Queequeg wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:13 pm
Regular mods do not have access to member pm's unless they are shared with us. I am pretty sure there are levels of admin permission that would enable access to all content on the site. PC or Mr. Snyder would need to answer this.
That said, as a general rule, don't consider anything on the internet 100% private, ever. There is always the possibility that someone is listening. Not us, though.
Correct and good advice too. I can assure all that the mods and admins do not have access to PMs. There is no button or tab where mods or admins can access PMs and read them. However, since all material is stored on the server, there is a way PMs could be viewed, but I can assure you this is not done. It can only be done by our webmaster who handles all the techie issues. He is very busy and does not have the time to sift through tens of thousands of PMs, nor the interest, nor have I seen it, but they are stored in some part of the server, written in code and it would be difficult to access and convert to real text, but could be done if needed by law enforcement or some other agency, in the event of some criminal threats (of bodily harm, for example) were made by someone, a subpoena, etc.
In a similar way, if you go to certain websites and later delete your browsing history or even do a system restore, a law enforcement agency (if deemed necessary) could contact your ISP and in most cases still find which sites you visited (as the ISP will still have that history somewhere on their servers).