Is it wrong to post private emails?
 

If I send someone a private message, and then decide I want to make it public, is that wrong?

If someone else sends me a private message, am I under obligation to keep it private?

Why?

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;276463]If I send someone a private message, and then decide I want to make it public, is that wrong?

If someone else sends me a private message, am I under obligation to keep it private?

Why?[/QUOTE]

Yes and yes.

Why else would they send you a private message? They don't expect you to share the information in that message with anyone else.

I would say that you're welcome to send a public message on the same topic as a private one - if the topic seems to be of more general interest than you thought - but that you're never welcome to make someone else's private message public.

My private messages are much more often boring than salacious, they're sent in private to avoid wasting the time of other people on the group.

[QUOTE=rogue;276469]Why else would they send you a private message? They don't expect you to share the information in that message with anyone else.[/QUOTE]

trying to get personal info, I say this because someone asked for information and I said they weren't getting it and they replied I was rude to not give them information that. if they looked they could likely find it on here already anyways.

[QUOTE=rogue;276469]Yes and yes.

Why else would they send you a private message? They don't expect you to share the information in that message with anyone else.[/QUOTE]

And a heuristic... If you are known to leak sensitive information, you will soon find you don't receive any....

Yeah, it's hardly ever welcome to publish someone else's private messages (without obtaining permission first), even if you find them interesting, insightful, enlightening, etc.
I hope that it's not the case for you here, but when one's on the receiving side, it's hard to resist the temptation of publishing disrespectful and destructive messages...

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;276463]If I send someone a private message, and then decide I want to make it public, is that wrong?

If someone else sends me a private message, am I under obligation to keep it private?

Why?[/QUOTE]

Publishing private messages of another person, regardless of the fact they were addressed to you or to a third party, without asking the sender (and the receiver if is a third party) and without getting permission to publish them, is definitively wrong, and against any etiquette, netiquette, etc.

Publishing your own message that was addressed to another person, if that person did not reply to your message has nothing wrong in it. You have all the rights to search for your answers. Sending the same message to another person, or putting it on a public place is nothing wrong, as long as you don't say "hey, I wrote this to xxxxx and the jerk did not answer". Keep in mind that people you ask have also something else to do. And because we are talking now, [URL="http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/smart-questions.html"]here is a nice place to start[/URL] reading about how to ask questions.

If the person replied to it, then it is arguable. You must not say if the person replied to it or not. If you say he replied, is the same like publishing his message. Maybe he replied having in mind the fact that the conversation will stay private.

I am entitled to post my questions, ideas, stupid things, wherever I like, including sending them to many guys in the same time, as private messages, as long as I don't drag any of them in a public dispute or make them argue each other. That is why BCC was invented. Except the case when the goal is exactly that, to make them argue each other, like in a team work, or project building, etc. Arguing means progress. Asking some guys same question, as private message, eventually getting different answers as private messages, then confronting the guys, is definitively wrong. Well, I would never say in a private message things that I would not dare to say in public, or things to be ashamed of. But that's me. Other persons would not like at all to make public their private thoughts.

[QUOTE=rogue;276469]Yes and yes.

Why else would they send you a private message? They don't expect you to share the information in that message with anyone else.[/QUOTE]

You've given an explanation for the second 'yes'. But what about the first 'yes'?

[QUOTE=axn;276497]You've given an explanation for the second 'yes'. But what about the first 'yes'?[/QUOTE]

The funny thing is that misread the first question. :redface:

I would edit PMs before I made them public. I work hard to be civil on this forum WRT my posts (and I'm not always successful at that), but I am not always so kind in PMs.

[QUOTE=rogue;276503] I work hard to be civil on this forum WRT my posts (and I'm not always successful at that), but I am not always so kind in PMs.[/QUOTE]
That's interesting. With me it's the exact opposite: I'm much more likely to be rude to people in public postings than in PMs, and in fact I then occasionally use PMs to try to smooth things over with the individual afterwards.

My philosophy is that anything sent to me becomes my property. Unless the sender specifically asks the recipient to keep the exchange confidential, then it's all fair game. Why do you think some sites like to post hate (e-)mail for people to laugh at? Of course, I expect other people to share the same school of thought, so I'm generally very careful about what I include in private messages as well.