I've got miserable users and the swedish chef(enfranchizer(sp?)) mod. The former tends to be taken with good grace.

Wait until your members start threatening each other via pm or pretending to have received threats. Then you'll have to read pms.

It's not like it's a difficult thing to do through mysql anyway. Once you tell your users about it they'll presume you're reading ALL their pms.

I am considering hiding ips from mods though.

I am sole owner/admin of my board. It's a very small, private, and exclusive community. I don't ask for donations, and if anyone tried to offer, I would say no thanks. I'm not doing this for a profit. It's simply a hobby.

I have the Miserable User mod and the Admin Log On as Member mod both installed. The MU is used if a member tries to start trouble, and the other is used for members having trouble with something on the board...I don't use it to read PM's, but I'd consider it if it meant protecting my members. People aren't always what they seem...how well can you really know someone you meet on the internet?

To the OP, you sound like a disgruntled member that has gone through a lot, it's much easier to just click the "Log Out" button on a site if you don't like what's going on. There are so many places to go and you can even start your own as well.

No need to question the way others do business on there sites, each site is the private property of the owners, something that most people don't understand is forums are not all public. I have had people tell me that they are posting on a public forum and they can do what they want too... lol I then inform them of the truth.

hum, why bump a thread that old... really not needed to shake that old tree...

Didn't realize how old this thread was.

DieselMinded,
I understand where you are coming from with what your saying and if your post ever got deleted (unless it just turned into name calling etc) I would never come back to this forum because this is a discussion board which to me means people are entitled to discuss what is on their minds.

I have been working on a Sports Website for almost two years, and finally about to launch it into the public eye after numerous style changes etc to get the right feel. I like you did not select a topic that I thought I could make money out of I had always grown up as a sporting person and loved my sport and am very passionate about my sport however 3 years ago I dislocated my neck and was told I could not play sport any more which is why I thought about and eventually started to create my sports website.

I agree with you that you should be passionate about what your site is about and not in it just for the money...

However over the past two years I have invested over $7000 into my website, taking into account the hosting, domain name, website design, news system, vbulletin forums, vbulletin styles etc etc as you would know the costs just keep mounting not to mention added on extras that are not for the website however are used for the website eg: new phone lines for adsl, and stuff like that.
And when you have a now 7month old son its not always easy explaining to the MRS why you need another $1500 for this or that when there is stuff to buy for the baby however my son will always come first.

My website is now at the point as to we have a steady number of visitiors coming to the site (and once it officially launches we hope that number will grow) and we signed our first sponsor. Now after me personally investing $7000 I am not prepared to invest any more and its going to be riding on what we can earn - however when you look at it that way I am $7000 out of pocket so what I do with the website is any money earned through sponsorship, or advertising etc I will take 10% to slowly pay me back while 90% goes back into the website to improve it - however any donations that are made 100% goes to the website as people are donating to improve the website not to give me my money back.

So I guess what i am trying to say is in some ways it is ok for admins to take a little cut especially if they have forked out there dollars to get that money back. I dont agree with someone making a donation and me going out to get a new pair of nikes however with advertising money if someone paid $1000 from that I would get $100 it looks legit on the books and once that $100 is mine i can then do what i want with it.

2 years? 7k? Pheeew!

1 year - 3.5k :)

Anyone that runs there own website and pays for it has every right to do whatever they want with it. Make it a porn website, make it a I hate Obama website, make it a KKK White Power website.

Therefore if the content in itself can be whatever they want it to be, any modification of that website, including forum modifications can be what they want as well.

Any attack or questioning of morality and good conduct based upon the modifications from vBulletin.org that an admin chooses to use is entirely irrelevant. What one person sees as invasive and wrong another can defend with the reason why it's used.

For example : Miserable User - most people use this when they have a troll who's been banned 20 times and keeps making accounts.

I don't even use the mod, but I had a guy make 12 accounts in one day, should I babysit my website all day long while at work with a member like this? Or do I have the right to add that modification and let it take care of them by itself?

....Oh yeah I pay for the website I can do whatever I want. So can everyone else.

The closest one to unethical of that you listed is the Read PM one as reading other people's mail in the US at least is a Felony 10K fine, etc. However we do use that, for one purpose - and only in this scenario - if a new user joins and all they do on the WOL page is "send pm's". We double check to make sure it's spam, and then ban them.

It's not like we're reading people's love letters to each other, and since I'm the only one who can read them or admins can and they don't even know the modification was added, I don't consider it unethical at all.

P.S. The real issue here is that you're arguing the morality and justification or unjustification of other's choices and that's the point entirely, none of us have to be moral or justified in anything we do. So the whole complaint, while I hope it made you feel better is irrelevant to everyone but you.

:D Nope, the real issue is that this thread was originally posted in Aug of 2007 and someone bumped it out of obscurity.

I read that above.

The point remains, and no I'm not defending Pauls' mod or anyone elses, I'm just saying what someone sees as unethical another could see as totally advantageous for reasons of protecting there forum.

I believe every website owner has the right to choose and is beyond question from anyone else. I know I am, because I don't care what anyone else's opinion is, unless your paying my bills.