How Private is a Private Message?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TurboSmoke
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How Private is a private message?

not that i have any ulterior motive but who can read it and who can access it...?

obviously anyone who administers that GTP members database has info about usernames and passwords and can log into any account and read them....

does the big man upstairs (Jordan) do this as a part of his job?

and the BIG question....do moderators have this privilidge or can they request access to other peoples PM list as part of thier duties?
 
Moderators do not have access to PM's. We abide by the same rules as you do when it comes to PM access.

Administrators are the only ones who have complete access to your PM's. I'd suppose a guess that they don't have the time to sift through everyone's pm's. THey only keep them as a back-up in case there's a problem.

AO
 
I think that Administrators can see PMs if they need to, but I'm not sure. Certainly Jordan can go straight to the relevant table in the database.

Passwords should not be available to be seen at all by anyone. The reason for this is that there's a repeatable one-way encryption function in PHP, which means you encrypt the user's password, then store the encrypted password in the database. When the user logs in, the password they type is then encrypted in the same way, and compared with the content of the database. In this way, it is not possible to read the database and then log in as any user.

Or at least it's not if vB's database is properly designed, and there's no reason to suspect that it isn't.

The moderators cannot see PMs, but can request that the administrators look at a specific message in cases of abuse being reported.

There are too many of them floating about for anyone to care about reading them. So I would suggest that the simple answer to your question is: Private means Private.
 
Actually, administrators cannot read private messages. I am the only one who can read them because I'm the only one who has access to the database.
 
Originally posted by Jordan
Actually, administrators cannot read private messages. I am the only one who can read them because I'm the only one who has access to the database.
are you the one who keeps deleting my pm with some "good" links? It keeps dissappearing out of my saved pm folder.:irked:
 
Originally posted by Attila_Da_Hun
are you the one who keeps deleting my pm with some "good" links? It keeps dissappearing out of my saved pm folder.:irked:
It may be that the PM was from months ago, and it simply slips off hte 100 day mark. Sent you status to "From teh beginning" and it hopefully should pop-up.

AO
 
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