Topic: Sharing PM screenshots in forum posts, is it OK? (Read 345 times)

I read the forum rules and it does not say anything against your concern, so I think it's okay to share screenshots as long as it can be considered as evidence to prove a violation of the forum rules by a member.

Multi-account in the first place is not against the forum rules, however, if these two accounts committed a violation, then that can be used as proof, otherwise, sharing a screenshot to prove two accounts are multi does not make sense IMO.

Personal messages should not be shared without the consent of the sender, that's why we call them personal messages, not meant for the public. However, in case you need to report a scam or to catch someone cheating on the forum, you should share those messages. At this point, it becomes the responsibility to share and help identify the scam, alt accounts or whatever.

It depends on the intention why you are doing it. If you are doing it do doxx someone, absolutely not! If the other person is OK with you making public whatever information is available in those PMs, you can do it. If those PMs contain wallet addresses that can be used to prove a connection with alt-accounts or users who are ban-evading, you could just report them to the moderators instead. If they consider it as acceptable proof, necessary actions will be taken.   

If sharing the personal messages can prove that the accounts are connected then why not show the screenshot unless there's personal information included that needs to be blurred out or won't show it but providing a screenshot with personal information included in my opinion is it will fit what theymos said that others may consider it worthy of negative trust since the one who provided the screenshot with personal information doesn't have the permission to made it public or against the owner's will.

Ideally, the accepted practice should be deletion of messages with private information in, since even if you keep your account secure, and you don't plan on releasing that information, it could be compromised through other means out of your control; like the actual server being compromised. I personally, don't like the idea of keeping someone's personal data even if they've willing fully given that up. This especially rings true if you aren't going to be needing that data anyway, after completion of a successful trade.

Yeah, not being against the rules doesn't make it right from a moral stand point. Okay, the point has been proven that they're called personal messages, and not private messages, that's correct. However, that doesn't prevent users making the assumption that the messages they sent in personal messages are to be assumed to be private. You could potentially argue that's their fault, but expecting everyone to first now how to encrypt their information, and secondly redact any personal information probably isn't the best solution. Now, when they post information publicly, they should really know that unless they're explicitly comfortable with everyone knowing it, they shouldn't do it. Personal/private messages because they're usually one on one between users, can sometimes evade people's logic about sharing personal information.  

I think the only time releasing personal messages would be acceptable is if it revealed any significantly malicious users. For example, those looking to compromise or scam other users. At that point, I think they give up their benefit of the doubt about personal/private messages.

Ultimately, it comes down to personal view points. I'm against it personally, although in align with other beliefs here I don't think merely posting someone's personal message without permission is red trust worthy. I bet there's loads of instances where I, and others have paraphrased a personal message without thinking. I think if it's determined that a user released a personal message in hopes to attack an individual, that would have to be considered based on context whether or not that's a trust system issue.

Again, this ignoring that screenshots can be easily manipulated to how you want them through multiple ways. So, the only reliable way of sharing personal messages would be through allowing someone access to your account, which again opens up another can of worms.

Anyway, I've probably veered a little off topic there, probably more suited to a discussion in reputation now.

Yeah, I remember this. I'm quite glad that theymos opted not to release them, even if they didn't have any personal data in them, which I expect they didn't.

I see nothing wrong with sharing content of personal messages with others, unless they contain some private information like email address, phone number, bank account, postal address, and something similar.
If connection between those two account is including some doxing information, I would watch out in what section of forum I would post this.
Theymos also confirmed it's not against rules, but I would not want to see sharing personal messages in public turning into regular thing here.
If you want to share sensitive information in forum, use encryption or some other method of communication.

No, they're neither private nor confidential unless encrypted. Aside from the recipient being an asshole, or admins peeking into your messages, there are also possible hacks and other circumstances when your PMs can become public.

From the moral stand point, alot of users would really be against it. Maybe unless there is a consensus which I know would be very rare.
Speaking from the moral point, there was when Theymos was considering releasing Satoshi pms, but later he couldn't find it necessary again. It means Pms are private and maybe confidential.

