Admin access to pm's and email

[bloc]

oh yes..you can lose members alright. Now, most of us here know its not that hard to read PM's through the db..but back in 2003 when I started up a parenting forum with my wife(still running great, up to 10-14k perday, 650k posts ) we had a quick growth in members and traffic, climbing to 20-25k hits per day. All very nice, but then trolls started appearing and we had an episode where we had to check out the PM between two members. Well, the members figured out that we knew something we shouldn't and we were forced to admit looking at PM's. As this was someone pretending to be someone else, with fake baby pics, phone numbers, adress and all, we judged it to be fairly serious enough to go in and check.

The end of it was that we exposed the member that many had trusted upon(even sent money too ), but we lost a third of the members in a week just because we were too honest and said " yes, we looked". It turned out that saying that any admin can easily look in db didn't matter at all, not to mention the seriousness of the fraud...they still were shocked by it

[Nifelhein]

I think it would not be a problem if you mention this kind of possibility on the registration agreement, you could say every single PM is subject to the rule or that it will be used only in case of possible fraud, theft, and other security reasons, as well as to prove possible terms of use infringements.

Doing that without an agreement upon that is just too bad though.

[madron]

wow!  I asked this question, for something similiar to what bloc posted.  Now there is or was a bill up by Senator McCain, that if passed is going to force forums to disclose the names of convicted sex offenders, I don't have a link but it is easily looked up.  there are many debates going on about this, but its not the reason I asked my question.

Now I value my members privacy, I also let it be known in my TOS that I can and WILL read a pm or email if sent by my board,  if its necessary, and that I will cooperate with law enforcement if it comes to this.  Well its come to this, I had to turn over my records, but not without a fight,  I lost the fight BTW.  I have the ability and the right to monitor what goes on in my forums as the owner and Admin of a Private forum.  I don't want these creeps on my boards, would you.  I could of stopped this had I a little more knowledge at the time.  Its a little scarey to be honest.

Good discussion, and Crip, that was quite harsh dear, harsh indeed.

[Zetan]

wow!  I asked this question, for something similiar to what bloc posted.  Now there is or was a bill up by Senator McCain, that if passed is going to force forums to disclose the names of convicted sex offenders, I don't have a link but it is easily looked up.  there are many debates going on about this, but its not the reason I asked my question.

Now I value my members privacy, I also let it be known in my TOS that I can and WILL read a pm or email if sent by my board,  if its necessary, and that I will cooperate with law enforcement if it comes to this.  Well its come to this, I had to turn over my records, but not without a fight,  I lost the fight BTW.  I have the ability and the right to monitor what goes on in my forums as the owner and Admin of a Private forum.  I don't want these creeps on my boards, would you.  I could of stopped this had I a little more knowledge at the time.  Its a little scarey to be honest.

Good discussion, and Crip, that was quite harsh dear, harsh indeed.

Which is why I added this to my post.

Unless there is abuse, I would never consider reading my members PMs and they know that because I made it clear.

There may be circumstances where the need to delve into private messages outweigh moral obligations, thats the reason I left the thread open.

1) for debate.
2) to give you a chance to reply.

[madron]

wow!  I asked this question, for something similiar to what bloc posted.  Now there is or was a bill up by Senator McCain, that if passed is going to force forums to disclose the names of convicted sex offenders, I don't have a link but it is easily looked up.  there are many debates going on about this, but its not the reason I asked my question.

Now I value my members privacy, I also let it be known in my TOS that I can and WILL read a pm or email if sent by my board,  if its necessary, and that I will cooperate with law enforcement if it comes to this.  Well its come to this, I had to turn over my records, but not without a fight,  I lost the fight BTW.  I have the ability and the right to monitor what goes on in my forums as the owner and Admin of a Private forum.  I don't want these creeps on my boards, would you.  I could of stopped this had I a little more knowledge at the time.  Its a little scarey to be honest.

Good discussion, and Crip, that was quite harsh dear, harsh indeed.

Which is why I added this to my post.

Unless there is abuse, I would never consider reading my members PMs and they know that because I made it clear.

There may be circumstances where the need to delve into private messages outweigh moral obligations, thats the reason I left the thread open.

1) for debate.
2) to give you a chance to reply.

I have been following the discussion at TAZ to
I find the topic distasteful that as froum owners we even have to consider doing such a thing.
But after what I have just been through, the ability to easily access the documents, is what I was looking for.  I hope I never have to do this again!

Thanks for the debate, and for all of your opinions. 

[Crip]

Good discussion, and Crip, that was quite harsh dear, harsh indeed.

yeah i rekon i'm a harsh man by nature, but there always seems to be one around ..

[IchBin]

http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=451



I agree, you shouldn't be reading PM's unless it is warranted on such occasions such as Blocs. These types of things can destroy a forum.

[bloc]

Yeah, I am for NOT having the tools up and ready, because it smears the borders between "necessary" and "not necessary" to actually go in and read PM's.

[Nifelhein]

I agree with you Bloc, the possibility is there, but not readily acessible, meaning there is some layer of protection against casual invasion of privacy.

[Shadow]

Also I agree with you too Bloc.  It aint right reading other people PMs on your forum.  If a person know about it they wont come back or something.  But I do agree with Bloc and some of the other members too.