There was a thread here about a month ago re: your question. Yes, it was back online, but appears there has been almost no activity. Was that still the case as of today. Very strange, eh?

I don't think you are missing anything there.

Burk posted on 02/12 that the site would be under re-construction and it would take a while. Then on the 20th, a new admin posted it would be just a couple of days.

I've been checking in on and off as well but I logged out and don't remember my password. The 'reset password' function does not werk.
I've enlisted the help from a couple of posters here to pass on my concerns. They have tried to no avail.

At this time, I don't see how they're going to get any traction with the way things are being handled/addressed. I've also seen some there engage in some pretty unethical stunts. The biggest transgression being the altering of members PM's.  Seriously, how low can you get? That's bottom of the barrel slimy.

For me, they pretty much wrote themselves off, all things considered. I'm quite content being here.

Wow...altering PMs'?  I didn't even think that was possible.  That is crazy if that happened.

Anything is possible. The member wasn't even aware until I pointed it out to him. It's still burned in my brain.

I'm there too. There are usually one or two new posts a day, sometimes more. Wasn't aware of the PM issue, but certainly, there have been a number of topics which have been highly moderated.

Wow...altering PMs'?  I didn't even think that was possible.  That is crazy if that happened.

Writing as someone who hosts forums.

Everything in a forum will be held in a database. Even if the forum software itself gives you no access to other people's PMs (I know of none that actually does), it is fairly trivial to access them directly via the database. Changing or deleting data is equally easy.

However, it seems strange that someone would have the level of knowledge to do this, and yet be unable to fix a broken forum, taking it offline for several months.

I hasten to add that although doing all of of this is easy for anyone with a technical bent, I would never dream of doing it on any of my forums. If you don't have trust, you have nothing.

Larry would be just sick to hear stuff like this, he was so proud of that site and thought it would be a legacy.  I guess to me that site is now truly a thing of the past and I choose to remember it as it was in better times.

I remember another forum where the Moderators could read anyone's PM's and there was a big brouhaha about it!  They tried to imply that "everysite has the capability to do it and don't believe them if they say they don't" and that if you come on that site, you should expect things like that, there is no expectation of privacy...funny how that is possibly now happening on Pelletheads. 

Always trust your gut!

There were many many years of content on PH that I thought was lost but it appears it's all still there. Posts and pictures going back to 2007. Without Larry it doesn't have the same feel but glad I can still access all the content if needed.

There were many many years of content on PH that I thought was lost but it appears it's all still there. Posts and pictures going back to 2007. Without Larry it doesn't have the same feel but glad I can still access all the content if needed.

I was one of the first to notice when it came back online. I immediately copied the threads and the recipes that were important to me and saved them to my computer, just in case.

Wow...altering PMs'?  I didn't even think that was possible.  That is crazy if that happened.

Writing as someone who hosts forums.

Everything in a forum will be held in a database. Even if the forum software itself gives you no access to other people's PMs (I know of none that actually does), it is fairly trivial to access them directly via the database. Changing or deleting data is equally easy.

However, it seems strange that someone would have the level of knowledge to do this, and yet be unable to fix a broken forum, taking it offline for several months.

I hasten to add that although doing all of of this is easy for anyone with a technical bent, I would never dream of doing it on any of my forums. If you don't have trust, you have nothing.

I believe you are alluding to this:
Being a data base, I would think any program that could access that data base would have the capability to "find and replace" certain words. I have no familiarity with whatever PM transgressions happened at PH but if it was something like replacing "pelletfan.com" with "other site" and it affected the entire site, I would have no issue with it whatsoever, especially if the words they are replacing are a link to a competing site. If I felt the moderators were reading through my PMs specifically I'd probably be more offended but I never considered "private messages" actually private from those that manage the site.

Wow...altering PMs'?  I didn't even think that was possible.  That is crazy if that happened.

Writing as someone who hosts forums.

Everything in a forum will be held in a database. Even if the forum software itself gives you no access to other people's PMs (I know of none that actually does), it is fairly trivial to access them directly via the database. Changing or deleting data is equally easy.

However, it seems strange that someone would have the level of knowledge to do this, and yet be unable to fix a broken forum, taking it offline for several months.

I hasten to add that although doing all of of this is easy for anyone with a technical bent, I would never dream of doing it on any of my forums. If you don't have trust, you have nothing.

I believe you are alluding to this:
Being a data base, I would think any program that could access that data base would have the capability to "find and replace" certain words. I have no familiarity with whatever PM transgressions happened at PH but if it was something like replacing "pelletfan.com" with "other site" and it affected the entire site, I would have no issue with it whatsoever, especially if the words they are replacing are a link to a competing site. If I felt the moderators were reading through my PMs specifically I'd probably be more offended but I never considered "private messages" actually private from those that manage the site.

I was merely commenting that it is possible, even easy, for an admin (not a moderator) to read and edit all PMs; in response to the comment "I didn't even think that was possible."

I was not suggesting that had happened at the site in question, because I don't know; and - as I say - it doesn't fit with the technical expertise we have seen there.

As such, I wasn't alluding to nothing. I was making a statement of fact, that forum admins can trivially have access to everything, even  if they don't exercise this.

It would be possible to design a forum where the texts of PMs were at least encrypted in the database, rather than being held as clear text. To the best of my knowledge, no forum has this as a feature. It still wouldn't stop a determined snooper with admin privaleges, as they would also have access to the encryption key, but it would make it a lot less convenient for them.

So that folks on this forum are clear on this point -- all private messages are private.  I have been advised by our CIO that, as our forum is presently set up, we cannot access or view pm's nor would we do so even if we could.  That is simply beyond the pale.

"I never considered "private messages" actually private from those that manage the site."

I could not disagree more with this - the word is PRIVATE.  Are you saying that you find no problem with sites like gmail or yahoo mail admins reading your emails?  Or worse, more insidious, changing the content so that the recipient(s) get THEIR message, not yours?

I am not trying to flame, but I do passionately believe this kind of action is totally unacceptable.

Please do not put words in my mouth. I never said I have no problem with yahoo or gmail accessing or changing my emails. I have no idea how you could make that jump, but you did. I said I, me, myself have never felt that PMs were actually private from those that manage the web site. They have access to them whether you feel they should or not. They do. It is a fact that Chris_M alluded to. That is what I said. Whether they choose to access and/or change that data is a whole other can of worms which carries different levels of "offensiveness" in my eyes depending on if the situation was across the board or specific to me only. At some level of management in yahoo / gmail, someone has access to your emails, whether you like it or not. Someone has access to the backups (even if you delete your emails, there are copies that can be viewed). The access is there, once again whether you like it or not.