Ohh, You didn't say that. ha ha

Post 13 has what you need.
I have a feeling that the phrase will be there allready.

does it work with 3.07 / anyone tested on 3.07?

Blah blah blah!!! What complete and utter crap.

I am sorry I did not see this when it was posted, but I was probably too busy snooping on my members. :ermm:

I normally do not directly criticise a poster, preferring instead to just attack the stupid points one by one without any direct quotes, but this post ticked me off.

People who talk about privacy and freedom of speech rights for an internet site are begging the question.

You have no such rights at an website. The owner of the website provides a service not a country. If the service you provide is geared toward youth and you have pervs and freaks who come to your site, register, never post but send out a few PMs to the kids, you have an obligation to read those PMs to see whether you should contact the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. You do not have any obligation to inform your members that you access their PMs just like you are have no obligation to tell that you can edit their posts, see thier ips or ban them if you need to. If they cannot assume you have these "powers" then they probably are a bit daft or need to learn to learn pretty damn quick. Whenever, I hear about some child being lured away from home and killed, or whenever, I read a PM that was sent to a child asking them what the colour of the under clothes are, I want to grab these self righteous over libel morons and make them dig the grave and console these slain children's families.

You do not run a youth based website? Well, bear in mind that the website is yours. Not TMHall's. Not the ACLU's. It is yours and you have every right to implement any tool you feel is necessary to rid it of the vermin who have no life and no right come to your site to cause trouble.

This is not to say that you can read every PM your site generates. If you demand money from members who want unread PM status, then of course you have to honour that or you could risk assuming breech of contract liability. Another instance is more ethical and indeed the only ethical violation I can see and that is reading the PMs of established members. Those should indeed remain personal. Only you can decide what makes a member "established" or not.

lets say i want an admin user ID`s PM not to be showed in this hack then what shall i modify in the code?

like lets say the admin ID is 2 and 3 now what do i edit in the code so that the script wont show pms for ID "X" set to 2 and 3.

Yea i tested it out, it works but then i deleted, really no use for it

Was this hack made by microsoft? It seems like it's something they would do. Shame on all of you who installed it.

Oh please.. This is a dead horse issue and has been discussed to death. If you don't want to use it, fine. But don't come +++++ing about those that do have a need for it.

nah, Shame on you for acting as if you can't already do this without the hack...

I am sorry but I think this is a total invasion of privacy.

Whoever installed this really do not deserved to have a forum!!

Paul_d_g, please do not post the same message in all the read pms forums.

Even if I knew how I wouldn't I'm not like Microsoft, as appearantly other VB owners are. Don't get your panties in a bunch people. I am just stating facts, don't get mad at me because I pointed out that you are similar and use the same tactics that MS uses.

ahh but you automatically assume WE use it if we install it...or it could be an easier way of doing that which we already can..IF NEED BE...

don't get mad at us just because you don't know enough about software you are running...

as for the MS comments.....thanks...I need a laugh..for future reference, know that you can replace Microsoft with your employer or just about every major goverment in the world.

i switched over from phpbb and they have a PM hack that listed all of the PMs from newest to oldest regardless of who sent it etc. it also gave an option to delete individual PMs etc which came in very handy when i had a few people login in and send porn spam to a lot of our members..

im over on VB now and i am looking for a similar hack.

is there such an option or a tweak for this particualr code to make it so that all PMs are listed and not just the ones for the userid that u enter in.

just curious thank!

or maybe theres a different wording in the string in order to display all of the PMS in descending order

instead of only listing PMs for a particular user:
http://www.websitehere.com/forum/adm...m.php?userid=1

lemme know.

will this hack work on vbulletin version 3.0.6?

Any chance this hack can be ported to 3.5.0?

There are at least 3 vB3.5 hacks available for reading your members PM's.

Can you point me in the reight direction. I've only found one and it was nothing like the type we had for V2

One you can find in my profile, Floris made one, the third i don't remember the coders name.

I hope to have this working soon for 3.5

Why would someone do this?

There have been many debates on this from both sides and there are reasons for and against. In the end, it is up to each individual Admin as to whether they want to have this option or not.

As an admin overseeing a site with almost 12,000 members, this is exactly how I see it...

PMs are not email... and while they are a form of 1-to-1 communication like email, they are contained entirely within the site and are subject to the same terms of use as the rest of the site.

