Melody
Oct 28th 2006, 07:11 AM
This is more than just a personal pet peeve of mine. When I found out about it, I felt downright violated. A well kept secret among forum admin to be sure.
The term 'Private Messages' (PM) is misleading at best. There is no such thing. The administrators of forums can read your private messages and they do - I've tested them :mad: .
Althought this is already in our FAQ section (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_privacy), I know that on forums I rarely read that section and I wanted to be sure everyone was aware of this particular privacy issue.
Our ethics would not allow us to read other's messages and certainly not without informing the membership that it can be done. The feature is included in most (or all) forum software and there's nothing we can do about it. We can reassure you that we will respect your privacy but of course, you can't trust everyone to do that. We can't turn it off or get rid of it, so all we can do is warn you. Hopefully we can find a way to put a big notice somewhere in the Private Message section itself. I think that all forums should do that.
I encourage you to post on other forums, asking them if your messages are private. Ask why members are not informed of this. Personally I feel there may be a case under Privacy Laws, but I haven't looked into it yet. If you accomplish nothing else, at least you will be letting other members know.
When I think of some of the personal issues that I have discussed in PM before I knew about this... my health, personal feelings.... it has a rapish feel to it. Many of these admin are supposed to be my friends and neighbours, which makes it that much worse.
It is very important to me that you know this, so I posted it here. As a friend or even just based on my ethics, I couldn't do that to you and I don't think anyone else should do it to you either.
Be careful out there.
The term 'Private Messages' (PM) is misleading at best. There is no such thing. The administrators of forums can read your private messages and they do - I've tested them :mad: .
Althought this is already in our FAQ section (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_privacy), I know that on forums I rarely read that section and I wanted to be sure everyone was aware of this particular privacy issue.
Our ethics would not allow us to read other's messages and certainly not without informing the membership that it can be done. The feature is included in most (or all) forum software and there's nothing we can do about it. We can reassure you that we will respect your privacy but of course, you can't trust everyone to do that. We can't turn it off or get rid of it, so all we can do is warn you. Hopefully we can find a way to put a big notice somewhere in the Private Message section itself. I think that all forums should do that.
I encourage you to post on other forums, asking them if your messages are private. Ask why members are not informed of this. Personally I feel there may be a case under Privacy Laws, but I haven't looked into it yet. If you accomplish nothing else, at least you will be letting other members know.
When I think of some of the personal issues that I have discussed in PM before I knew about this... my health, personal feelings.... it has a rapish feel to it. Many of these admin are supposed to be my friends and neighbours, which makes it that much worse.
It is very important to me that you know this, so I posted it here. As a friend or even just based on my ethics, I couldn't do that to you and I don't think anyone else should do it to you either.
Be careful out there.