Mark him as a contact. Granted, he'll have to check his profile to see it and for some people *cough*like me*cough* that could take months if not years, but other than adding a comment to the thread in question, I think it's your only option.

Also, ask his other contacts to pass on a message. That has worked thrice for me!

To add him as a contact might not work, if he has a lot of contacts. I have a lot, and if I go + 1, I can't tell who on the list is new.

I have seen comments where someone comments on the thread in question, and then as the last line, in a small font, says something like, "Hey, (username), we're in the same relatively narrow career field ... could you contact me? Email is in my profile." The small font marks it as an aside and not a derail, and if he doesn't want to contact you, he won't. I know you said you're not comfortable with calling on him in the thread, but I don't recall seeing complaints from others where it has been done.

If he has taken the time to comment in the thread, chances are he is reading as the thread develops.

Yeah, I meant point size instead of font.

and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to butt in and say "hey, email me," nevermind that he probably wouldn't actually see it.

Say, "Hey, [so-&-so], e-mail me" in [strong] and [big] [big].

That's what I'd do, anyway. Actually, I might even use the img tag to get his/her attention.

IS THE IMG TAG DISABLED ON MEFI NOW!? Ghaaah.

Thanks all. Btw, sorry for not using [more inside] here, I haven't gotten the hang of posting here vs. posting on mefi (where it does M.I. automatically).

All you had to do was ask ...

Also, I think you'll find that only AskMe does the auto-more-inside thing. I could be wrong, it's been a long time between threads for me.

To add him as a contact might not work, if he has a lot of contacts. I have a lot, and if I go + 1, I can't tell who on the list is new.

That drives me nuts too, to the point where I've considered asking for some tag for contacts that says when each was added. That would be interesting because sometimes people add you because of a specific comment or post or because you met them at a meetup, and it would be nice to have some sense of who arrived when.

Take a look at Hugh's (aka: Breezeway) contacts at Mefi. Somehow all of his show the date added.