I also look at it this way... past employers do have full right to snoop through their email and police it against personal use/abuse. I have always felt that PMs should be the same way, in that there should be a tool that allows us to police against abuses (spam via PM, flaming, illegal activity, etc.). In fact, the prevention of illegal activity on the site alone justifies my having this addon, as it introduces a level of liability to me as the operator of the site should any occur. While it may not prevent the illegal activity itself (they will likely take it elsewhere), it will at least allow us to keep our site clean, and to have documentation that we did not turn a blind eye to it and that we stopped it where we did should authorities get involved and question us.

At the same time though, I do not abuse it where I deliberately spy on members private conversations. I only use it when it is justified (member complaint, suspicious behavior, etc.).

Seems like some sort of perversion. Are you so kind as to post this ability/activity in your terms of agreement?

It's in our TOS and has been since 2003 (because most of our members do follow it literally)...

http://www.thrillnetwork.com/tos.php...ds#privmessage

We had to implement the solution, which included this hack, when we started getting complaints of spam and flaming via PM. Since we could not necessarily rely on having them forward the PM (they can be altered), and we actually record all evidence related to a suspension of an account in case it escalates, we needed to be able to go to the original source on our own. With two people who are comfortable with SQL (myself and my assistant techie), this tool is necessary.

Plus, when you think about it, a private message isn't necessarily private, especially when admins can just go into the necessary table, and we have never made any bones about it not being private, especially since members can (and have) taken content from PMs and pasted them in public, even against the sender's will.

Lastly, if you are a busy like we are, you do not have time to even think about snooping on PMs, and I'm too focused on other parts of the site to where my contact is email only, and when I am in the admin CP, it's mostly in the members (for bans and account fixes) as well as the templates to make a minor change to the look of our site or to prepare for an upgrade.

Spam and flaming via PM? The solution seems worse than the offense. But, to each his/her own.

I think perversion is a little strong and derogatory. Please use something else next time.

No problem, but there are many meanings to the word perversion. Here is the way I meant it: "incorrect or improper use." That was from the dictionary. I appologize if I offended, it was not my intention.

I do agree somewhat, StevenTN, it is clearly in there and people can make the choice not to join. I like your home page too.

No problem. I understand how it was meant, but there are those here who wouldn't. ;)

I've followed this thread for a long time and I laugh every time I read some bleeding heart going on about privacy. Forums are OWNED by their administrators (although in some cases admins are merely employees of companies who OWN the forums).

This means they also OWN the entire contents of the database, because they OWN the website. This means they can look at it as much as they like without anybody being able to do a single solitary thing about it :)

IF on the other hand, they were taking the information contained within the database and selling it to a third party and it wasn't stipulated within the privacy policy that they'd be doing this, then you've got a right to complain as this has been made illegal in many countries (particularly the US and UK which I'd imagine is where a majority of you are operating from).

If you're going to cry about people reading the messages of their members to ensure their safety then you're no better than the people causing the need for this kind of functionality. I bet if some kid on your board is raped because some sick bastard groomed them via PM on your message board you'll feel really intelligent because YOU didn't take steps to allow you to police your own website properly.

I feel so much better having said that now :)


Cheers,
Robert

Vbulletin owns the intellectual property, shall you let them monitor your 'movements'? Can Vbulletin monitor all you do, as the Administrator, with their software and what is attached to it? I understand security and safety, it is how I make a living.

Jelsoft sold me software called vBulletin, which they can track using a web bot in the admin panel to make sure my license is on the right domain.

Jelsoft do not own the contents of the database on my website, they purely own the intellectual rights to the code which they authored which in turn allowed me to create said database :)

I can look at my database as much as I like :)

any newer version of this?

i also remember a pm reader having the option to view PM's via the admin user edit.. cud this be done again please?

...and I can rob a home when no one is home. :tired:

I suggest you have a look at 1 of the 3 vB3.5 hacks available for this.

Of course you can, with enough determination you can get past any security system*

The difference is it is not illegal for me to browse the contents of my own database :) I can look at it all I want because at the end of the day there isn't a thing anyone can do about it without removing my access and thus breaking the law themselves (theft) or having the law changed (unlikely).

So nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah :p At the end of the day you can try to impose your "reading their messages is bad" morallity on me all you like but it will change absolutely nothing and I'll still be able to make sure my users are safe quickly and easilly if and when the time calls for it :) Plus like has been said before, anyone who assumes a website's administrator can't access "private" messages they've sent or have received really needs to go to college and take a long course in common sense.


* Disclaimer: I in no way advocate or encourage anyone to break the law, whether it be breaking into houses or anything else.

could you link me? i havee searched only 2 i found.. this one, and the pm.php in the admincp.

Great idea, great hack. THX

Hello,,

any one links me to the newly 3.5 version of this hack please ?

thanks in advance,,