Watch what you say...

[TZ]

Apparantly since the mods/administrators can read the poll responses...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2741812#2742350
Its easy to see that they read our PM's too! Or so some think.
You know, like the way Bush and Cheney read everything we post here on DU!
I know the mods must really be interested in my book commentaries or who wants to do a meetup....
Hey Varkam...Stop spying on me!.I know its you just pretending to like vaccines..You are a mole....You get all your material from my super secret PM's....:rofl: :hi:

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. ... they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal

They've ALWAYS been able to read our PMs. They promise that they don't do it without probable cause (and I believe them). You can actually alert on a PM.

[trotsky]

2. That kind of disturbed me.

Not that I would have done it on that poll, but there have been some where I did indeed choose the snarky/freeper response just because I was in that kind of mood, or knew what kind of reaction the pollster was hoping for.

Ultimately this board belongs to Skinner & the admins. They can snoop and look at whatever the hell they want, and would I be comfortable with someone checking EVERYTHING I've said? Oh hell no. I've sent off some pretty pissy PMs. But everyone is here at their discretion.

[TZ]

3. I guess it doesn't really bother me....

I have long worked for companies that it is well known that they can check your e-mail/internet activity. I don't particularly like it, but I don't think I would every really do anything to attract the wrong type of attention.
And I assume that if you got in trouble for merely hitting a snarky poll response there would be a LOT more TS'd posters....I suspect that those posters had some kind of history as well, or at least can appeal to Skinner.
BTW, I admit to a sneaking curiousity about some of those pissy PM's you sent off..I can ONLY imagine...:)

[trotsky]

4. That's what I was thinking.

That the individuals in question were already on a short leash. At least I hope that was the case.

Oh, and I should mention that I'm in I.T., so I have been asked to check others' e-mail & Internet activity before. You find some pretty surprising things sometimes!

Regarding the PMs, you probably won't have to strain your brain too hard to figure out who they might have been to. ;-)

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. The thing about that poll was how awful the answer was

'Snarky' and 'freeper' don't matter too much - but something like that, as a poll result, can get DU a bad reputation.

With normal posts, you're responsible for what you say. The only alternative for having the admin able to look at poll results that I can see is pre-screening of poll questions and options, so that it doesn't matter that there's no accountability. Or just deleting the entire poll the moment someone chooses the outrageous option.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. That was weird.

I can't recall the last time I saw one of the mods publicly state that someone had been TSed. Aside from the whole Bev Harris fiasco, I've never really heard them talk about individuals.

[LeftishBrit]

6. They do sometimes say "The OP is no longer with us"..

but usually this refers to one-off trolls; e.g. some of the Ron Paul nuts who infest the board on occasion.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Well that's pretty dumb.

I guess the whole "polls" thing CAN get more irrelevant.

[varkam]

8. I know where you sleep, too.

I am so drunk on my own power. BWAHAHAHA! :evilgrin:

Actually, I can't read PMs or poll responses - only the admin can do that.

[Q3JR4]

10. I figured they were keeping tabs on everything.

In the age of the internet do you really think that anything is private?

Q3JR4.