Are personal messages on this forum encrypted or would they be visible to the public?

[Buck Edwards]

Are personal messages on this forum encrypted? 

[integral]

Private messages are not encrypted. Also, if there is an emergency private messages can be unlocked and seen. So this is not exactly a bulletproof solution depending on what you’re looking for. 

Edited December 15 by integral

[Michael569]

No, although Leo is the only person who has the authorisation to see private messages (if he wishes to). Mods don't. 

Ideally if you are sending sensitive information, you should not be using the forum for it. Preferably opt for an alternative means of communication. I believe Gmail has an encryption function 

Edited December 15 by Michael569

[Buck Edwards]

@Michael569 thank you. 

[Leo Gura]

They are not.

That is a technical challenge this forum software cannot do. And if they were encrypted they could not be moderated for abuse, which sometimes happens.

Edited December 16 by Leo Gura

[Buck Edwards]

12 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

They are not.

That is a technical challenge this forum software cannot do. And if they were encrypted they could not be moderated for abuse, which sometimes happens.

The same challenges also exist for Facebook messenger as well. Don't they? But if abuse happens, it does get reported and Facebook deals with it. I don't see the difficulty. 

[Leo Gura]

Facebook is trillion dollar company with advanced moderation AI. I'm just one dude.

And frankly Facebook is a platform for evil and stupidity.

Edited December 16 by Leo Gura

[ggs]

I know of a programmer that does all his moderation in his forums with AI, using latest gpt-4o model. It has been an idea in my background to do forum software that has automated moderation using AI.

I'm curious @Leo Gura, how much time & pain does it take to moderate this forum? I've never done it myself, I'm curious whether there is a gap in the market for a tool like this.