Is This True?

[riverbird]

Is it true that mods can read everyone's private messages?

[islandgal]

I am sure a moderator may be able to give a definitive answer...but I went looking..because I remember reading something about this when I joined the site...and believe this link to the Terms of service for Aftersilence answers this question.

http://www.aftersilence.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=2390

[Vera]

Is it true that mods can read everyone's private messages?

No, moderators don't have access to members' private messages. Administrators have access to private messages in the sense that they have access to the entire database of the forum, as every part of what compromises the forum, every line of code, every setting, etc, has to be stored somewhere to function. In our case, we pay a monthly fee to our host to store all of our information and we have unlimited access to it. This is the same for virtually every website owner on the internet. Everyone who owns a forum on the internet has access to every part of his or her forum.

Technical things aside, I believe the important question is: do administrators read members' private messages? The answer is no, we don't. Although standard Terms of Services, which again are pretty much the same for every website out there, give us permission to access all information stored on our server, we don't read members' private messages for a couple of reasons.

1. We believe members have a right to confidentiality when it comes to exchanging private messages.

2. Accessing private messages is not an easy 1-2-3. It is time consuming and, in layman terms, a real pain in the neck.

In the past 8 years, I can count on one hand the times we had to go into the database and check someone's inbox. We have only done it in extreme situations, and whenever possible, with the permission of at least one of the two members involved in the exchange of private messages.

Hope this helps.

[cheekybabe]

been wondering the same thing ... thansk vera for informing me

[riverbird]

Is it true that mods can read everyone's private messages?

No, moderators don't have access to members' private messages. Administrators have access to private messages in the sense that they have access to the entire database of the forum, as every part of what compromises the forum, every line of code, every setting, etc, has to be stored somewhere to function. In our case, we pay a monthly fee to our host to store all of our information and we have unlimited access to it. This is the same for virtually every website owner on the internet. Everyone who owns a forum on the internet has access to every part of his or her forum.

Technical things aside, I believe the important question is: do administrators read members' private messages? The answer is no, we don't. Although standard Terms of Services, which again are pretty much the same for every website out there, give us permission to access all information stored on our server, we don't read members' private messages for a couple of reasons.

1. We believe members have a right to confidentiality when it comes to exchanging private messages.

2. Accessing private messages is not an easy 1-2-3. It is time consuming and, in layman terms, a real pain in the neck.

In the past 8 years, I can count on one hand the times we had to go into the database and check someone's inbox. We have only done it in extreme situations, and whenever possible, with the permission of at least one of the two members involved in the exchange of private messages.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for that explanation. That helps a lot.

[crushedflower]

thank you for this question.

once, last year, i sent a pm and when the reply came back to me, one of the words had been edited with *. The word i wrote was in chinese but i used phonetic english spelling and so it contained what looked like an english swear word in it. i wondered if this was done by a computer program that screened for flagged words or if someone had read the message.

just wondered....

[John]

^^ In this case it would have been done by the system automatically - PM's are instantly sent and received so any * you see in them are automatic, and any changes would only be for things such as swearing, which is the same as on the board,

Cheers, John

Edited May 27, 2011 by John

[crushedflower]

^^ In this case it would have been done by the system automatically - PM's are instantly sent and received so any * you see in them are automatic, and any changes would only be for things such as swearing, which is the same as on the board,

Cheers, John

thank you for explaining this, John.