Ban Private Messaging

SuperSparks being very mindful and attentive to everything that is VirtualDr has expressed something lately in his signature that has been of concern to me for a very long time, but have never had occasion before now to take a stance.

Personal Messaging should be a privilege of the mods, and for nobody else. For a member to use it to get an answer from someone else only undermines the purpose of VirtualDr in being an open and above-board reliable source for authorized computer information. How it is being used may not be entirely on the up-and-up, and that should be of concern by admin. Mine has been disabled permanently, and I prefer to keep it that way.

oldhermit--Like every other tool, PM has to be used responsibly. I often use it to question an answer someone has given, without fear of embarassing the person or myself.
Also, if someone tries to bypass a thread in a PM to me, I will post both the PM and my response (if I have one) in the thread. So I certainly agree with SuperSparks signature message, but based on my solution it is simple to get things back on track.
If someone has used PM's in a way that irritated or disturbed you, it, of course, is your privilege to disconnect the PM option. But maybe it would also be good to bring the situation to the attention of the mods, so they could contact the offender?

Hi Oldhermit

My thoughts on private messaging is that it is a way of communicating with another member where personal or private information may need conveying which does not need to be published to all members because of its nature or where a clarification of a matter not pertaining to the question in itself may be asked/answered but these must still stays within the guidelines set out for the forum.I am sure as all responses are read by a mod at some time these are also scrutinised with the same vigour.

10

Private Messaging is to be used responsibly.

Abusive PMs should be brought to the attention of a mod or the admin (BJ).

Members here have friends and although The Lounge is there for them sometimes a PM is the safer option.

IMO its an important tool to have. But ofcourse its your choice.

Hi all,

Now it don't take much to confuse me, but quoting 10's response

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I am sure as all responses are read by a mod at some time these are also scrutinised with the same vigour.

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it suggest that PM are moderated?

Given that PM stands for Private Message (I think) can anyone confirm that these (private) messages are/can be moderated/scrutinised by mods and admin. I've had all of about 8 pm's in almost 5 years of being a member so it's not really important for me to know.. I just sort of got interested :D

Nodolig Llawen

Tech

PM's are not scrutinized by Mods.

PM's cannot be read by Mods, but I believe they can be by Admins - after all the Administrator is God as far as the software is concerned. Speaking persopnally, even if I could read them I wouldn't, but nobody should be under any illusions that they are a secure form of communication.

Also speaking personally, I like the PM facility, and it was one of the really big improvements over the old UBB software as far as I'm concerned. But the whole point of the forums is to publicly post problems so that everybody can jump in and help. By posting tech problems in PM's or emails defeats the entire raison d'être of the forum, hence the line in my sig ;)

I don't think vbulletin even lets admins read the PMs... in my experience with the software, one needs access to the actual backend database on the server, to do that.)

Private messages are just that, private, they can only be read by the person sending them or the person sent to.BJ

Thanks all for the clarification...

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one needs access to the actual backend database on the server

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Correct. There are also patches/hacks to simplify the process (though they may not be employed here). People at Jupiter (if not specifically here) with appropriate privlege will have access to the tables/database and therefore can if need be read private messages.

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Originally posted by SuperSparks
PM's cannot be read by Mods, but I believe they can be by Admins - after all the Administrator is God as far as the software is concerned. Speaking persopnally, even if I could read them I wouldn't, but nobody should be under any illusions that they are a secure form of communication.

Also speaking personally, I like the PM facility, and it was one of the really big improvements over the old UBB software as far as I'm concerned. But the whole point of the forums is to publicly post problems so that everybody can jump in and help. By posting tech problems in PM's or emails defeats the entire raison d'être of the forum, hence the line in my sig ;)

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I agree so strongly with you,that I've copied your closing statement with a slight modificatio.
hope you don't mind ?

I don't mind at all :)