The Privacy of PMs

[river]

Hi,

An incident occurred recently in a thread where someone copied some PMs from another member onto the forums. This caused some angst and concern from one of the people involved, who was not asked if his PMs could be placed onto the public forums.

The Board has reviewed and discussed the issue in regards to copying and displaying PMs on the forums. The consensus from the Board is this.... PMs are supposed to be private messages and if they are to be copied into the public forums then permission from all parties involved in the PMs should be requested, and granted. Furthermore the PMs should not be tampered or edited or out of context.

From a moral perspective, to put PMs onto the forums without permission, is a pretty low act.

We hope that in future that the privacy of a PM is respected and the above recommendations are used when one feels the desire to place a PM onto the public forums.

seeyuzz
river

[EldarO]

any special penalties that will be applied if these rules are breached?

[ed]

bit of a whacky rule? certainly not in step with australian privacy laws concerning the recording of conversations (to which this seems perfectly analogous) ...

...The 'conversation' may involve any number of people who do not know about the recording - as long as the person making the recording is a party to the conversation being recorded - ie the words are said in front of/or to them and not overheard privately.

The recording can be used to prepare notes from, to create a transcript or as evidence of what was actually said and by whom if there is a dispute about what was said and agreed to OR if the making of threats or intimidation needs to be established.

[river]

Hi,

No rules or penalties were mentioned in the first post.... just a recommendation.

seeyuzz
river

[TheToyman75]

Ed,

Its more a voice of Social conscience - There is no rule about sharing PM's nor will punsiment be dished out if anyone does it (unless they are altered to misrepresent what was sent and posted in a manner that could reasonably be seen as a personal attack by means of character assasination).

Some of the board has some strong mixed feelings about recent acts and how low of a scumbag act it can be to reproduce a persons PM's in some circumstances.

But we are not your Nanna and once you hit send on a PM or an email its not longer yours - Its out there. Any perceived privacy once sent is just that - perceived. And really if you dont wantit "out there" dont type it or send it.

[Draven]

once you hit send on a PM or an email its not longer yours - Its out there. Any perceived privacy once sent is just that - perceived. And really if you dont wantit "out there" dont type it or send it.

That's pretty much where I stand on things... if you don't want people to know something, don't farking say it

It's like saying something to one person, then getting all cranky when they tell someone else.