Are your PRIVATE MESSAGES really private?

[BiggKitty]

I received a warning from Bell Tree Forum for sending a pm to one other member who I thought of as a friend, asking for help with one clue for the Easter Egg Hunt. Yes I am guilty and I have to hold up my hand and say "yes I did do it".

However the player I asked told me the Admins were watching our pm's to stop such cheating. Now. that worried me more than the warning, as far as I am concerned a PRIVATE message should remain private and it would be a complete abuse of power for any management to break the privacy rule by reading our pm's for any reason.

So I asked the staff, and have been assured that all PM's remain completely private and are not read by admins or mods at any time even to prevent cheating during the Egg Hunt

Therefore the player I asked for help, first told me an outright lie, then forwarded a copy of my incriminating pm on to the mods, where I feel a gentle reminder not to cheat might have sufficed.

I know the above to be true as it has been confirmed to me by the mods, and I also know who the player that stabbed me in the back was as I only asked one person. It seems that this Hunt while being great fun for most of us, also brought out the worst in some players who maybe thought to try to eliminate competition by whatever means came to hand, who knows what reasons they used to justify the means.

The moral of this story:

TRUST NO ONE

CHECK EVERYTHING

and most important....... DON'T CHEAT in the first place

Thank you on behalf of everyone (I hope) for a fun event and boo to whoever provided only one golden egg for the ultimate prize.

 

[Caius]

Thanks for the apology I suppose. The actual moral is to not cheat in the first place.

 

[Kanapachi]

They can only see your PMs if you report them. So it was reported.

 

[cIementine]

I think they can see the titles.

 

[Kanapachi]

I think they can see the titles.

This too. If you're gonna cheat, at least try make it less obvious.

In fact, don't cheat at all.

 

[Coni]

the amount of eggs on this one is over 9k

 

[cIementine]

Yeah, so if you're going to cheat, which you should not do anyway, use a title like 'where I bought my shampoo' and not 'egg hints shhhhhh'

 

[Lassy]

They can't see the content EXCEPT if they reported your message. :0

 

[Skyfall]

This is a completely private site, owned by one person. So my assumption would be, no "email" i send would be private.

 

[Amalthea]

I'm sorry you feel as if you had been betrayed. I know that would frustrate me too, if I put myself in a vulnerable position in front of someone I thought I could trust.

However, I'm not sure if their motivation was to eliminate competition. Perhaps they just wanted to follow the rules. I also feel as if a simple warning would have been the better course of action, though at the same time you were aware of the illegal nature of what you were doing, and the possible consequences.

I would try my best not to let something like this affect me personally, though. After all, it's just a fun activity to pass time on a gaming forum! I think when something like that begins to stir drama and bad feelings, it is generally a good idea to distance yourself from it and try not to take it so seriously. Perhaps next year you will have better luck

 

[ilikewaffles]

Honestly, I feel like most people on here who have the resources to cheat (for an event like this) will cheat. If I knew anyone on the forum I probably would have asked for a helping hand or two. I found my answers through more of a trick than anything, but getting back to the point I feel like we really have no say in the matter. This is a free platform provided and maintained by kind people for the rest of us so if they would like to uphold integrity, which isn't unreasonable, we can't argue much. Although, betrayal is another matter and that "friend" of yours was really crappy.

 

[JDC1043]

I imagine PTs are monitored only when posts are reported, not because the admins/mods want to as they probably have better things to do. I agree viewing PTs is a violation of privacy to some extent but it's one of those things which has to be done sometimes, unfortunately.

 

[Libra]

I doubt our PM's are being read. If they were, at least three people who asked me for help with the hunt would have received a warning. (And no; I did not report those PM's, I simply deleted them.)

However, I'm not sure if their motivation was to eliminate competition. Perhaps they just wanted to follow the rules.

Yeah, this, actually. I didn't want to get anyone in trouble so I just deleted those PM's, but I do admit that the first PM I received, I was wondering if I had to report that. I decided not to, because this is supposed to be a game, after all, and it's not like they were being impolite or rude or anything.

 

[PurplPanda]

I always name my PMs "a question" xD

 

[Kanapachi]

Yes people, give the person tips on cheating. :')

 

[Jeremy]

Your PM was reported.