I'm aware that our current mechanism lets a person vote / "evaluate" a contribution, but I don't know how a contributor can respond to these evaluation comments other than PM.

Is there a back and forth mechanism that everyone can read, or is your only chance to say something / anticipate what others might say / when you post your contribution?

If you have an issue with a contribution and want to discuss it publicly, there's nothing to stop you from starting a thread here and PMing the person involved to let them know you've done so.
However you will have to be careful how you word the thread as "Why have you voted like this?" type threads are classed as harrassment and not allowed.
If you word it like "I have 'no' votes on my contribution and I don't know why" or something like that, that should be fine.
Other than that, no, there is no other way of discussing a contribution outside of PMs.

Deleted to leave any communication to PMs if need be and leave the thread for this particular topic.

when i first joined i came here after getting no votes on a contribution for the dvd runtime. i had used the back cover as my reference, i didnt know that this info is sometimes wrong. anyway i asked why and did so without mentioning the one person who gave me a smartass comment along with her no vote. low and behold she posts in this forum, proudly that she was the one that voted no, then went on a tirade about how she always uses this and that blah, blah.. now really a simple PM to state why she voted no or before she did to let me change it..but oh well...it's been almost 2 years ago...im not bitter or anything

Quoting TheMadMartian:

Quote:
That is what this forum is for...if you don't agree with a voter, and can't resolve it via PM, you can always bring it here.

Sorry Martian, according to the Forum Moderation this statement is incorrect.

Quoting Forum Moderator: (from here, last post)

Quote:
If you note a potentially inaccurate vote, feel free to politely PM the user in question.  If they don't respond or are not accepting PMs, it is not acceptable to bring the issue to the forums.  We consider this a form of harassment and so will be putting a stop to it.

Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
That quote was in the context of someone questioning the vote of a person on the contribution of a third party, not their own.
We can bring questions about contributions to the forum, however what we can't do is question other people's votes in the forum.

Indeed. I first read it the way Silence did, but if you think about it, not being able to discuss contributions in the Contribution forum would be a bit silly!! 

Quoting Forget_the_Rest:

Quote:
Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
That quote was in the context of someone questioning the vote of a person on the contribution of a third party, not their own.
We can bring questions about contributions to the forum, however what we can't do is question other people's votes in the forum.

EDIT: Nevermind, after rereading twice I found out that we basically agree.
Bolded the (for me) important part.

Quoting surfeur51:

Quote:
Quoting Forget_the_Rest:

Quote:
... not being able to discuss contributions in the Contribution forum would be a bit silly!! 

Are we allowed to discuss common names contributions in common names contribution threads without being accused to hijack them ??? 

Everyone else, yes. You, NO! 






(kidding  )