Just a copy of my post in another thread.

[BabyRider]

Hi gang! I've been working all weekend and have only just now gotten the story on this. Ladycop will not be back here, and I am the next to go. Administration here aparently wants to involve itself in the private conversations of it's members, and if they don't like what is being said, they take action. That action is to remove LC and me as moderators. That's fine, I have no problem not being a moderator anymore. What I do have a problem with is no one saying anything to me directly. When you get fired from a job, your boss comes and tells you. Not here. You are "removed" and ignored. And the fact that the term "private message" is a lie. There is nothing private about them at all. Administration can and worse, DOES read the PM's in this forum, and to me, that is wrong. I would guess that this post will be very short-lived. I'll be staying here long enough to see if that's true, and then I'm out too. If it does get deleted, I will re-post, and then I will probably be banned. Regardless, I am leaving also.
Thanks to all of the awesome people here. I really enjoyed the time I spent. To A Karenina, DerWulf, Carla, Jives, Cars, Polycarp, Greydeadhead, Tmbsgrl, AngelC, David813, and probably a few others I am forgetting, I will certainly miss you guys! A couple of you have my email address, please feel free to write if you want. Thanks for a great time.

[anastrophe]

Originally Posted by BabyRider

Hi gang! I've been working all weekend and have only just now gotten the story on this. Ladycop will not be back here, and I am the next to go. Administration here aparently wants to involve itself in the private conversations of it's members, and if they don't like what is being said, they take action. That action is to remove LC and me as moderators. That's fine, I have no problem not being a moderator anymore. What I do have a problem with is no one saying anything to me directly. When you get fired from a job, your boss comes and tells you. Not here. You are "removed" and ignored. And the fact that the term "private message" is a lie. There is nothing private about them at all. Administration can and worse, DOES read the PM's in this forum, and to me, that is wrong. I would guess that this post will be very short-lived. I'll be staying here long enough to see if that's true, and then I'm out too. If it does get deleted, I will re-post, and then I will probably be banned. Regardless, I am leaving also.
Thanks to all of the awesome people here. I really enjoyed the time I spent. To A Karenina, DerWulf, Carla, Jives, Cars, Polycarp, Greydeadhead, Tmbsgrl, AngelC, David813, and probably a few others I am forgetting, I will certainly miss you guys! A couple of you have my email address, please feel free to write if you want. Thanks for a great time.

sorry to disappoint you, but i won't be deleting this post, nor are you going to be banned for it. i guess you believe we have something to hide.

yes, as covered in the forumgarden privacy policy, if circumstances warrant, we have to power to review PM's. to expect that they cannot be read is naive. to expect that they won't be read when significant transgressions occur is the same. this is not a secret. every single page you visit at forumgarden has a link to our privacy policy.

I've been a system administrator for a decade. i've worked closely with law enforcement numerous times, and because of my position, have kept myself familiar with the laws regarding this. there are numerous precedents that establish the right of an online 'proprietor' to review any and all data stored on their servers. this applies everywhere online. say you have an email address @comcast.net, or @gmail.com or @yahoo.com or @smileglobal.com. they can read your email. there are no significant restrictions on that.

now, the question is *do* we read user's PM's or email as a matter of course, 'just for fun' or on a regular basis. No. of course not. ignoring that the sheer volume of PM's and email far exceeds any human's ability to read all of them, the fact is that we have far better things to do with our time. absent a compelling reason, there's no point to reading PM's, and we therefore don't.

in this instance, due to the gravity of the transgression, there was indeed compelling reason. the information revealed far worse behavior than expected. you know your part in it babyrider. your removal as a moderator, and lady cops, were a direct result of actions taken that demonstrate unfitness to be moderators. FG has a right to ensure that moderators are not working against us, and against our interests in making forumgarden an enjoyable place for people to spend time. That is the basis of your and lady cop's removal as moderators. Sorry we didn't let you know in advance, but i couldn't take the chance of further damage being done to FG with moderator powers in place.

[anastrophe]

it's worth pointing out that unless one wants to completely withdraw from any interaction on the net: every forum out there is virtually identical to ours - management can read PM's or whatever. the same for your email.

[Peg]

You staying with us too BR?