scroll up a bit and see what DWard said ;)

Hi guys I would like to know if this hack can be used on vB 3.0.1 and I would like to ask Floris if he is concerned about writing a new version that could take into account all the suggestions that have been posted...

Thank you all for your care

My Best Regards
Virtex-II

If its good enough for the goverment to spie on us then its good enough enough for admins to spie on the little people to :)

Nice one floris i will check this as well :)

Works fine on gold cause its only a php file u upload to admin folder and run from there

I aint even sure why people are saying its messed up their board cause this touches none of the databse as its a standalone file.

WORKS for me too. :)
a few more TWEAKS would be fine.. ;)

i m VB 3.0 GOLD.
i tried to change the FILE to some other name. but it wont work that way..
is there a way to change the FILE NAME ?

Thnx for SIMPLEST hack OF good VALUE ;)

Sandy...

Very cool mod, I'll just use this for any rebellions and crap :devious:

How would i add this so i can access it from a sub catagory in the admincp?

Works on Gold really good. I love it. Now i'll be able to find out any evil conpiracies against me! :devious: j/k

/me hits install

Tested on vBulletin 3.0.1 and it rocks :up:

It would be nice if this could be handled from the AdminCP without having to change the user id manually :ermm:


All the best
Virtex-II

Did install on 3.0.1 and was a 1 minute job :ermm: Works like a charm.

Tnx Floris

PS: Install is clicked

Very easy.....

open admincp/user.php

find:
add below that:
save and upload admincp/user.php

now create a new phrase in "Control Panel User Management" as follows:
varname: view_users_pms
text: View Users PM's

now save it. Done.
Now when your in the admincp select "View / Edit User" of the user you want to read the pm's for, once there use the drop down "Quick User Links" and you will see "View Users PM's" at the bottom.

I had posted a little while back that there is a small problem with this hack.


When you are looking at a user's Inbox - the data includes who sent each PM. However, when you look at the Sent folder, it does *not* indicate who each PM was sent to.

If I'm monitoring an abusive user - I need to know who each PM has been sent to.


So, can anyone tell me what I need to do in order to have this hack simply show a "Sent To" field in ALL folders? So that, regardless of whether you are looking at the Inbox or Sent (or any other) folder, there will be 2 columns showing both the Sender as well as the Recipient?

I think this is only good if there was somewhat to do a word search in PM. For example, you may have a user that signed up and does nothing but spam. Users complain, so you warn them and they stop, but then start spamming in PM. If there is a way to do a search in PM's just for what that user is spamming about to verify that he is actually spamming (maybe 50+ message titles popup or more, then you can deal with the problem before you start losing users.

I sorta feel bad cause I am the one that originally requested this for 2.2.x but it would seem you show yourself that it IS legal in fact because the section reads Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection

(iii) to a person employed or authorized, or whose
facilities are used, to forward such communication to its
destination;

It would sure seem it is MY facilities being used to forward the message which by this text would mean it is LEGAL. Just my 2 cents and thanks for the update of the hack.

Is there anyway to modify this hack to show the sent to column? It would really be helpful...

Thank you all for your time and energy!

Sincerely,
Andrew Tatum

Sorry I am late got a lot of problems in this period.....Thanks a lot for your tips...very useful ;)


My best regards
Virtex-II

i am able to view users inbox and there send items properly

But few problems:
1. Sent Items do not shows properly to whom the message was send

2. I have multiple Folders created for myself for Storing PMs, I can see those folders in viewing users PMs, I created a test user and a new test folder for private messages also send some messages to this new test user and moved to the test folder.
but this test folder is not visible.. while viewing there problems.

This are the few probs. which should be fixed :)

Cool hack.
Thnx.
Sandy...

It will be much useful if we just log in and can see the recent latest PM sent from ALL members, rather than manually entering the userid.

I just found Giveit2u43's Supa PM Snoopa.

It rocks! The most useful hack.

Hi,
can i displayed what User become the PM?

title ->Sent by -> sent to -> Time

where is this?done the other part(have trolls blew up old board)

now create a new phrase in "Control Panel User Management" as follows:
varname: view_users_pms
text: View Users PM's

I know it's a tired subject for most folks, but getting back to the legal responsibility/privacy issues (a few pages back)...... Sorry for dredging this up again, but I find it's an interesting topic.

You know, I think there's an important distinction that's been missed here. There's a big difference between the obligations and legal risk/exposure between people who are (1) IT professionals working for a commercial or non-profit organization ... (2) those technical administrators who truly provide communication services to the public ... and (3) people who own and manage private forums/communities on the internet.

Legally, I believe this would be the key phrase: "... providing an electronic communication service to the public..."

In my mind... admins/engineers who work for an internet service provider (for example) are held responsible under that law, as would be anyone else in a technical position at some place like msn, yahoo, or icq. Those are public communication services (free or fee-based) that actually serve the public in one way or another.

But as a forum owner ... that's not the role I'm in at all. The members who register for my community are NOT part of the general viewing public and they're NOT customers or consumers.

