hidden members....

[LissaKokoKiwiKaseySam]

I'd like to see this feature disabled.

[kvnband]

Sorry, but nope. We have to respect our members' privacy. If someone doesn't wish to be seen online, we have to respect that.
kevin

[LissaKokoKiwiKaseySam]

If you don't wish to be seen, don't log on?

[kvnband]

And if you don't log on you can't post. Some people don't want to be bothered with PMs whenever they log on. Maybe a member has told everyone that he/she will be gone for a week and changes his/her privacy to invisible because he/she just wants to browse in peace.

I'm sorry, but we have about 150 members using this feature and it's not going to be disabled.
Kevin

[Doubleyolk]

Speaking of PM's are they really private of can they be read by people they weren't intended for?

[kvnband]

What would possibly make you think that? I've gotten numerous emails and PMs before asking that very same question, and I'm always curious as to what got the idea in that person's head. All of your private messages are stored in a MySQL database (along with all other forum data). This information is not encrypted (if it were encrypted, we wouldn't be able to retrieve it without decrypting, and obviously, that is going to put a terrible strain on a server...)

Our forum software is the (literally) most secure PHP forum software on the market, and the price shows it. The only way your messages would be readable by another person is if the software or server were to be compromised. That is very unlikely (we have been hacked one time since our inception, and all the attacker was able to do was modify the forum template....nothing else)

Aside from that, only I can read private messages, but in order to do that, I have to manually dig through a database filled with information to try to find whatever it is I'm looking for. Frankly, I don't care enough about anyone else's business to do that.

So in answer to your question, yes, they're private. Hence the name.
Kevin

[Doubleyolk]

Nothing directed toward you Kevin. I know on other vBulletin boards that PM's can be read by their Mods and I've been questioned on one of my PM's there.

[TooLover]

I have chosen to come in invisible and am thankful to have that option. Kind of gives the member a cloak of security

[kvnband]

Like I said, PMs are stored in plain text, so in essence, with a convenient lack of security, a hacker could read them. And I'm sorry, but I do take questions like that personally. I know they're not meant to be, but it's just the questioning of ethics bothers me.
But, case closed, they can't be read by the mods.

[LissaKokoKiwiKaseySam]

I personally dont' think moderators should be invisible to members. But that is just my opinion.