This all started when I tried to get around the almost-4 weeks of silence in another thread.  That thread then had a new question (I'd solved all but the new question in the original) merged.  I had presumed that it was because I referenced the earlier thread which had no commentary.

I reframed the question very simply to apply for help only in the new instance, but that thread was deleted, and someone sent me a PM about it.  No such luck as to read it:

I'm logged in (obviously - I'm posting here), got an email notification of a PM, but I see this:

Why?