In regards whether it's okay to do it from a moral stand point, I'm sure a lot of users would be against it. Especially, when as suchmoon pointed out they can be easily faked. You don't really gain anything from providing a screenshot. It doesn't prove anything at all, and all it does it cause potential moral predicaments.

Literally, you don't even need any special skills like being good at photoshop to edit a screenshot, you could just edit the source code of the page, and write whatever you want, and then take a screenshot. So, in my opinion a screenshot is pretty much worthless.  

Admins, and Global Moderators can view personal messages, Global Moderators might only be able to view ones which are reported though, I'm not 100% sure on that. However, in all likelihood admins only view personal messages if there's a reason too, i.e its been reported, or they've been contacted via a legal team. I highly doubt they sit there, sipping their tea going through personal messages routinely. So, I doubt theymos checked the messages this time either.

I could do it though, if LoyceBot gets a CC. I'm not sure if there's a (weird) demand for it. I can imagine it can be used as evidence after a trade.
It's not that difficult to publish any PM LoyceBot gets (the profile says "Don't contact LoyceBot" so it shouldn't receive any private PMs). I could even implement a 1 month delay, or make the delay "configurable" by a tag in the PM (in which case I can publish: "PM between X and Y will be published on date Z).

Update: I made something, see LoyceVs PM publisher

I find it interesting that theymos replied.

If I was dropping a dime on someone on this website and started a conversation like this thread I would interpret that the boss or owner of this website is implying there could be negative consequences for dropping that dime.

I am pretty sure theymos can view the two so called pms

I am pretty sure if I were theymos if I could view the pms

and if I thought they were really bad I would not post the post that I quoted above.

that means they are not a problem

So if I were the op I would not bother and leave things be.

My thoughts on this are based on the thousands of pms I have gotten over the years with no compromises made against me.

ie pms are personal not private which means they can be read.
since no one has ever fucked around with all the info that has been done in my pms i trust what theymos says on these matters.

essentially if you post regularly on this website you should trust the owner of the website to a fairly large degree.

IMO context is also important.
If you are trying to link 2 accounts that are cheating some alt-coin / token bounty then it's one thing.
If it's from someone who was  distributing malware or who has threatened others then it's different.
Once again that is just how I think, other people will probably feel differently.

-Dave

Rule violation? No. Just not cool (what with it being a "personal" message and all). But screenshots don't really prove anything since they can be easily fabricated so you might as well just say that you have the proof and it would have the same weight (i.e. in order to believe it we would have to trust you).

I love how trollnut above is not-so-subtly implying that LoyceV archives PMs (no, he doesn't).

I don't think it's out of order, But since I am a member of small rank, When I'm going to send a direct message to the members above me He will never take it well. So I think in some cases it's not okay to send a private message whether it's a screenshot or a message.

1) It is OK to share screenshots of pm as an evidence if an archived link of Loyce is attached to these screenshots. Because any screenshot of html page can be forged. Screenshot only is not an evidence

2) It is OK to share screenshots of pm if these messages containing screenshots are solicited

It's not against forum rules.

I do consider it rude to share to a PM without permission, though I do not consider it worthy of negative trust. Some others may consider it worthy of negative trust.

I think it's okay and I have done this so many times.  

AFAIK, Mods didn't see what's our conversations through PM not unless there's one of you who reported the PM.
I didn't see violating the rules not unless you're spamming a PM, IMO.
Maybe I suggest having a conversation outside the forum or using a third-party app is quite good if you're worried about this.

But anyway, good thing you raise this question, and maybe Mods knows about this.  Waiting for a response that comes from the Mods.

I am not sure if this should belong to Meta or reputation board

My question is, is it OK to share screenshots of Personal Messages sent to you by a member if you are trying to prove a link between two alt accounts?
Doesn't it violate any forum rules that I may not know?