Can admin read private one to one's in the chatroom?
If so, why? I've got sneaking suspicion you do and I've got to be honest, I don't like all the cloak and dagger stuff that is going on here at the moment.

Of course Admin can read private messages.

That's responsible policy, and it deters abuse, undesirable and malicious content being directed by someone at anyone else.

Whether or not you like the fact that Admin can read private messages, and how it makes you feel, is probably a separate issue.

Why would it unsettle you?

I'm not posting a great deal for a few weeks. What's the cloak and dagger stuff?

Why would it unsettle me? Because if I was in the chatroom and I wanted to discuss something with someone in there in private, I'd expect it to remain private. There's a reason I want it to be private for #s sake, that's the whole #ing point isn't it? Otherwise what's the point in having the option if it's going to be read anyway?

What cloak and dagger stuff? The air of suspicion, paranoia and general unpleasantness that's going on around here at the moment. I don't like that alot of innocent people are being suspected of # because of this paranoia (which I have been a victim to).

Actually I don't think they can. Not without a great deal of stuffing around.

That chat was chosen for the very reason of security. For the same reason it is so simple. Chat mods have 2 commands, clear last 5 mins or kill member. Thats it. They cant see what you are messaging anyone. It may be possible to check the logs on the server, but would involve a fair bit of mucking around and a very good reason would be required.

Kano

That's interesting.

I would feel quite OK about Admin having the ability to read private messages in the Chat Room. I have seen that policy in a few other Chat rooms, but I haven't used any in quite a while.

Fair enough, but what would constitute as a good reason? If it was private how would you know when you should be looking for something suspicious?
I'm not throwing accusations, just curious. Thanks.

Like a very good reason.

For example if the board was hacked and it was suspected something was said about it in chat.

Really though, its unlikely anyone would be dumb enough to discuss such matters in the ATS chat room under their own username or from their regular IP. So its pretty unlikely it would ever be required.

ok, thanks for the explaination Kano.

sorry to be off topic, but Kano, ive noticed you and me both are a fan of futurama. I figured that out from you custom user title. interesting.

At the end of the day, this is not public property, it's a private forum that we are allowed to use. The owner has full rights to do what the heck he wants.

Futurama is the absolute best. I am so mad it's history. Grrrrrr!.

Yeah they always trash the good stuff and the total ass programs seem to stick around for years. Although I hear Family Guy might be making a return so that's good news.

A similar question was asked of me when I worked for AOL. "Can AOL read my IMs?". I chose to answer the question very directly and responded "Yes, AOL can read your IMs." That's the thing, Can and Do are two very different things. You send text over a network owned by AOL. Can they access that text? Of course they can. Do they access that text? They have somewhere near 80 million members. The paid staff have other things to do besides read the over 1 Million IMs sent per hour on their service. It's the same thing here. Is it technologically possible to read the text sent over ATS's service? Yeah, most likely it is. Does anyone do that? I highly doubt that the staff like William Simon or Bob88 do this simply because they have other # to do. If one day something was going on, and someone in a chat was acting in a way that threatened other members... would it be appropriate to monitor that person's private messages for the safety of other members? I'd say so.

People must remember the fundamentals of technology. When you make a phone call, you are not talking directly to your friend in person. You are talking through a system owned by At&t, Verizon etc...