Access of Moderators to PMs.

[sid guttridge]

As my original question was not definitively answered, and this is a matter of fundamental importance to confidence in any forum, I would like to ask again:

Do moderators on Feldgrau have powers to access PMs on Feldgrau?

Do they have access to confidential information that might allow them to have access to PMs?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Jan-Hendrik]

Being a moderaor of another Forum:

No, you do not have the slightest chance even to get "near" to PNs of other members

Jan-Hendrik

[John P. Moore]

Not necessarily true. If Prosper Keating is in any way connected to the management of a Web site you must assume that he is reading your PMs. That is exactly what he did with some of my PMs on the MCF forum and he appeared to be doing the same thing with people on Feldpost.

John

[David W]

John.

Whether true or not, should you be using this forum for so personal an attack? I received a warning on another forum, for a much, much milder comment about a fellow poster. Just have a care, that's all.

[Cott Tiger]

The issue has been addressed regarding Feldpost.

However, although one Moderator (Tom) has said he wouldn’t know how to (even if he wanted to) access someone else’s PM’s, this issue has not been addressed by the management here on Felgrau.

It’s got nothing to do with paranoia or personal attacks. I have provided personal details via PM’s including addresses, telephone numbers and private email addresses.

I just want to know if my Private Message will remain private.

It’s not a lot to ask is it?

Regards,

André

[Paddy Keating]

Not necessarily true. If Prosper Keating is in any way connected to the management of a Web site you must assume that he is reading your PMs. That is exactly what he did with some of my PMs on the MCF forum and he appeared to be doing the same thing with people on Feldpost.

John

John,

I'm not going to rise to this. But readers who are not bored to tears by the washing of another website's dirty underwear here on Feldgrau might like to read my comments about PMs etc by clicking here: http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27543. I think my attitude is reasonable and realistic. But then...I am a bit cynical.



PK

[phylo_roadking]

Reasonable and realistic to you - but as the same thread says, entirely at odds with the site management, its own Privacy Policy...and I'm sure the Terms and Conditions of registering and Privacy Policy of Feldgrau. You're not surely suggesting that its either reasonable or realistic to abrogate these on this site, are you?

[Paddy Keating]

Those generic rules can be edited by any webmaster and those who know how often do make changes to them. They were written purely as a basis with genuine members in mind, not inveterate troublemakers, often registering under ficticious indentities.

Forum websites cannot be run along democratic lines. By their very nature, they must be run as dictatorships where the rules are fluidly interpreted. I imagine that this annoys you but I probably have more experience then you of management on websites like the ones we all frequent and the troublemakers, though very much in the minority, can be very vocal and tiresome. If webmasters are absolutely honest, they would never consider that these rights extend to intentional troublemakers.

Nor is this "contract" of sorts binding in the case of intentional troublemakers and, I might add, ficticious persons. Put another way, how can a ficticious person with no legal presence or standing claim to be bound by the rules that cover and protect "normal members" and the management of a website?

I have explained my position in clear English. You do not agree with me and nor, unsurprisingly, do my "stalkers" and self-styled nemeses, , but it is really only a matter of opinions. The attempts by the usual small but vocal group to whip up moral outrage over the fact that I looked at the PM traffic between a few people with bad intentions are quite amusing. Were I to publish these PMs, most people would sympathise with my viewpoint.

The funniest aspect of this is Feldpost's owner, doubtless chivvied along by his new best friends, getting all moral about my reading of his PMs, given that what they contained and given his publication of confidential e-correspodence between us. I do not recall publishing or even describing the contents of the handful of PMs I read.

This is like trying to play chess with people who think they're playing drafts. Moreover, why are you and the trolls inflicting this nonsense on Feldgrau members? Feldgrau was not attacked by Feldpost's Spotlight section so it is hardly relevant. Why not go over to the Axis History Forum and post all this garbage there?

Answer: Marcus Wendel would jump on you if you did because he knows that it is all too easy to release the genie from the bottle but somewhat harder to get it back into the bottle when one changes one's mind. This is the point Troy Tempest was reaching where Spotlight was concerned. He was sure that a bit of "controversy" would help to promote his website and went ahead despite warnings that once we started, his website would be a target. He got what he wanted...or thought he wanted before realising that he could not preside over Spotlight and be liked by everyone at the same time.

So now you are going to turn Feldpost into something else. Good for you! I suggest that you focus your energies on that instead of all these attempts at damage control and attempts to put the blame on me for what happened. I voss followink orders!



PK

[sid guttridge]

Hi Paddy,

However forums are managed, one factor remains critical - posters must have confidence that those running them have integrity and will keep their trust.

You appear to have no integrity and cannot be trusted.

