Puritanhead
Puritan Board Professor
I won't drop names, but I have heard of incidents where the contents of someone's private messages provoked reprimand from mods/admins. It never happened to me, but I've read things on the blogosphere.
I did once have a mod a long time ago, like five years, hint at a cliche I used in a benign private message to another party while telling me "good morning" in a private message. It was sort of a subtle hint he had followed my private messages. I don't know what the point of that is. I didn't have anything to hide.
I guess my point is that I think there should be more meaningful disclosure that admins can monitor these messages as well as a user's activity. I can respect that this is a privately administered and owned forum, and talking about the First and Fourth Amendment rights is a little silly as some get on their soapbox with these objections to how private forums are regulated. Those Bill of Rights protections are vis-a-vis the government, not private entities.
However, I think it's simply a matter of common courtesy to Internet users, and it might be a legal rationale for a prudently articulated privacy policy too if they follow Internet legal developments.
I will only say Paul reminded Timothy about greeting others with "an evil suspicion." I personally cannot understand why private conversations would need to be glanced at with any regularity. If for example, you had an underage minor on here, I understand the paternal willingness to watch who they are talking too and keep an eye on them, and there might be a tort concern there at shoring up any liabilities.
I did once have a mod a long time ago, like five years, hint at a cliche I used in a benign private message to another party while telling me "good morning" in a private message. It was sort of a subtle hint he had followed my private messages. I don't know what the point of that is. I didn't have anything to hide.
I guess my point is that I think there should be more meaningful disclosure that admins can monitor these messages as well as a user's activity. I can respect that this is a privately administered and owned forum, and talking about the First and Fourth Amendment rights is a little silly as some get on their soapbox with these objections to how private forums are regulated. Those Bill of Rights protections are vis-a-vis the government, not private entities.
However, I think it's simply a matter of common courtesy to Internet users, and it might be a legal rationale for a prudently articulated privacy policy too if they follow Internet legal developments.
I will only say Paul reminded Timothy about greeting others with "an evil suspicion." I personally cannot understand why private conversations would need to be glanced at with any regularity. If for example, you had an underage minor on here, I understand the paternal willingness to watch who they are talking too and keep an eye on them, and there might be a tort concern there at shoring up any liabilities.