XF 1.2 Administrators View Conversations

[Robust]

Any stock features built into XenForo to let administrators view private conversations? If not, that's honestly a feature that should be added, simply to enforce site policies. Screenshots are not always reliable so I need something like this.

I found one (rather two together), but I'm not sure if the load would increase significantly with them. If so, I may have to leave it.
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/conversations-access-by-waindigo.2357/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/conversation-search-by-waindigo.1721/
both together, good idea or bad (load too high or something)

Any better options I have to go about doing this (if XenForo 1.2 didn't add it yet)

 

[Liam W]

Users can report PC's, however having the ability for staff to read PC's doesn't really make them PC's...

Liam

 

[Robust]

Users can report PC's, however having the ability for staff to read PC's doesn't really make them PC's...

Liam

We may want to see a conversation between two (or more users) with none reporting it the possibility of it breaking one of my site policies.

They're private to normal members, but honestly it's our site and if we're only viewing conversations to enforce site policies then it's fine by me, and I'll throw a disclaimer out about that in my rules.

 

[Amaury]

@Waindigo has a resource that will accomplish what you want here.

 

[Martok]

We may want to see a conversation between two (or more users) with none reporting it the possibility of it breaking one of my site policies.

They're private to normal members, but honestly it's our site and if we're only viewing conversations to enforce site policies then it's fine by me, and I'll throw a disclaimer out about that in my rules.

Fair enough if you want to do that. Many of us don't and want users to be happy that a private conversation is indeed private. So it's a big 'no' from me about this ever being added to the core.

 

[Robust]

@Waindigo has a resource that will accomplish what you want here.

Question about it in OP

 

[Robust]

Fair enough if you want to do that. Many of us don't and want users to be happy that a private conversation is indeed private. So it's a big 'no' from me about this ever being added to the core.

Honestly, it depends how it's used. If you'd, assuming you were younger as my site is aimed at teenagers, you'd prefer for us to look at PMs only to enforce site policies and ensure you aren't getting hate PMs all the time. Now you can go ahead and ignore them but some people may actually get offended by some, and even if they don't then it's against site policies. And say for example I don't allow selling at all, I don't want it to happen in PMs simply because I can't monitor PMs. For this reason it's something that should be added into the core imo, but then again some people look at PMs for the giggles. You've probably heard this before but I honestly don't care if someone is talking about x, y or z, all that I care about, PM wise, is that the policies are followed in them. Apart from that they can discuss when their dog died, and unless they attract negative attention to themselves it's likely I'll never see that, or any, of their PMs, and if I did I'd just wobble past the dog dying and find which one I need to check against.

 

[Amaury]

Question about it in OP

Oops. Oversaw that.

You should ask that in those resources.

 

[Martok]

Honestly, it depends how it's used. If you'd, assuming you were younger as my site is aimed at teenagers, you'd prefer for us to look at PMs only to enforce site policies and ensure you aren't getting hate PMs all the time. Now you can go ahead and ignore them but some people may actually get offended by some, and even if they don't then it's against site policies. And say for example I don't allow selling at all, I don't want it to happen in PMs simply because I can't monitor PMs. For this reason it's something that should be added into the core imo, but then again some people look at PMs for the giggles. You've probably heard this before but I honestly don't care if someone is talking about x, y or z, all that I care about, PM wise, is that the policies are followed in them. Apart from that they can discuss when their dog died, and unless they attract negative attention to themselves it's likely I'll never see that, or any, of their PMs, and if I did I'd just wobble past the dog dying and find which one I need to check against.

Although you feel a need to check PM, I'd say that the majority of sites do not and many of us don't want this in the core. So the add-ons that you linked to are the perfect solution that keeps everyone happy.

 

[craigiri]

They are not named Private Conversations, but Conversations.

While I understand the "nays", these are people who may have not had the experiences that long-time forum admins run into....

Examples - from my real experience:

1. Users who start selling their influence on your forum to vendors and others! Yes, I had a user or users who wanted free stuff (and more) from manufacturers for pimping stuff on my site!

2. Users who want to start their own communities and lists within your communities - the settings on conversations often allows many (or even unlimited) participants in one.
In our case, these were fine and dandy...until at some point they start to be used in some kind of mutiny (i.e. - this forum sux, come over to the new forum I'm gonna start which won't be like this one, etc. etc.).....

3. Users, as in #2, who abuse the system in order to sell things (if not allowed), harvest members for their related or unrelated sites, etc.

I'm sure there are more examples, but these are not things I never expected nor did I look for them in the PM's in the old system (EE) or in XF.
BUT, I learned the hard way. Only after things became obvious did I look, for example at people selling their influence, and then it was much harder to squash.

The rules on a forum should be followed in conversations just as well as they should be followed in regular posts. I certainly would not want to read conversations for entertainment or even for everyday monitoring, but the ability to see them when you KNOW something is up is priceless.

In my case, I never used an add-on - I had to dig into the mysql, which doesn't really show the whole convo, but enough to know whether something is going on.

In practice, occasional (usually after report or suspicion) monitoring of conversations is no different than the ability of your corporate email to be read where you work....I'm sure most employers, even a guy like Martok, would not take kindly to their email system being used to sell stolen goods (influence) nor to entice other employees to leave, revolt, etc.

But, yeah, I can see not having it in the core. That might have tempted me. As it stands, just seeing a snippet was enough for me to confirm the worst! And, yes, I clearly spelled this out in our FAQ, so members are on notice.

 

[xIsabel38]

Since a PM can be seen in the database it's "wrong" to call them a "Private Message" IMO. I always went with the terminology, "Personal Message" instead. While I don't bother to read PMs and whatnot and I don't agree with being able to easily read them, I do expect that nothing is ever private when it's posted online.

 

[Jon W]

Answered the question about our add-ons here:
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/conversation-search-by-waindigo.48829/page-3#post-739531

 

[kiwixpop]

Is there a way to edit the permissions for this addon? My founder and I only want the two of us to be able to use it in order to keep it from being abused. Right now everyone on my staff is able to see it. I have Admins, Mods, Welcoming Committee, Sectional Mods, Tech support. My founder and I are super admins. Is there a way to edit it to where only certain members can use it?

I didn't install this add on, someone who was on my staff did it for me but then they were removed because of personal issues and they do not want to help.

 

[Amaury]

Is there a way to edit the permissions for this addon? My founder and I only want the two of us to be able to use it in order to keep it from being abused. Right now everyone on my staff is able to see it. I have Admins, Mods, Welcoming Committee, Sectional Mods, Tech support. My founder and I are super admins. Is there a way to edit it to where only certain members can use it?

I didn't install this add on, someone who was on my staff did it for me but then they were removed because of personal issues and they do not want to help.

You'll need to ask in the add-on thread.

 

[erich37]

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tlk-readpc.108/

 

[kiwixpop]

You'll need to ask in the add-on thread.

Thank you!