All in all. Glad this weird shit is out and in the open and being hashed out. Guess Trampa can come back full time again… 
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Damon, I just want to say I think you have done the right thing here and are handling this in respectable way, props to you.
It’s a shame there isnt more data available about any previous intrusions but I guess we will never know now and can only assume our PM’s have been read.
Discourse deffo has some glaring issues and it’s not personally on you that these were abused.
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How about now we also have a serious thread on members breaching privacy rules. Look guys breaches of privacy are a wanky thing to resort to but some of the stalwart members of this community are not averse to a little screenshot action.
Especially if it gets some support. None of its ok.
We pm each other so we can talk shit. I might hate @mishrasubhransu today and tell my mate he likes my little pony but tomorrow He likes my post and we are tight again. My mate sharing that shit just destroyed a relationship. Come on fuck me sideways are we all children? If you can’t handle a little back biting banter then get a new life. That said its better to avoid said bullshit so don’t share your pm’s. At all. I know its the interweb and nothing is secret but in here? When we are all into the same shit? Lets be lovely and if we can, be true.
Love you all except you, you my little pony loving knobhead. 
Mish that was a joke bro.
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I am a bit confused as to why this was allowed to happen to start of with, this forum was created to stop this happening.
Surely a top priority when choosing the software to base the forum on was preventing the admins from abusing their position?
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Was this necessary information to divulge? It’s a private message, not a private thread that you just mentioned in public.
Is it possible to see a blacked out screenshot of what the mods/admins/Mike was able to see from his POV?
Ie is his inbox just populated by all pms vs him having to click through specific users profiles to see pms.
Can we revisit the mods vs admins vs trust levels thing again? Trust level 4 is a “leader”. Which levels/roles have the ability to walk into pms?
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and sorry that you have to deal with this cluster fuck. I hope your next skate session is inversely relaxing.
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The people who are in it know who they are, the people who aren’t, don’t. Also, that is the only information we have and since there is no other way to let people know that we know where at least one breach happened.
Mentioning the thread by name does exactly the same thing without screenshotting admin and mod access only information which we will not be doing.
It is very deliberate. Jamie and i did some testing using our own accounts to figure out exactly how its done and there is no accidentally doing it. These messages do not show up in an admin’s inbox. An admin has to go through several clicks outside of his own inbox, starting with either a user listing or a user’s profile view to get to this information. Because of this we were basically on the phone with each other all day screaming about how terrible this whole situation is to each other.
Admins only. Mods can not read PMs. Mods however can see the logs where this activity shows up, which is how we thought the mod in question found the information after we did and took action before we were ready.
Level 4 is a as close to being a mod as it gets without being a mod. Editing posts, titles, etc. The reason its so hard to get to and why we prefer not to treat it as a reward is because being able to edit other people’s posts is a serious responsibility. Not everything about the Discourse ethos supports our specific needs but overall the Discourse platform is still the best solution for now.
I woke up and my board was dead because i ran it dead last night and didn’t plug it in. Right now i’m feeming for a reckless ride on top of everything else. In about an hour though i’m going to be tearing up these streets and giving your advice a solid go.
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fits your profile pic. Beast mode.
I’m glad that actions will be taken. Something that the forsaken place probably would never do. They still don’t have encrypted pm’s.
And again, thanks for taking the time and talking open about it. Transparency is key here.
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Well the only messages he may have read of mine were a whole bunch of noob questions. Hope he’s got answers to them now that he read them. 
Glad to hear the mods in charge are doing something about it. (Especially coming from an Information Security Background. This means a lot)
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Thank you for LHB, admins and mods being transparent about it. I’m sure most of us appreciate the time it takes to handle this misfortune event. This is why I love and prefer this place more than other esk8 related place.
All the best, love you guys
I̶f̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶s̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶P̶M̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶n̶c̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶d̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶p̶i̶c̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶r̶g̶i̶r̶l̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶s̶h̶h̶h̶h̶
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I feel like I shouldn’t comment on this because it won’t help anything.
But I will anyway.
I am friends with most of the people involved here. Like know, know these people.
Mike is one of my best friends (and I don’t have many) and I actually know him outside of this whole little internet thing.
He is a great guy, and it really hurts me to see you guys dragging him through the mud.
He loves this community and has invested a lot of himself into it over the years.
