Not your fault at all. Confusing UI.

I have seen confusion with this aspect of account configuration numerous times. Perhaps simply adding a note next to the email field indicating that the email address is only visible to the administrators would help solve this problem.

edit: perhaps you could vote up and/or comment on rms' suggestion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100

Yes. I even searched for a check box like: "Make my email visible to the public".

At this point, considering how many people have been confused by that form, it's PG's fault for not fixing it.

Perhaps it is for building social capital - accustome users to help each other.

Just like in a related way - but with a different morale - SMS seems from one point of view an inferior user interface. But people use it anyway instead of calling.

Anyway - I suspect he just has not come around to fixing it.