I've gotten a ton of help from this forum. It's best to post questions publicly. There are many extremely knowledgeable people here who also seem to have nothing better to do with their time than to help us poor saps out. I'm not complaining!
There are also a few people who chime in with wrong answers, don't fully read your question, or demand that you publicly acknowledge their contributions. I just ignore those people. They're easy to spot. Your best bet is definitely to post publicly, IMO.