Being a mod fucking sucks. People act like once you are in a mod position you have no place to say your opinions or speak your truth. You get criticized for action, you get criticized for inaction, and you get criticized for your own personal views.
Part of the job I guess, hence why I couldn’t nor did I want to do it once I fully understood this.
I still don’t really know what happened or why, but there is always more to things like this than meets the eye.
I do know that Mike really has nothing to gain here though. It’s not like he was doing anything sneaky for some monetary gain or something. He was never cheated people or anything remotely like that.
I spoke with him and he has some real world shit to deal with. He hasn’t ghosted.
So please let’s hear what he has to say.
On another note, what the hell are people talking about in PMs that is so damn important?
Not trying to be ignorant or discount anything, but I don’t even know what people would be communicating about on here that is even worth hiding.
I understand the potential feeling of invasion of privacy I suppose.
But honestly I don’t even know why anyone would want to read anyone’s pms. Especially when you don’t have any actual business investment or motivations.
I’m not justifying anything, I am just giving my thoughts.
I hope we can all get through this and not once again split our community when we all ultimately love the same things and when we are actually together all really enjoy one another.
I think part of this is the pent up feelings we are all getting due to the goings on in the world. 2020 has been a shit time.
And it comes out here too. I know that is true for me at least.
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I understand and respect your feeling that you have to defend your friend, even if I dont agree with most of your statements here.
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definitely. 2020 has been a horror fest.
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Haha. Got that right away.
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Sad and disillusioned by all of this, no rage quit. I will take a pinch of salt with the request to be ashamed of myself.
2020 has been shit for more and bigger reasons, personally I’m going to bundle this up into putting more effort into building esk8 than talking shit, but don’t quote me that
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andrew… you know I love you like the red-headed yeti I never spawned… but are you posting private PMs?
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I thought you were leaving the forum. Why are you still here deliberately trying to get your account silenced?
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Consider this hypothetical scenario.
- “A” is a mischievous person, and can/does get very annoying too.
- “B” is an admin on a forum and so is “C”.
- “A” publicly taunts “C” over his business dealings with a recently exposed fraudster. “C” tries to deescalate it again and again, but “A” grows louder and more acerbic in his unwarranted taunts. Private conversations happen but “A” keeps dragging things into public to try and make “C” look bad.
- As a result, “A” is suspended as a result and when he comes back point number 3 more or less gets repeated.
- “B” comes into the picture now. He uses his admin privileges ( that he hasn’t told anyone else about and uses it on a regular basis to spy on his arch nemesis) to reads private conversations of everyone related to “A” and finds that “A” is talking shit about “C” in private. Tells “C” that “A” is talking shit behind your back but doesn’t tell where exactly he got that info from. “C” is a pretty stand up guy, so seeing his name dragged through mud is pretty upsetting and he feels helpless. And he reacts as any human would and calls out “A” openly for the first time, breaking forum rules.
- Now “A” feels victimized and attacks “C” everywhere. A friend “D” joins in harassing “C” too.
- Some more things happen. Bans and Suspensions I think.
- In the meantime “A” discovers the secret admin privacy buster tool and suspects that it might have been used. And with the help of some mods ("C too, I think) , logging of such admin actions are enabled.
- “B” is caught in the act. “B” is also caught in the act of disabling the logging.
- “A” finds out about this through back channels and is ready for some comeuppance. And is too impatient. “C” wants to maintain level-head, get all side of the story before taking any aggressive steps.
- “A” doesn’t like slow, he taunts “C” for inaction.
12 …
I don’t think I can type anymore. But the point is private conversations are meant to be private. It shouldn’t happen when privacy was promised in the first place.
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but I miss all the dick pix i see in this group…
shame… brother honestly your company was the most in jeopardy… I appreciate that… but you have to remember this is a board of sk8-punks and thieves… you have your own webitte and forum and even a telegrrm…
better for you kidz to move your biz to environment you control…
and seriously you know I luv ya… but don’t make others actions bring out the ugly in andrew…
you’re better than that!!!
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Did you have fun typing that?
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If the forum was a place we paid to be a part of, I’d expect the mods and admins game to be top notch. But this is something they do for the community, this is something we offer our money too willingly in amounts we can spare…it’s not their job to slave over the rules and working of a hosting platform that has always seemed to struggle with being perfect for our needs
It doesn’t mean that what Mike didn’t wasn’t wrong, but it shouldn’t be the falult or responsibility of Damon and the admins to micromanage things and baby the users
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