A more accurate way of describing this would be to say that my members are guests in my home. Incidentally, this private-versus-public distinction also applies to that old "free speech vs. censorship" debate and how we function as administrators/moderators by establishing membership rules. There's a difference between people expressing themselves on a public street corner (which is legally protected as their right to freedom of expression) from people having a conversation in the living room of a private residence. (That difference being... it's my house and I'm the one hosting the party and paying all the bills. If I don't like what you say or how you behave as a guest in my home, which is private property, then I have the right to throw you out.)

In my case, I registered my domain name, installed my (licensed) software, set up my database, designed my website, secured hosting on a server, and arranged for all the memory storage and bandwidth being used each month. That website and everything in it -- is mine. I bought and paid for all those "assets" and they legally belong to me as property.

For that matter, I am also held legally responsible for any abuses or illegal activities that take place on my (private) property -- whether I know it's occuring or not.

The visiting (public) web surfers who stumble across my website either by accident or by invitation DO NOT have access to exchange private messages with anyone else, neither can they email my other members, post a message in my forum, or forward messages to someone else. To do any of these things, they first have to "register" as a member of my private (not public) forum.

Furthermore, if I don't take my responsibily as the licensed owner of my board seriously and, let's say, my members start using MY forum (and it's features) to traffic illegal drugs or distribute child pornography or make bombs or stalk/sexually harass other people ... then how am I supposed to defend myself when the authorities find out about what's going on and show up at my door with a subpoena or an arrest warrant?

I'm the one with full access to that database containing "plain text" of every forum post and private message that's been sent. How could I legitimately claim that I don't know what people are using my site for? What court would overlook my allowing these things to happen ... when all I can say for myself is, "Well gee... I didn't want to intrude on their privacy?"

Works in 3.0.3 great!!

The owner of the board, I feel is responsible for the operation of that board.

If the administrator / owner doesn't have the ability to monitor everything that happens with the forums that he / she is overseeing , how can he / she know rather or not the forums private messages is not being used as a means to send or plan illegal activities, or possibly harassing others on the forums.

Having the ability to view all private messaging on the forums is an added means for the owner / administrator to verify that such activities are not taking place. As long as you include in a privacy statement that the owners / administrators of the forums do have the ability to read all private messages than you should haev your legal ass covered.

I would however like to be able to view all private messages in the entire forum system on one page, without checking it individually by user. Perhaps a page that would inidcate user name / time date / private message, of each message.

I installed this hack.

To all the people who have privacy issues, remember that the board has no responsibility to keep messages private, although an ethical administrator will. There are times on occasion when I do have to go into the PMs and make a ban based on what I find there. Unfortunately, I will get users who sign up and PM everyone on the active list with a lkink to his site/free-ipods/referral link. This blatant spam and pimpage is not welcome, and this hack allows me to protect my users from spam easier. Also, on occasion, I have found users PMing links to porn to each other. This is in strict violation of the rules, and needs a way to be enforced. An administrator who wishes to abuse privacy will always find a way to do so, this tool is merely a convience to those administrators who have a reason to go through PMs on occasion.

I can think of some reasons to use it on one of the larger sites that I run...but it's truly an invasion of privacy (unless it got to death threats, etc...which has happened before i'm sure).

I'll probably install it, but not use it...believe it if you will ;) but it's the truth

Is there a "View Recent PMs" hack for vB3 like the one they had for vB2 ??

Thanks for the Hack * Installed *

suggest u view earlier post on this thread.
there a recent view provided.

* clicks install *

Will let you know how it goes. :smoke:

Unless you tell the people at your forum. Is there anyway for them to find out?

any idea when the newer version is coming out that can be installed and where we don't have to look up user ID.

If the use of this hack can be construed as illegal, what are the ramifications of a vB employee releasing it? Is there not an extension of his responsbilities as a vB employee not to facilitate the illegal use of data collected by the vB software?

Maybe legalese or Erwin can answer that? I'm certainly contacting my attorney and asking.

Personally i am very strong against this kinda hacks. On the other hand Jelsoft and their employees should take a neutral stand. In some countries it might be illegal, in others perfectly legal.

First of all if you will ever use this kinda things i think you should warn your members BEFORE you use it that their private messages might be monitored. Also set some rules on when you will use it.

An easy to use hack where you don't even need to lookup a usernumber would invite admins to read private mails without any reasons. I think it should only be used after complaints (not really needed then, the member complaining could send a copy of the PM to admin), or when admins have very strong suspicions.

Just my personal thoughts on this.

I love this hack! Thanks Floris! :)

Any dates on when the full version will be out?

I don't see what the big commontion over this hack is. If you're truly concerned about privacy, then recode the PM system in vB to encrypt private messages in the MySQL database, because as the board administrator, with or without this hack, you can still view all private messages sent on your forums.

I am trying to install this, and I get this
No valid userid specified

Add ?userid=x to the end of the URL
(where x is an Existing user)

I am logged into the admin on the board, then i run this and get that error.. I put my username at the end after taking out the x with my username? any ideas?

Thanks

ps I already set myself '1' to be superadmin in config.php

you need to use the user number, not user name:

userid=5

for example

wow.. im a retard :( thanks.. trying now..

ok that worked :D thank you very much. one quick question.. I know it use to install in the admincp is that not true with this version? do I have to go find the users number and do it that way?
Thanks again yoyoyoyo