A little advice if possible..

[Fred]

Dave needs another 2 posts before he can pm unfortunately

Would posting in Off Topic be appropriate then?

Yes acceptable or better still a couple in the test forum then later when his post count is up they can be deleted

Sorry to but in again, but just remember if one does post in Test to up their post count I do sometimes have moments of madness when I remove posts from that board. So for example if you made 5 posts in test you could use the PM system, but then Fred comes along and Bang you can't use it again.