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New conspiracy theory!! P.M.'s are being moderated now??

I Sperg

Over Christmas, I got first moderated to death for posting a wholesome christmas message, then whilst trying to P.M. a forum member this little beauty pops up...

This is a little too orwellian for me to stomach. P.M.s are personal or private messages by their very definition, and should be mostly unavailable to third parties. 

Also we seem to have a culture of "Silent Accusers" generally developed in this country where people can make accusations against you and trigger "lawfare" without you ever being told who they are, or even the copy of the accusation that has been laid to "authority" made available to you.

There have been quite a few posts that illustrate this if you are aware of and see it as a problem.

Although I've grown quite "fond" of some of you, I've also previously adminstered one forum on the same platform as the alternative to this one and I knw that over there my personal mesages are only going to be read by the recipients and not some third party who might find them triggering or offensive and institute sanctions against me without my knowledge. As currently happens to me every single holiday when the mods are off now....

The internet is already NOT a safe place for people like me, I prefer a forum which doesn't metaphorically have "A wiretap on my phone".

Did you consent to having your PM's overseen routinely?

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  • I Sperg said:
    Did you consent to having your PM's overseen routinely?

    I had a quick look at the rules:
    https://community.autism.org.uk/p/rules

    User agreement
    By joining the Online Community, you agree that the moderation team has the authority to edit or delete content and to suspend or delete accounts that violate the rules.

    It doesn't specify that the content is on the forum or private messages so it can be assumed that everything is covered by this rule.

    I don't see any "right to privacy" clauses so it is therefore logical that there is none.

    My interpritation of what a "private message" is in these circumstances is that is it not published publically.

    I think we are assuming a lot about what private should mean here, but given the potentially vulnerable people here, there is no doubt a case that "snooping" by moderators is permissable to identify exploitation, abuse etc.

    This is a free service after all and these rarely have any "rights" with them, just as with any other free platform.

    Most will mine your email, search history, browser history etc and use this for advertising leads (ie they make money selling the info). I don't see this site exploiting us this way but from the safeuarding aspect I think it is entirely appropriate.

  • in reply to Iain

    Custom and practice.

    They call them "private messages".

    THE VERY MOMENT I got to be admin on a forum a few years ago I immediately investigated whether I could examine peoples P.M's.just to check whether "Private" really did mean private. I was reassured to see that It did. 

    The name private messages implies "privacy".

    Why is this important? 

    There are some views I hold legitimately, that are not hate based, but nevertheless if expressed publically can cause uproar with what appear from my perspective to be people with an axe to grind.

    I don't want to upset ANYONE really, at least that's my default setting, "Do no harm" so some things I do not discuss on the public forum. Should I meet a like minded person, I perhaps DO want to talk privately about such matters, with another consenting adult, and compare notes, so I do in private secure in the knowledge that no one will get their knickers in a twist about why I voted the way I did.. Some poor moderator (who like many people here)  happens to hold very strong political views that conflict with ours reads our exchanges will end up feeling strong enmity towards me, and I will have no idea why suddenly the ban hammer keeps hitting me every five minutes. 

    Private is private, public is public. IF private is monitored, then SURELY that should have been made EXPLICIT, especially on a forum made for Autists! 

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