is dm a direct message

I don't feel bad. I have it written in my message intro that I'd rather chat publicly and may ignore DMs.

If anyone decides to direct message me then that's completely on them

Brings to mind Robert frost's poem. Are you familiar with it?
The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

No. My main inbox only receives DMs from posters I follow. And I generally only follow people after I’ve had conversations with them on the public posts.

Nope, not at all. If I get a DM from someone I haven't interacted with in conversation here, I assume it's some kind of catfishing or similar garbage. So I "archive" the message without responding. That means I never have to hear from that person again!!

You should definitely not worry about them and just chat with me 😛

I just leave them all unread

if i get more thaan 20-50 at a time, they en up on different pages and it takes too long to scroll back

Meh