[kevann]

There should be a command to watch someones PM chat

[Garr]

No, that's a huge breach of trust and if your reason for spying on private messages is to stop advertising then you need to take down your horrible GF edit, make a good server and stop being insecure.

[Sew_Sumi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garr No, that's a huge breach of trust and if your reason for spying on private messages is to stop advertising then you need to take down your horrible GF edit, make a good server and stop being insecure.

But what about people PMing people about exploits, or conning people into thinking they are admins?

There's many other reasons to be checking PMs, much like the fact that not only 'horrible GF Edit''s are susceptible to users advertising.

[HeLiOn_PrImE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garr make a good server and stop being insecure.

Yeah, dude, you tell them! You're the god of scripts and pawn even ignores its limitations when you're working with it.
All your scripts and gamemodes are perfectly secure. Not a single motherfucking flaw in them.

[Robin96]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garr No, that's a huge breach of trust and if your reason for spying on private messages is to stop advertising then you need to take down your horrible GF edit, make a good server and stop being insecure.

You seem to forget that a part of the SAMP community exists out of trolls and hackers who have fun in ruining the fun of others. Either by exploiting, hacking or trolling. Sometimes you need to intercept their communication in the interest of the server.

If players want to discuss actual private things they can talk on Skype, Discord or another method outside the server.

[DowDaw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Potassium In my opinion they shouldn't be there in the main chat for admins to see while they are in game etc., but they should be logged and accessible through logs by senior staff.

This ^

[Sqooky]

No, but I believe that you should be able to know a certain player's recent commands - one sure way to know if someone's a fuckup.

[Konverse]

Well if it's to prevent advertising through PMs, I think this is necessary.

[thedonvlasicio]

I think at some points there should be admin warnings including the message content.
For example if players use numbers (which might be advertising), if players share links (if server detects "www." or ".com" or ".net". or ...) in messages... Or such words as "skype, face-book, server, admin, ip, port, ddos" are detected.
That would be smart because it would filter the unnecessary messages.

[Garr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeLiOn_PrImE Yeah, dude, you tell them! You're the god of scripts and pawn even ignores its limitations when you're working with it. All your scripts and gamemodes are perfectly secure. Not a single motherfucking flaw in them.

Be careful with reaching like that, you might dislocate your arm.

Pretty obvious which definition I was referring to based on the context. Make a quality server and you won't have to worry about advertisement through private mediums. Hell if your server is fun advertisement will be next to useless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sew_Sumi But what about people PMing people about exploits, or conning people into thinking they are admins? There's many other reasons to be checking PMs, much like the fact that not only 'horrible GF Edit''s are susceptible to users advertising.

Create systems which deter people from impersonating admins, IE uniquely coloured tags and indicators / warning messages. Prevention is better than detection, if you have a nice community and put emphasis on minimising bugs then you won't have an excuse to spy on your playerbase.

As mentioned above, if you log commands and player behaviour you will catch the majority of bug abusers.

[Huemerson]

Good Morning.
I believe that the PMs should be reserved, but in cases of suspicion when the user is of the type that does not respect the standards it may be necessary for the ADMs to have access to the private conversations.

[Crayder]

Personal messages should NOT be accessible by just any admins. They can be logged for administrative purposes, but if you are going to do so players need to be warned for privacy purposes (i.e. "Privacy Policy"). You should explicitly tell players exactly how their messages are logged and tell them exactly when and how they will be used, if you do not follow what you said you are in the wrong. It's as simple as that.

[AdamsLT]

Access to PMs should be available but only on a need-to-know basis and only to high-ranking admins/owners.

SA:MP is played by tens of thousands of different and wonderful people but, unfortunately, as it is with large communities, you can have problematic individuals. There was an instance where my good friend, an owner of a large server had to sift through lots of PMs after a parent of a player contacted him. I won't elaborate but it ended on a positive note as the parent was quick to react and inform my friend about the situation.

Some other players have mentioned but I will mention again that regular browsing of private messages should also be discouraged. By playing on your server, players have a reasonable expectation that you will handle their data with care. You actively snooping through their private messages and then blabbering about it will be a major breach of trust and highly unethical. In addition, legal issues may arise if you didn't formulate your privacy policy, as Crayder very correctly pointed out.


Very interesting topic and responses, kudos OP.