OP, please add the explicit forum rule about Personal Messages:
Subject: Re: Publicly posting PMsThere is no restriction against it. PM = Personal Message, not Private Message.
Compare "private interview" to "personal interview" or "private locker" to "personal locker". Something private isn't expected to be made public, but something personal is only owned by or associated with a single person, not necessarily with a strong guarantee of privacy.
For the sake of user safety, I also recommend noting that
unencrypted Personal Messages are
not private, no matter what forum policy says about disclosure by the parties thereto:
Vide the very first post in my post history!I really don't believe in willingly putting a man-in-the-middle in your HTTPS like this, […]
The security implications are that Cloudflare can read everything you send to or receive from the server, including your cleartext password and any PMs you send or look at.
Thank you, theymos, for honestly disclosing and discussing the facts about Cloudflare.
[...]
Note: PM privacy is not guaranteed. Encrypt sensitive messages.
I have been intending to request this addition for awhile. Despite the explicit warning adjacent to the “Send message” button, too many users are labouring under the misapprehension that “PM” stands for “Private Message”.
For the record, this is my
personal policy on the handling of my own PMs:
For my part, I treat unencrypted PMs with the discretion of common courtesy. Likewise, if someone were to publish my unencrypted PMs gratuitously, for petty spite, and/or otherwise without any good cause or even a colourable reason, then I would consider that to show indiscretion—i.e., evidence of an untrustworthy character; and depending on the particulars of the circumstance, on a case-by-case basis, I may issue negative feedback accordingly. Otherwise, I have no illusions about the privacy of unencrypted Personal Messages: I treat them as a sort of one-on-one forum, or an open-door room aside from the main room at a party.
Encrypted communications with explicit bilateral promises of confidentiality are a quite different matter, of course.
IMO. I think that comports with the basic decency and common sense which should be expected of anybody who is worthwhile to correspond with.
P.S.—thanks, mprep, for maintaining this list of rules.
So, my question is, is it ok that guy1 returns his negative feedback to the guy2 or that can be seen as abuse/revenge/blackmail or something? What do you think?
