Sorry if this has been asked and answered.
What are the rules for private messages? Are they considered part of the board or, since they can’t be seen by everyone, does a different standard apply?
Well, as for me, they better be polite. If I want to flame someone I will do it in public and I expect the same in return. I have even had polite PM exchanges with someone I was in the middle of a fight with in the Pit. I politely asked for clarification, they politely gave it, then we went right on flaming each other in the public thread.
Just curious. What kinds of standards do you mean? Are you asking if you can insult another member in a PM where you can’t in the forums other than the Pit? Or some other standard?
And do you mean rules? Cause I didn’t know we had standards on The Dope. 
On preview: Dang, askeptic beat me. I need to learn to type faster.
So what’s the story here? Did someone get an ugly pm that they want to report or are they planning to send some flaming pms and want to know beforehand if they will get in trouble?
The Board is governed by the overarching rule: don’t be a jerk. If you let that guide your actions, you should be fine, even in PMs.
This cracked me up. I pictured two kids fighting in the school yard, all bloody and dirty, when they call a time out.
“Hey, just asking, you don’t have steel toes in those shoes do you?”
“Nope, just stiff leather, not an unfair advantage”
“Ok, thanks, carry on…”
Well, for instance, we can’t say on the boards that a poster is on our ignore list (a rule I don’t really understand). So can we inform that poster (or mention it to someone else) in a PM? We can’t insult someone outside the Pit; does that include PMs? And so on.
These are all examples of where you want specific “rules” laid down for you. Rather than worry about specific rules, why not be guided by the consideration I mentioned before?
Thus, we might consider it being a jerk if you state in a posting, “I refuse to respond to DSYoungEsq, that idiot never bothers to state anything of value anyway.” If you were to send me a PM stating the same thing, wouldn’t that be just as jerky? If you sent a PM to someone else stating, I don’t listen to DSYoungEsq, because he doesn’t say anything of any value, well, what is the point to saying that? On the other hand, if you said in a PM, “I’m not responding to him in the thread cause I just ignore him,” how is that being a jerk?
You see? Hard and fast rules are hard to apply here. The jerk issue may be in the eye of the beholder; I try to err on the side of non-jerkiness, and if I stray too far, a gentle reminder from the mods will likely offer sufficient correction. 
I think Otto can be forgiven for wanting an actual staff member or Admin to give him an answer, rather than yourself DSYoungEsq.
If thats the case why didn’t he just e-mail one of them? Or maybe, direct his question to them in the body of his OP? As written it is a question addressed to anyone generally. Granted only TPTB can give definitive answers, but absent that, are we not free to offer our two cents?
Because “our 2 cents” are pretty useless on rule interpretation unless you have a couple of precedents to point to. The PMs are new ground.
Posting it here lets all of us see the answer. Why would this be a “take it to email” type thing before Otto actually decides to make some formal complaint against a specific poster?
True, but official answer has not been forthcoming. And DSYE’s answers sound mostly sensible. Just as in GQ, “IANA? but this is what I know until an actual expert shows up”.
I for one, am glad that this was asked in the open and look forward to an official response.
I notice that “IANAModerator” is often conspicuously absent in DSYoungEsq’s posts when he explains board rules.
I suspect that DSYoungEsq is also misunderstanding the motive behind Otto’s question. Rather than crafting some borderline private message himself, I’m guessing that he has received one and wonders whether it’s valid to report it. It would be nice to see a general guideline of what the mods expect but I’m sure any specific case would be taken to email.
I’ve often wondered about this, too. If someone is really nasty to you in PM - and no one has to me, if you’re wondering - what do you do? Pit them? Make their PM public? Report it to the mods?
Count me in as curious and hoping for an answer from TPTB, too.
If it is for a message he already received, then the damage is done (strictly a figure of speech). He is better off reporting the actual PM to the mods and hoping for the best.
Can a man not just be curious? Not that it should make any difference, but I have not received a nasty PM from anyone and I have no immediate plans to send one. I am simply wondering what the rules are.
No, fair enough. I’m curious too. That was just my first impression.
If we are all going to throw out our opinions, I don’t much like the idea of any warnings for jerk-atude coming out of angry PMs. I think they should be basically considered private correspondence on par with email. You can always delete Jerky McJerk’s message unread or turn off PMing. Only something approaching real harassment, e.g. flooding PMs/racial taunting/threats of violence, should warrant a moderator intervening.
We made this rule because people acted stupid with the Ignore list; they’d use it to fight with, to show their disdain/dislike for someone.
Yeah, it’s stupid; people do stupid jerky things sometimes.
Try thinking of it this way: How would YOU like to be treated while you’re here? Most people want to be treated with if not consideration at least civility. That’s not a bad way to go here.
And your Ignore list is your own business.
You’re responsible for what you do here and that includes PMs and email.
Haven’t had any problem PMs yet but I’m sure someone will change that at some point. But for the most part people are pretty cool and reasonable and civilized, even.
The unmentionable ignore list rule doesn’t make any sense the way Tuba has explained it here. People “show their disdain/dislike for someone” with insults, invective, lies, speculations, accusations, and just plain cruelty. In the scheme of things, informing someone that you’re ignoring them is downright civilized.