Should admins be allowed to read members pms?

I've seen a few online communities - where the owner, or staff members are able to read their member's PMs,

But, what do you guys think about this? Is it right to do?

 

No! Why? They are Private Messages or Personal Messages.

 

It is my belief that if something is truly private, it should be sent via email, and not via the forums PM system.

The system is also very handy in catching abusers because not everyone will report or forward the PMs, so as long as there is a clear message that the administration may read PMs, I don't see the harm in the system.

 

I agree, it really depends on your niche if you should have this feature implemented, so if you run an Webmaster forum its best to have it to see if anyone is abusing it.

 

IMO, there's a report button in all PMs, so there's no real need to read everyone's PMs as they can report the bad ones to you Much easier that way, at least for me.

 

Most dont report them.. so its best to have both and not just one.

 

I do think they should have the option if they wish.

 

why do you say that?

 

Yeah, but on the other hand, you wouldn't believe at how many people would be afraid to report them... so really, as long as the mod isn't abused by your other staff members, I see nothing wrong with checking PMs for proof of claims or anything like that.

 

I don't shit through PMs just for lulz, but if someone reports one and I feel the need to view the entire conversation, I will do it.

 

For the record, any admin with PHPMyAdmin access can see PMs in the database, as far as I know, so if it's something that's truly private, take it somewhere else. Like timestandstill said, I wouldn't go reading them just for the heck of it, but I feel that it would be appropriate to read them if an issue arose, since it happened on my site, after all.

 

I think they should be able to have a quick look through member's PMs to check for any abusers, as Ashley said, but apart from that, I don't think they should read the PMs.

 

Yea, nothing is ever private on the internet. Forum Admins can always view PMs either through phpmyadmin, or if they have any special mod installed. I dont have any reason to go through PMs either, I just monitor the PMs once in awhile, and if it looks suspicious (The PM Title) I will read it.

 

I don't read others' PMs just for the heck of doing it either. Only like in your situation, if someone reports one, or even if it doesn't get reported and something suspicious comes up, then I'll check out the whole conversation so I can get the whole picture. I never read PMs for fun or games either.

 

I think in some forum software TOS it's illegal to do that... It's called "private" message for a reason.

But I do agree that sometimes exceptions can be made, such as if a user is scamming other users or is harassing someone.

 

In some countries it's illegal also, but as Trombones had mentioned above nothing is truly private on the internet. So you have to be careful.

 

It's been bashed many times at phpbb.com which is probably why such mods find it hard to get validated, as the author gets fed up of all the flaming made against them for creating such a mod.

 

I dont see a reason why people do that, you either use it or you don't

 

The owner of the forum should always have the right to see anything posted on their server, so IMHO an admin should have the option to read PM's if needed.
This doesn't mean the admin is going to go over every PM that gets sent. It's generally used to clear up any misunderstanding or if there is bullying going on in the forums.

PS.. in my years of running forums I think I've read 5 pm's on 2 separate occasions that resulted in a member ban.

 

I agree, the only PMs I tend to look at are ones with weird subject titles as not everyone will report PMs, especially if you get a human spammer come on and decide to randomly PM a handful of inactive accounts, etc.