Just out of idle curiosity, can mods and admins view PMs sent between posters?
Short answer: No
Longer answer: No, however (being an admin on another VB board), an admin could, technically, change your password and then (knowing your password) log in to your account and look. But I wouldn’t worry about that. : p
Second longer answer: A friend of mine who was very good with technical stuff and who also ran a VB board told me that he found a script that allowed him read other people’s PMs on his board. Other members (friends of his) confirmed this was true…however I had my doubts and, personally, I don’t think such a script exists. If it does:
- I doubt the admins of the SDMB would ever do this and
- It would probably take ages to write
Either way, I wouldn’t worry about it. Because as is, there is aboslutely no way any admin or mod can read anything in your PM box without majorly/drastically changing something that you’d notice (I.E. password–by the way, if an admin ever changed that, you’d know, because it logs you out).
Yes, such a script exists.
However, there’s a lot of debate on the VB mods site about the ethical implications of the mod.
Private messages are in plain text in the raw MySQL database. Mods and admins whouldn’t have easy access to them without a hack. Someone with access to the database will be able to see PMs, but they’d have to use a MySQL database editor or utility.
Please. I could do it in ten minutes. It’s nothing more than a few lines of PHP wrapped around an SQL query.
If you have access to the MySQL command line it is trivially easy to read PMs, by at least two different methods I can think of offhand - I’m not sure why this gets shrouded in mystery on some message boards. And you can write a PHP script that automates it for you in about 2 minutes. I wrote such a script for my message board (and I’ve told all the Members since Day 1 in writing that the Board Admin may be required to read PMs in the event of a serious breach of the rules).
While I am not on the this message board’s staff, the SDMB Staff have said numerous times in the past that they do not have MySQL access nor a script pre-written to read PMs.
Honestly, I was typing my message when you posted yours…odd how we both posted on the same thing.
This is completely incorrect. Not only can I get around the password issue, I can get around the logout issue as well.
Yeah, but you claim to be five times better than him.
Well, I test stuff before launching it. In case, y’know, I fucked up and crash the board. Not that that’s ever happened to me. No, of course not.
I just want to add that I’ve never PMed anything that I would mind a mod seeing - honest!
(That would go in an email :p)
Well, I have Fierra to help me, who IRL is a hard-core DBA who’s forgotten more about databases than I’ve ever learned. In any event, 2 minutes was hyperbole anyhow, as it sometimes takes longer than that just for my stupid computer to come back from hibernation (not to mention going through 5 levels of passwords and security just to upload the stupid script). IRL it probably is closer to the 10 minutes Q.E.D. said. Long story short:
- it’s still a trivial effort.
- the SDMB Staff have said in the past that they do not and can not read PMs and have no desire to ever do so, and I trust them absolutely.
The Straight Dope moderation and administrative staff cannot see PMs not specifically sent to them.
We have no need and certainly no desire to eavesdrop on the private communications of others.
It’s incorrect that an admin would have to change something drastically to read a PM on this board? Seems to me you said in your own post that the admins here don’t have MySQL access…
So begging my pardon if that means the only other way to do it would be to use the admin CP to change one’s password. I think I’d, at least, notice if my pass were changed. 
At least one admin absolutely has SQL access. Jerry has to have it as a matter of course. Ed probably does, but I’m not sure he’d know what to do with it. Standard vB does have a MySQL control panel through which admins can query the DB. Access to this function can be granted or denied to individual admins. I don’t know if any other admins such as TubaDiva or Dex have access to it and again I’m not sure they’d know what to do with it anyway.
And the reason for this is that Jerry has to be able to work in MySQL to fix problems with the DB. As noted, it’s technically possible, but unethical as all hell in most circumstances, and nobody wants the hassle in the third place. The one occasion it might be appropriate to do so is if there were reasonable grounds to suspect someone of carrying out illegal activities using the PM facility, the board management (meaning Ed and/or Jerry acting at his behest, or someone outranking him) might investigate to see if the allegations are in fact true. (Think the Stage Manager business some time back, where he was allegedly attempting to meet a minor Doper for sexual purposes – things like that.) Then and only then might the board go through the legal and ethical hassle of devising means to investigate someone’s PMs – they could care less what you think privately of Dex or Lynn.
It’s not drastic from a tech standpoint.
Not if I did it you wouldn’t, because I would change it back and alter your “last visited” times before you saw them…believe me, I don’t have any super-dooper skills at all; some things are just really easy if you know even basic SQL.
Yes, but we weren’t talking about your boards. 
I have no doubt it can be done easly without a person’s knowledge, but most people who run boards don’t usually know about these things and, as it is, it’s a moot point anyway, it seems, haha.
The point to Una’s posts is that she and Fierra run a vBulletin-based board, and know what they’re talking about in regards of what is technically feasible. I don’t know Ed Zotti’s technical competence – his job is something quite different, administrative rather than technical in nature, and he may or may not know how to make vBulletin sit up and beg for hamster chow or roll over and play dead. Jerry, on the other hand, does have technical competence, and probably avidly follows developments on the vBulletin administrators’ technical board. (Which is why I suggested some months back that Ed might be well advised to accept Una’s volunteer help, to give Jerry some reliable assistance at little or no cost to the Reader/CL.)
But agreed that it’s still a moot point.
I am sorry you took my post that way. I agree that you were both indicating the effort was indeed trivial. The use of the winky smiley there would have helped get my point across.
Well, we can be sure they know how to make the boards roll over and play dead. 
No, we’re on the same channel - I assumed you were making a small joke, and took no umbrage whatsoever.