I forwarded the PM to a moderator upon request, and specifically requested that no further action be taken. I also noted in that PM that as far as I could tell, there was no way for the recipient of a forwarded message to verify if it was real, since the original message appears in a quote box just like a quoted post.
As far as I am aware, no admin has actually verified that the post as forwarded was genuine, but then bri has not claimed he didn’t send it, either
Sorry, no.
The general issue of threats in PMs is still a valid one and the discussion is fine.
Well you are making a lot of progress. Have at it then I guess.
Whatever that means.
As far as I’m concerned, this whole affair just highlights the impotence of the moderators around here. They are simply incapable of doing the right thing, instead slavishly hewing to the black and white letter of the rules.
Bri-Bri should have been kicked to the curb a long time ago. Not warned, not suspended, but kicked the fuck out.
We can’t verify PMs that are sent between posters. I’m sure that there’s a hack, but we don’t have it functioning on this message board. Our system admin, from what I understand, does other IT work at the Reader, and isn’t inclined to dig around in the SDMB for PMs. So, just how do you suggest that the moderation staff deal with PMs that are posted, if we can’t verify just what was and wasn’t said?
Perhaps a different sort of hack? A hack that prevents people from editing a message they are attempting to forward? If such a thing exists or is even possible.
I don’t think in ten years I’ve ever complained about anything on this board. That person should have been banned, not suspended. I don’t know them from anyone else here. I’m basing my opinion on that one thread, but it went too far and should not be tolerated ever on a board like this.
People who want that kind of talk around should go to a different board.
But that’s just my ever humble opinion.
That really does give context to your earlier post and makes it understandable. There’s little point in reporting threats if they can’t be confirmed and ignoring them or blocking PMs from that source would seem to be the best options.
Could always just ask the guy if he sent it, and should his answer differ from the recipient, look at both posters’ histories.
Right. As I said earlier in the thread, posters may complain to the staff about PMs they receive from other posters. If the sender claims the PM has been altered in some way, we’ll have a factual question to settle. In this case, I had no reason to doubt that what **RNATB **sent me was what he received.
So basically, anyone can say whatever they want in PMs and the mods are “powerless” to deal with it?
It isn’t rocket surgery to determine someone’s posting history and whether it is in the realm of possibility that they could have sent abusive PMs.
If this is true, then RNATB should have been banned. How can you allow a poster to post a PM without the ability to verify it? Talk about a slippery slope. If you are asking me how I would suggest handling this situation, I would suggest making a rule to not permit the public posting of PM’s in a thread. Period. End of controversy. Otherwise, any poster can make up anything they want, post it as if it were an actual PM, and the moderation staff can’t do a damn thing about it. Do you seriously not see the problem here?
I know enough about software and email to know that copies of PM’s exist. They have to. And they exist on your servers, not on our PC’s. To believe that you do not have the ability to read, access, and confirm PM’s is simply not true. Your system admin may not be inclined to dig around in the SDMB for PMs (and I can’t blame him/her), but he/she can do it.
Ban a person for going public about having received a threat? That would be a very bad thing to do.
**Really Not All That Bright **, I’ve let you go about as long as I can with this, but now I’ve got to warn you:
TWEE!!21211!!
DO NOT POST QUOTED THREATS AND PROFANITY DIRECTED AT YOU, ESPECIALLY WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR. IF YOU DO THIS AGAIN, I’LL MAKE UNORIGINAL QUIPS ABOUT YOUR USERNAME.
Gfaptor
Pet Moderator
::notices he lacks pants. again::
This is an outrage!
This isn’t going to go on my Permanent Record, is it?
Worse. You’re going to be disbarred.
Sorry. Pants next time, I promise. 
I don’t think anyone saw us. Let’s get the hell out of here.
Meep
I can’t pretend to offer a solution, but I gotta say that when people can send death threats through PMs with impunity, you folks have a serious problem.
I agree that nothing can be done unless the recipient makes others aware of the threat, either by posting it in a thread, or sending a complaint to a Mod or Admin. The only alternative would be for Mods/Admins to monitor PMs, which is seriously intrusive not to mention a huge load of additional work for a very low frequency occurence.
So in a sense RTNAB does have akind of veto power over what happens to bri… But like a crime victim, once the complaint is made, what may later happen to the perpetrator is no longer RTNAB’s decision.
But, I don’t believe it is reasonable either to punish an alleged threatener merely on the word of someone claiming to receive a threat. There MUST be a way to verify such a threat was actually made.
Has this situation not arisen before in all the years of the SDMB? If it is truly that infrequent, perhaps it is not unreasonable to ask Jerry, or whoever is the database admin to look at the actual messages and verify the content.
When we get a complaint about a PM, we contact the sender and ask for that person’s side of the story. I don’t think we’ve had anybody claim that they were misquoted.