I curious to know why 30 posts are needed to make a PM? Could it possibly be reduced to 10?

because you get noobs that spam, send friendship requests to total strangers (i just got one a few days ago myself), and don't understand netiquette.

I firmly believe that 30 posts is a bare minimum for access to the site's Private message function.

The site's rules have been developed over a period of years and consequently it makes a great deal of sense that a good deal of thought and experience has shaped these protocols.
Accordingly, I hold firmly to the belief that low post count members really aren't qualified to shape such decisions. For what it's worth, I think it takes a fair amount of time for a member to be familiar with, and be absorbed into the community

Since this is a Technical assistance and news site, and not a "friendship meat market" the likes of Twitter and Face book, it is conducive to the tranquility and well being of the core membership to disallow the PM function to low time members.

The PMs of such low time members are largely comprised of premature friendship and individual assistance requests. (As Tedster stated so eloquently above).

Since the general forum is really the only place for technical discussions, and speaking solely for myself, I reserve the right to take sufficient time to evaluate an individual's style, behavioral characteristics, opinions, and our communal interests, before we make the mutual decision to be friends .

That said, I equate a lot of premature private messaging to the back slapping, handshaking, and baby kissing done by professional politicians in furtherance of their pursuit of popularity, and I find excessive gregariousness to be more than a little off putting. An invasion of privacy if you will.

Everything that could be said, has been said already . So in short, spammers are a real problem we face day in and day out, so the restriction is a counter measure. This also gives PM a more proper nature within our tech community.