12. Don't "message" technical questions to people
The messages part of the forum is for personal messages. Not technical questions.
It is not appropriate to find someone who you think might be able to help, and try to get one-on-one personal assistance. If you do, I suggest you be prepared to pay for such personal help.
If you are really keen to get the attention of what appears to you to be an expert in your problem, post a forum question first (as described above).
Then wait a day or two. That person may be busy. If they haven't answered by then, and if no-one else has been able to help you, you could send a brief message politely asking for assistance, including the URL (link) of the forum thread.
If you don't post a link to the forum question, the person you are asking for help has to try to work out where it is, and the time and effort involved may slow down, or stop, their response.
Note that generally questions posted on the forum are answered within the hour, by someone or other. Asking a particular person to help may cause at least an 8-hour delay, if they happen to be asleep, at work, out fishing or whatever they are doing.
13. Forum etiquette
Once you have made your post, here are a few other guidelines:
Don't cross-post!
We know you are anxious to get an answer to your problem, but re-posting the same question to multiple parts of the forum causes duplicate effort, and divides the focus on your problem. You'll get a better answer if everyone can discuss it in one place. Cross-posting is very annoying; the moderators will delete your extra posts, and you will get a warning. Save all the hassle, and just post the question once. It will be noticed.
If you aren't sure what section to post in (Programming Questions, Electronics, etc.) make a guess. Don't cross post "just in case".
Don't bump!
Don't bump your thread after an hour. Because of the different time-zones the person who knows the answer may be asleep, or away for the day. Maybe after a couple of days.
If your question didn't get an answer, honestly review it to see if you posted enough information to help people answer you. Did you even ask a question?
People are trying to help
If someone asks for more details, they are probably trying to visualize what you are attempting to do. Don't fob them off with "that's irrelevant" sort of responses. The more detail about your project, the better the help you will get.
Keep your signature short
A signature should be preferably one line, and relevant. A signature that links to some unrelated-looking site (like football competitions) is likely to get you banned as a spammer. To keep bandwidth down, no images, thanks.
Be polite
A little courtesy and politeness goes a long way. Even if you think a question has been asked before, or you don't see the point of it, try to answer politely. Remember a lot of the posters with high post counts see the same questions every day, and they may get a bit terse if you appear not to have tried very hard to help yourself in the first place. You will find that if you respond in a friendly way, people will stick with you and you will almost certainly get your problem solved. Personal insults are not acceptable. Stick to the topic.
14. Once you have a response ...
You will probably quickly get some helpful suggestions. Read them carefully.
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If a reply mentions something you don't understand (eg. "shift register") try to find out for yourself what that means, by using Google.
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If you don't understand part of a reply, say so. Say which part. Don't just ignore it.
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Apply suggested fixes, even if they don't seem relevant to you. Seemingly insignificant changes might actually solve your problem.
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Look for hints about what is wanted. For example: "what code?" means: "Please post your code."
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If you make changes, and things still don't work, post the changed code (or wiring) as appropriate (in a new reply).
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Answer questions. It is frustrating to have to take three pages of a thread to drag out of someone what code they are using, or what their wiring is.
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Except for adding code tags, please don't modify earlier posts to make corrections. That makes the following posts read strangely. Post the modified code in a new reply.
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Once you have solved your problem, do not delete the thread! The forum is supposed to be a knowledge-base. Deleting a thread once you are happy does not help future people with similar problems. Nor should you replace your original post with something meaningless like a dot.
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Similarly, if you have worked the problem out, as a courtesy to other people reading the thread later, explain what you changed that made it work (eg. post the corrected circuit, or corrected code).
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If you consider the issue solved, please edit your original post (the first one in the thread) and add "[solved]" to the subject line. That helps people know the issue is resolved. Also please post the solution, whether you worked it out yourself, or if someone else helped you. A note that "this was solved by doing X" is very helpful to other people with the same problem. Thanks!