You can email members privately now, this feature was brought back some time ago. Just go to "Member Lookup," input the name of who you want to contact and you get a form to send a message to them. I've contacted a few members privately and it seems to work fine.
Does anyone still miss the old Audiogon format?
I don't know about other Audiogoners but I'm still missing the old Audiogon format. It has a few shortcomings but they can be addressed and fixed to work just fine within the old format. What I miss the most is the "human side" of the old format vs. the new one which I found so "cold" and "impersonal".