Another thing folks do not seem to realise is that your private mails CAN be read by others to whom they were not addressed nor intended to be read by. For months after it was sent, if needs be, do not forget that.

That is a fact, and I bet it is not widely known (or thought about).

I heard recently of someone whose FT account allegedly was cancelled due to something typed into a PM, and many FT'ers I am sure would squirm a little to read this recent notice carefully, as that would also cover that situation:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/annou...ouncementid=43

If you want to communicate with ANY other FT'er and be quite certain the only person reading your communication is that person, AVOID PM and use email at all times is pretty good advice.

That's a fact :confused:

I am sure that a system administrator can read anyones email, as I have administered Exchange and Domino servers, I am sure that is possible with PMs. But just because you can, doesn't mean you should ;)

Besides, no moderator can read PMs

Math, or as Jethro Bodine would say, "ciphering," was never one of her strong points...

I use PMs with people I don't have a relationship with.

On the other hand, when accessing "FT Lite" on my cell phone, I can't read PMs, but typically I'll live.

I've had some perfectly fine conversations by PM, but
it's pretty unwieldy: I get this e-mail that says there's
a PM, then I have to log in (and that resets the pointers,
so I have to do my reading as well), then ...

I'll turn it off now; better to vote by action than blab alone.

Thanks.

Actually, not even that.

VBulletin requires a mass of hacks and modifications before even an admin can read a Private message of a user. In theory it's possible to manually extract stuff out of the database and then try and match the userID and senderID with it, but that is a huge amount of work.

The "threat" of sanctions based on PM content is IMHO there to warn you that a member can forward a PM to a moderator if they think it contains some kind of violation but moderators, admins or even Randy can not just pop into your account and check your PM's.

Then stop reading my PMs :mad:

:p

Ok, for those who side-tracked - yes, I can count. :p I registered in August '02, promptly forgot about FT, didn't go back until Feb '03, so I really count Feb 03 to be my timeline so maybe 20 mths - but hey, why quibble over a month here or there. Bottom line is (bringing it back on track), do whatever works best for you - PM or email. But if you're contacting me, then email :) Cheers. Sharon