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Do Forum Posts Become PMs Without the Poster's Knowledge?

3K views 28 replies 9 participants last post by  Krummhorn 
#1 · (Edited)
Yesterday a member here claimed (in a now deleted post) that she received on-the-forum posts made in response to her posts as private "emails." She had told me (and everyone else) that a post of mine as it appeared on the boards had obviously been revised and that the original, which came to her email box, read as if it had been written by someone else. When I pointed out that I hadn't sent her any emails, she explained that a technical option on this site allowed her to receive forum posts directly into her private inbox.

I found this baffling and disturbing. What exactly does it mean, if anything? I see nothing in the "Private Messages" section of "General Settings" to indicate that we can divert people's posts into our inboxes. And if such a function existed I would find it highly objectionable. Forum posts are not private messages, and surely no post should arrive in anyone's personal mail unless it is sent there by the poster.

I would like some information and some general opinion on this.
 
#2 ·
:O that is scary, i wonder if this has happened with me... and folk are now concerned at my sanity...

but i am curious on how this could have happened.
 
#4 ·
Yesterday a member here claimed (in a now deleted post) that she received on-the-forum posts made in response to her posts as private "emails." She had told me (and everyone else) that a post of mine as it appeared on the boards had obviously been revised and that the original, which came to her email box, read as if it had been written by someone else. When I pointed out that I hadn't sent her any emails, she explained that a technical option on this site allowed her to receive forum posts directly into her private inbox.

I found this baffling and disturbing. What exactly does it mean, if anything? I see nothing in the "Private Messages" section of "General Settings" to indicate that we can divert people's posts into our inboxes. And if such a function existed I would find it highly objectionable. Forum posts are not private messages, and no post should arrive in anyone's personal mail unless it is sent there by the poster.

I would like some information and some general opinion on this.
This would be an alarming development and I would be highly concerned if this was indeed an option. Enough to actually stop contributing to this forum. Where are you mods? How about an explanation? Or is something else going on?
 
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#6 ·
Yes, I just found that. It's in General Settings, Messaging and Notification,Default Thread, Subscription Mode.

I would suggest that this is disabled post haste. What an appalling idea!
 
#16 ·
so we would get to see all the edited notations of a post too? :O

*nods, so if folk follow certain posts, they definately would see what i do to edit posts... :O
 
#22 · (Edited)
so we would get to see all the edited notations of a post too? :O

*nods, so if folk follow certain posts, they definately would see what i do to edit posts... :O
That is one of my concerns. I do a great deal of editing, before and after posting, trying to get what I want to say just right, and even hoping for an opportunity, however brief, to change my position and retract something I've said. I find the usual slight time delay before people can respond important. It's definitely awkward and possibly unfair to have someone basing their response on how a post reads the moment it appears. This, of course, is in addition to the creepiness factor.
 
#20 ·
:O but then they could see how stupid i would end up being when i sometimes post a post...
which include typoes, me randomly talking about some thing i did about a decade ago then rambling about it, which shortly after i find it is redundant and decide, it shall be edited or the two times i ended up accidently started yelling at a fellow member because of their own studpidity on their uneducated opinion of my music,,, (i think it was on the symphony no. 1 post where i ended up writing a book to someone there (to not grant any names...) then shortly afterwards i edited it, which just after it successfully was edited boom TC goes down for 3 days.




where the edited post... now that i have an unknown amount of follower(s)

would end up being...

:O but then they could see how stupid i would end up being when i sometimes post a post...
 
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#21 ·
One gets to see exactly what someone posted as if they were on the forum at the moment it was posted. Is that creepy? Maybe if the person posting it is a creep....

This function is very helpful for those of us who do not have the time to be logged onto the forum 24/7 or who don't have a strong enough phone/wifi signal at all times.


It sounded like the writing of one of the members of the old-boys-and-a-girl network.
 
#23 ·
As I understand the forum software, one can setup notifications of posting to a given thread. In that case you would get an email that someone had posted to the thread. You would control information coming to you. You can also send an email with a link to a thread. The email has the form:

mmsbls,

This is a message from mmsbls ( mailto:xxx@gmail.com ) from the Classical Music Forums - Talk Classical ( https://www.talkclassical.com/ ).

The message is as follows:

I thought you might be interested in reading this web page:
https://www.talkclassical.com/55516-do-forum-posts-become.html?referrerid=22817

From,
mmsbls
You must know the person's email address (which generally people don't unless the member has given their address to the person emailing). It seems as though one can only email to members addresses stored at TC. I tried to email the same form to my work address (not on TC) and have not received anything in over 10 minutes.

Someone could, of course, PM another member and copy a post into that message. The PM should show the member who sent the message, but the message itself could be edited and could contain almost anything. If a member knew someone's email address, the member could also send almost anything to that address.
 
G
#26 ·
i think that it is best to be mindful that once you post something on the internet it is immediately there for the world to see, your enemies as well as your friends. It is quite normal for forum posts to be sent immediately by email, that was how the old news groups worked. When you press the submit button, it is the modern equivalent of posting a letter to be published in a newspaper or magazine.
 
#27 ·
It may be the equivalent, but it isn't equal. The instantaneousness of posting and viewing makes the process of thinking and writing on a forum qualitatively different from writing a letter or publishing an article, and as most of us (I hope) realize it generally makes the quality of discourse distinctly inferior. Effort is required to prevent that from happening, and effort requires a little time, a little breathing room. "Getting it right" the first time s not always easy, and knowing that someone is just waiting to shoot an immediate zinger at whatever you say first is not conducive to good thinking or conversation. That can always happen, of course, but a forum feature that immediately tells whoever's watching that you're posting can only raise the stakes and make this defect of internet dialogue more prevalent. As a writer careful about his thoughts and words, I would prefer not to know that some troll is just waiting for my monicker to pop up so that he or she can pounce, and that the forum itself is providing a tool that makes the playing of invidious games that much more efficient.
 
#29 ·
Don't forget that all posts, once submitted, are subject to being indexed by various search engines whose bots regularly scan this site for new postings.

The exception are postings within Area 51 and staff only areas.

If a post, having been submitted, is later edited or deleted, the original content of THAT post may very well be indexed and show up in a, for instance, Google search.
 
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