[Crazy Hitch]

I thought Admin could read our PMs. Not that it matters, it's just something I always thought.

[felineangel]

Originally Posted by Crazy Hitch

I thought Admin could read our PMs. Not that it matters, it's just something I always thought.

I think they can too, if they felt like it

[divine1966]

Originally Posted by Crazy Hitch

I thought Admin could read our PMs. Not that it matters, it's just something I always thought.

I doubt it? Plus it’s a huge violation of privacy. That’s kind of scary

I think you need to forward it to them so can read it. I once received offensive PM and when I told mods, they asked to forward it to them so they can see it. So I assumed they can’t just read it.

[felineangel]

Originally Posted by divine1966

I doubt it? Plus it’s a huge violation of privacy. That’s kind of scary

I think you need to forward it to them so can read it. I once received offensive PM and when I told mods, they asked to forward it to them so they can see it. So I assumed they can’t just read it.

Sorry you got a mean message, you dont deserve mean messages

[felineangel]

Like hitch, i think they can read messages, cause what if something illegal happened in pm and the polices told them to hand private messages over

Thats what makes me think they can if they needed to send stuff to the polices cause how else would it work, idk

Or maybe im being stupid and talking nonsense idk

Edit: by this i mean if a member was to be involved in a crime and talk about it in pm, not "i read this in the news" cause newspapers normally make stuff up, they did that years ago to my brother - basically what actually happened was he was driving a school bus in the middle of winter, hit a patch of ice on a bad corner and skidded off of the road, local newspaper turned that into a load of lying nonsense, they almost got taken to court they were that off the mark, to put it nicely

[Discombobulated]

I too have had experience of being asked to forward an aggressive PM in the past, so I don’t think admins can read them - they are Private Messages after all (unless one or both choose to share).

[DocJohn]

To clarify, yes, only myself (as owner of the site) can read PMs. I do this only when there is a specific concern or issue that suggests a member may be misusing our PM system (e.g., spamming other users for a product or service). In the 22+ years we've been online, I have done it only a handful of times.

It is an extremely rare occasion where PMs are read (remember, we have over 500,000 members, so I don't have time to read PMs for any other reason). No other members of the community support team have access to this functionality (hence the reason they ask for a PM to be forwarded to be reviewed).

Every service you log in to today (Facebook, twitter, other forums, etc.) has this capability. PMs (or DMs or whatever) are never 100% private, as there are legitimate reasons (e.g., court order, law enforcement, etc.) where those messages may need to be accessed. We have never received a court order or other legal request for such access, FYI.

[felineangel]

Question cause i got confused: are law enforcement and court order technically the same thing? Or do both work differently?

Asking just cause im now confused

[DocJohn]

Law enforcement requires a court order to obtain records. Given that it's never happened in 22 years, I doubt it's something you need to worry about.

[lizardlady]

Thanks for clarifying this Doc John.