Worse, these factors are contagious and infect other sites, leading to a collapse in confidence in the whole system of forums. How can we trust the moderators here now with the same degree of confidence as before your dishonesty on Feldpost?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Paddy Keating]

Sid,

That's rich, coming from someone who makes an art form of trolling and undermining confidence in the integrity of websites in terms of attacking and driving away all sorts of people, like elderly veterans or anyone you deem to be some kind of far right activist or apologist.

It comes as a rude awakening to some people that webmasters can read PMs and e-mails but why shouldn't someone running a website be able to protect the website by monitoring the PMs of "risky" members?

People like you are the real menace to forum websites. Like all professional level agitators, you ascribe to the theory that if you repeat lies often enough, people will eventually accept them as truth. This is why you keep on banging on and on about my alleged breach of your confidence on another website. Say it often enough, you hope, and people will begin to see me as dishonest.

Well, you have already admitted in another thread to falsely accusing me of publishing your e-mail address. Now let me take it a stage further by asking you to tell me how you can reasonably argue that your confidence was breached when, by your own admission, you were using a false name because you were taking "precautions"?

Precautions against what? Against being identified easily as a troll bent on undermining confidence in the website and the confidence of the webmaster, a nice enough bloke who proved more susceptible to your well-practised methods than anyone familiar with your MO for the past few years?

Maybe you believe your own propaganda, Sid. Maybe you have convinced yourself that you were the victim of a dastardly betrayal of confidence and privacy by me. Well, I was dealing with a ficticious individual whose name was not Sid Guttridge. So I do not recognise any rights and privileges you claim. But that is because people like you bring out the public bar fascist in people like me.

I am only bothering to respond to your nonsense for the benefit of others, so that they get a chance to see you for what you are. If you look around you, Sid, you're fairly alone. Your fellow travellers have backed away on this one because they're smart enough to understand that you blew it the minute you got windy and posted the retraction of your false accusation about the e-mail.

As for the rest of it, I don't see how you can manage to convince yourself that my actions were dishonest. If anything, I incur the wrath of certain kinds of people on these forums because I am very "honest" indeed in my attitudes and actions. I cannot abide hypocrisy and bull. Yes, absolutely, I will certainly acquaint myself with any useful "intel" when dealing with unpleasant, destructive, dishonest and disingenuous pests. I have stated this in the past. So will any webmaster, even if they prefer not to admit.

However, to return to your question, I do not think the moderators here can read members' PMs. It is a question of access abilities and I do not think they have the requisite access. So you do not have to worry about being caught out here, do you? And when you come to the next website with which I am involved, just be sure not to use the internal communications facilities if you have anything you prefer to hide.

PK

[Michael Miller / ABR]

The attempts by the usual small but vocal group to whip up moral outrage over the fact that I looked at the PM traffic between a few people with bad intentions are quite amusing. Were I to publish these PMs, most people would sympathise with my viewpoint.

Prosper:

Do feel free to publicly post any and all of my private messages.

That you appointed yourself, of all people, to decide on those whose intentions were "bad" is hilarious, and one would have to be irony-proof to miss the humor of it.


~ Mike

[Troy Tempest]

At the risk of prolonging this discussion, I too, would be perfectly happy for my PMs to be published as well Paddy, I have nothing to hide or to be ashamed of.

[Michael Miller / ABR]

Paddy, old boy- where you at? Elba?

~ Mike

[sniper1shot]

I too don't know how to do this secret PM thing.

[Troy Tempest]

I'd like to take this opportunity to answer some of the comments above and state clearly they do not in any way reflect the views of the management at Feldpost and they do not reflect how they think a member-contributing website should be run.

The former site administrator posting above is requiring the reader to accept that breaches of a member's confidentiality are necessary for the protection of a website. This is NOT the belief of Feldpost management - or else our Privacy Policy, crafted when the site took its present form and not changed...would not be worded as it is. If we were not intending as a matter of policy to respect the privacy of a member's use of the PM system - we would switch that function OFF. We firmly believe that NO member, moderator administrator or owner of a website should seek or attempt to read another member's Private Messages - EXCEPT with the express permission of that member - as the ONLY way to carry out such an action on Feldpost is by changing a users' password. And the only reasons a member's password should be changed by management is A/ at the member's specific request, B/ to prevent malicious access by a hacker using a member's login. But at no time do either of these represent, or should they subsequently be construed as - permission for anyone other than the member in question to access his Private Message box.

The question AGAIN raised here regarding the publishing of part of a members' confidential email address is very simply answered - the website's Terms and Conditions of membership and its privacy Policy apply to each members' data as stored in the website upon Registration. It does not matter at all whether that information is correct - once entered and the prospective member accepts those Terms, they apply to the data as entered and the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy visibly bind all levels of site management to respect the confidentiality of that data in part or in whole. The former site administrator patently did not respect this confidentiality, as he himself has declared.

The management of Feldpost is confident that the management of Feldgrau would never consider behaving in such a personally or professionally questionable way.