I am pretty sure you can still PM if you use the links under the moderator section of subs. Of course, that depends on the person you want to PM being a mod somewhere. But, I'm still seeing proper names in the Moderator section of this sub, and the links work. I don't know if PM functionality has been disabled or not. It doesn't seem to be the case. For the record, making this randomized username feature a permanent fixture of the site is a profoundly bad idea. If I had to guess, it's probably an anti-trolling measure meant to dissuade certain users here (probably myself included, lately) on the basis that they won't have any fun if their shenanigans aren't tied to their ego. After that activity settles down, they'll probably restore regular usernames. They're probably trying to push the 'bad eggs' out. You can't be a troll if you're everybody, at least it's no fun that way. On the whole, they know it's likeliest to push out the Voat crowd, rather than the long-time users of Poal.