Hello Brigitta, this is a great forum, hope you feel among friends here. Big WELCOME!

For allowing e-mail and private on-site messages to com in and out, that's something you'll be able to set under "User CP" (control panel) at top left corner of the page, from there you just choose "Edit options". In that page there's also something called vCard service to let others save a card with your e-mail address and so on. The private messaging is really useful for checking things quickly, and I don't think it's "on" by default.