How private are private messages?

I think if the staff of a site suspects someone to break the forum rules (PM wise) they are allowed to investigate and check up in the database if the user is indeed breaking forum rules. This means the admin will read the private message.

Another point, they are stored in plain text, does this mean they shouldn't be considered private? Maybe a better name would be 'personal messages'?

What does everybody think about the ability for forum admins to check an option to encrypt PM on a forum, and when this is checked it will encrypt them and then the rules guests get prior to registration tell them this is so. And when it isn't checked that the private messages gets replaced with text personal messages, and that the rules guests see says personal messages are stored in the database in plain text and upon suspection of breaking forum rules are accessable by the site admin at any time?

In france, we can't read users's pm , it's the law !

It could be a nice idea to encrypt pm but not an easy job !

I'll look at this !

How private are private messages?I treat them like I would a corporate e-mail account. The company owns the servers, the networks and a right to police them to prevent fraud, spam etc. I think that one has a right to privacy but not to immunity.

If one uses the system in a legal way and respects the house rules then they should be private. But if one is going to break the rules or even the law then scope must be given to Admins to take such measures as they see fit. After all they are responsible for their boards and the content on them.

I think that before a member reaches a certain level of trust, an admin should have a right to inspect all pm's of a member to assure he isn't using the system to harass members or spam them about another site. At the same time though, an admin shouldn't just randomly read private messages with out proper cause from abuse messages or seeing someone new pm'n random members.

Is there a vBulletin.nl rule that you can't advertise other websites in a private message?

I'm not a Mod... but just like any site.. telling a friend "hey my site is up" i wouldn'd see an issue with, but just randomly PM'n people about your site is really considered spam on any site.

Private messages should be private. But like all privacy issues, your privacy can be breached for the greater good. Is this right? In my opinion, no. But it's the American way, and anyone who actually thinks their emails and personal messages are "private" needs to know that people can and likely do read them.

If someone is actually suspected of doing something harmful to the community through pms, there are ways to approach it without violating the person's privacy. For instance:

Let us assume someone has been spamming through PMs. One person complains about it...and the admin gets suspicious. Well, he needs to hold onto his breaches. It's not technically spam if it only happens to one person. Once a sufficient number of trustworthy complaints some in, it can be time to worry. But you should weigh the complaints. If brand new members with 0-1 posts start complaining about a staff member spamming, it should probably be tossed out.
But, if the admin and staf feel there is weight to the complaints, and easy way to deal with this would be to contact the person suspecting to be doing the spamming, and warn him that there have indeed been complaints about him breaching the rules. Let him know that he should stop right now. If more complaints come in from reliable sources, there should be no need to even look for yourself and breach any privacy. The evidence would be too strong against the individual, and he has already been warned.
Then, everyone on the site would not worry if you were spying over their shoulder to catch them being naughty.

I would tottally be bothered if I found that you did read PMs on a whim of suspicion. Does that mean I go and write confidential information in my PMs? I don't think so...I try to be discreet as possible. heh It's simply a matter of principle.

How private are private messages?

I think if the staff of a site suspects someone to break the forum rules (PM wise) they are allowed to investigate and check up in the database if the user is indeed breaking forum rules. This means the admin will read the private message.

Another point, they are stored in plain text, does this mean they shouldn't be considered private? Maybe a better name would be 'personal messages'?

What does everybody think about the ability for forum admins to check an option to encrypt PM on a forum, and when this is checked it will encrypt them and then the rules guests get prior to registration tell them this is so. And when it isn't checked that the private messages gets replaced with text personal messages, and that the rules guests see says personal messages are stored in the database in plain text and upon suspection of breaking forum rules are accessable by the site admin at any time?
Oh, Floris. I did just misunderstood your last paragraph before! I think the ability to encrypt PMs would be very nice. It would possibly change what sites I registered to...

Hey, I just had a thought! What if a hacker came to this website, and restricted every forum?!?!?!

Hey, I just had a thought! What if a hacker came to this website, and restricted every forum?!?!?!
Hey, I had an idea! What if you changed the topic suddenly, and it didn't make any sense?

Yeah, but it has happened to my forum...

Really? That is terrible. Have they hacked your server or just your Admin CP?

Could a moderator please split this as I think it deserves discussion but is a little off topic. Thought it is of relevance to the privacy as in should one read members PM to prevent this, but if they have hacked your server I doubt if forewarned would have been forearmed.

I think it deserves discussion but is a little off topic. Right you are!:) :) :)

Simply turn off the users PM ability if you suspect spam ;)


On a forum I see no problem with checking the records if you have a reason to do it and they've been notified. Surely the user has the thought in the back of their mind that if he's being a spacker over PM the admin can and will check.

Is it just me or did a post of mine just vanish?

I though I had written a humorous plea for a split. Or am I going mad? If I am it is Floris' Count Down (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=7756) that is doing it.

As long as the person who has the ability to read PMs uses his/her power responsibly, I see no problem with it. If you're one of those people that just likes to snoop around, then shame on you.

I've done it once when I got a complaint from another member, and I see nothing wrong with it at all if used in that way. It is the staff's job to ensure every user feels safe coming to their site, and given that the staff has the means to look at the PMs sent by a problem user, then that's what needs to be done.