Folder is 100% full (50 out of 50 messages stored)

[Night457]

Discourse has strange ideas about privacy. For example, admins are forced to see private messages of all users on the dashboard.

That sounds like an excruciating punishment for the admins.

(If Mommy and Daddy get to see my "private" communications, they might as well be posted for all to see.)

[mimzy]

That sounds like an excruciating punishment for the admins.

Well, the truth is that I ran a Discourse forum for a company. So one day I went to check the dashboard as usual. The dashboard displays a status overview of the forum. One item is a list of 10 most active threads or similar. One thread title did not look familiar, so I clicked on it. Turned out it was a private discussion of two forum members! So public threads were mixed with private threads and there was no sign about which one is public and which one is private!

I thought there must be a bug in the software, so I googled it and I found a thread on Discourse support forum where developers said that this was by design and anybody who complains should basically fuck off. I haven't checked later versions, so this *could* have been changed eventually.

[Night457]

Turned out it was a private discussion of two forum members! So public threads were mixed with private threads and there was no sign about which one is public and which one is private!

Was it coded so that you as admin could accidentally join a private discussion with your own posts? Or would it be clear at the point of posting that you were butting in? (Only to stop illegal activity, of course.)

[goku33]

…

The avatar thing is just..annoying..you basically have to resize your image yourself instead of just picking an image that gets resized automatically. Again, I personally can live with these things but for the „normal“ users..that’s not modern (e.g. using mobile phones). Of course there are enough sites that offer image resizing if you can’t do it on your mobile device.
(Or you search only for 150x150 avatars on image search).

I get it that 1000+ messages would be a lot but 50 is crazily low. Something like 250 messages I’d understand and see as reasonable number. 50 means you talk to 3-5 people and after few days you already can’t go back to read old messages cause you had to empty the inbox.

I appreciate forum openness but at the same time it always also makes me self-conscious about everything that I write or post being saved for „eternity“ by GoogleSearch, WayBackMachine and others.

[Night457]

you basically have to resize your image yourself instead of just picking an image that gets resized automatically.

I confess I had not even thought about this. "Paint" is so easy and normal to use on a Windows computer, but I don't know if that is an option on mobile. I suppose automatic resizing might reasonably be possible.

Though I understand having size limits. I know I certainly do not want obnoxious posters with enormous avatars.

for the „normal“ users..that’s not modern (e.g. using mobile phones).

I still can not understand how typing forum posts with one or two fingers in a tiny space is normal, desirable, or even possible! I need the full keyboard and the use of all my fingers. I can't imagine setting up eMule or even copy-pasting ed2k links on a mobile. And then once a file is downloaded, watching it on that tiny screen? I would at least want it on a "real" computer, or an external drive. Do mobile phones have USB jacks?

I wish I had one of those old mobiles the size and weight of a BRICK, but without the brain cancer hazard. Clearly I can not call MYSELF "normal".

I appreciate forum openness but at the same time it always also makes me self-conscious about everything that I write or post being saved for „eternity“ by GoogleSearch, WayBackMachine and others.

This is what I do: make sure to not reveal personally identifiable information online on any site. Some people here do not even want to reveal what country they are in. Use a VPN to help obscure your location. Use fake emails to sign up for any site that does not require financial information. (Amazon kind of needs to know the real person, unless you go to the trouble of setting up a fake name with fake address and a credit card paid for in Bitcoin.) Of course law enforcement can and will ferret out important targets when they need to, but it is unlikely that anyone else could or would connect the "real me" to the "online me". I can't understand the stupid criminals who never even clear their browser history.

As for what is saved for eternity, I think of all those thousands of Gmails that I have undeleted. But how likely is it that my state will investigate what purchases I have made and whether I paid taxes on them? Of course I HAVE paid every single cent owed, but I would hate to have to prove it to a tax investigator.

[mimzy]

Turned out it was a private discussion of two forum members! So public threads were mixed with private threads and there was no sign about which one is public and which one is private!

Was it coded so that you as admin could accidentally join a private discussion with your own posts? Or would it be clear at the point of posting that you were butting in? (Only to stop illegal activity, of course.)

IIRC it wasn't fully clear and admin could in principle join private threads. In Discourse, there is no fundamental difference between public and private threads. Public threads can be changed to private and vice versa. Another feature by design is that admin can disguise himself as any normal user (to test out permissions, etc.)...

It would be fair if there was a warning "Careful: admin can read your private messages", but there is nothing like that, so most users are not aware of it.

[Night457]

In Discourse, there is no fundamental difference between public and private threads.

That is an abomination.

It would be fair if there was a warning "Careful: admin can read your private messages", but there is nothing like that, so most users are not aware of it.

Well, I have to assume that on most sites that admins TECHNICALLY have total control over a board. I don't have the tech knowledge, but I am unclear how someone with "complete control" would be UNABLE to read so-called Private messages. If they can reset a password, then why wouldn't they be able to access all parts of a person's account, if they really wanted to? The question is if their official policies are that Private messages are meant to stay Private. How many sites provide FULL end-to-end encryption, where even the provider can not read the messages?

[goku33]

What I like about XenForo for example is you can add notes to all your bookmarks.

I like that old forums like phpBB don’t Need all that Heavy JavaScript to run.


You can attach keyboard & mouse to android devices (tablet/phone) and Apple devices but yes a proper desktop/Laptop Computer I’d just unbeatable when it comes to getting actually stuff done.

[goku33]

…

I just found out each folder can store 50 messages? So I was able to move messages from inbox to another folder. I guess I can also delete unimportant messages.

[Night457]

I think there is only limited ability to move to another folder. I don't think you can move from Inbox to Outbox, for example. My own policy is to continue a conversation to its conclusion without looking back, because I know I don't want to reread my previous drivel; so, I only really need to keep a few messages back.

If there is anything I need to DO because of a message, I do it. I was using the "Inbox Zero" approach long before it was trendy and I first heard the term.