" Unless someone posted a thread asking for support/prayer/goodthoughts, how would anyone know where to send the private messages and emails"

this misses Joe's basic point..let me say it a bit differently:

Well-meaning, sincere, honest, heart-felt spam has no more place here than stupid, cheap, selfish spam. Susan (WYSIWYG) has tried VERY hard to show people ways to make prayer requests without doing it here. Please try it that way, in a place where almost everyone agrees with the idea.