EdB wrote:

I'm pretty sure if I assign them the post then they will get the message, but they won't be able to publish (or delete) the comment.

Not true.
If you assign an article to someone, you can let the mailform send an email to the assigned user.
But is is still the original author who gets an email that there is a new comment.

The comments are not yet in symbiose with the 'assigned users'

Thanks!

evopress has a cool "Contact" form but I couldn't find the lines of code just to show that as a link on my page. I couldn't find the lines that call the form.

I'm looking for something like.
<?php
include (_msgForm.php);
?>

Thanks.