The last thing we need is to have MakeXYZ clients calling us directly, contacting us via email then message and email again thus fragmenting the conversation across several mediums. These behaviors makes it VERY easy for details to get lost or overlooked which may result in an upset client or frustrated printer. No one wins. Avoid it.

3. Professionalism. When working within the MakeXYZ sphere printers appear as a community, a set of professionals if you will. When private contact comes in it can reveal the curtain so to speak. As more printers aren't professional business's they lack the marketing. Ie.. proper emails address, 800 numbers, responsive staff. If a client calls and your Mom answers the phone and yells for you for 5 minutes to "pick up the phone"... it effects us all.

It's no surprise that MakeXYZ attempts to bar exchanges of personal contact details like phone numbers or emails within the messaging system. Most users, clients included, are saavy enough to bypass this though.

So it is us, the community, that must really be self policing. Encouraging business through MakeXYZ helps us all.

Short story.. don't bite the hand that feeds you... it feeds us all.

-2 cents.