Do you want a utility to save all your PMs?

[Vod]

Theymos has stated in the past he would download PMs for a person once, but that was a few hundred thousand members ago.  I'm not sure if he still wants the work.

I have written a C# program that saves all your PMs, inbox and outbox.  It's working perfectly on my computer, but I haven't coded any error routines or accounted for anything other than my setup.

If the community really wants this, I can finish coding the error checking, and also make it so you can run the program multiple times, and it will update your list.   It currently saves as XML or JSON, but I'd like to get it in a format that can easily be searched.

I will upload it on github, so everyone can verify nothing sneaky is going on.

Questions/Comments?

[dkbit98]

I am personally deleting almost all my private messages both inbox and outbox, so I would probably not download them and use this.

We recently saw someone hacked member account and exposed private messages and conversations, and even if I don't keep any dark secrets in my PMs I still would not risk keeping anything.

Maybe I am (a bit) paranoid, but others may find your proposal more useful than me.

[erikoy]

I am personally deleting almost all my private messages both inbox and outbox, so I would probably not download them and use this.

We recently saw someone hacked member account and exposed private messages and conversations, and even if I don't keep any dark secrets in my PMs I still would not risk keeping anything.

Maybe I am (a bit) paranoid, but others may find your proposal more useful than me.

That is a good practice but what about PM that is important like it should be remember and must be kept? Will you use other device to keep notified for it? I guess you can try to be lax sometimes that not all PM's should be deleted. There are some PM's actually will not mind you even if it will be exposed to other users if account being hack as long as their is no confidential remain in your PM to be deleted.

Security is one of the important factor that a user must do and address. It is not easy to get compromised with accounts especially if it will involve financial or assets. Let's just not over think also on the things that might happen to our account. We will become paranoid in thinking of it that much.

[tranthidung]

People who download their PMs (inbox, outbox) with script from Vod or from anyone else should encrypt their PM files. Just in case their devices are compromised, they will have a second layer of protection for information in PMs. I doubt that in PMs, there are some sensitive information that never should be leaked.

On the forum, the period of retention for PMs is 6 months since the day both sender and all recipients delete a specific PM.

• About privacy

[Vod]

People who download their PMs (inbox, outbox) with script from Vod or from anyone else should encrypt their PM files. Just in case their devices are compromised, they will have a second layer of protection for information in PMs. I doubt that in PMs, there are some sensitive information that never should be leaked.

Ideally, messages should be encrypted by default.    This tool does not add/subtract any security.  The app connects to bitcointalk.org and no where else, downloads each page using your SSL link and saves it on your local device. 

Does anyone know of a simple tutorial to close port 443 to all traffic but one domain?

[philipma1957]

I would like to download

all my pms.

there are a lot.

I would like to print them. Store them and delete them from the site.

[Vod]

I would like to download

all my pms.

there are a lot.

I would like to print them. Store them and delete them from the site.

Once you download them, you can do whatever you want with the data.  I don't know how I feel about automating the destruction of data though.

[FIFA worldcup]

Theymos has stated in the past he would download PMs for a person once, but that was a few hundred thousand members ago.  I'm not sure if he still wants the work.

I have written a C# program that saves all your PMs, inbox and outbox.  It's working perfectly on my computer, but I haven't coded any error routines or accounted for anything other than my setup.

If the community really wants this, I can finish coding the error checking, and also make it so you can run the program multiple times, and it will update your list.   It currently saves as XML or JSON, but I'd like to get it in a format that can easily be searched.

I will upload it on github, so everyone can verify nothing sneaky is going on.

Questions/Comments?

That will be really cool if i can download all of my PMs and then keep the one which are important on my local hard disk.
When will your product be ready and available for download ?  I hope it will be free of cost. 

[Pmalek]

I wouldn't find much use in such a tool personally. If I don't need certain PMs I simply delete them. If they contain information of importance to me, I can simply copy/paste it elsewhere, save/hide/encrypt it, etc. But I do understand that some people might have 100s or 1000s of PMs that are not easy to analyze and this could help them out greatly.

[Twentyonepaylots]

I'm the 18th person to vote and I voted yes, it's 50/50 now, so I guess there are people who does not like to have their PMs be downloaded which I respect. But I think it is part of our history that we should not forget how good or bad it is. I wanna see my PMs again, so I could read some of it when I grow old, just to mesmerize things here in the forum. I hope there will be a download button for the PMs, for those who voted No you can just ignore it tho.

[Vod]

I'm the 18th person to vote and I voted yes, it's 50/50 now

10/9 for now, and I didn't vote either.

But I have to assume the people who did not vote do not care enough to.  That would mean only 10 people want the tool.  For those kinds of numbers, I'll probably just release it "as is" and let someone else finish it if there is demand.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I am personally deleting almost all my private messages both inbox and outbox, so I would probably not download them and use this.

Yep, same here.  I don't know who has access to them, so I prefer to delete any ones that I absolutely don't need--or ones that don't contain any private information at least.  But lately I've been deleting most of them anyway, because I don't trust that they're not going to be read by people who intend to use any info contained in them for nasty/nefarious purposes.

So I personally wouldn't have any interest in a PM-saving tool, but I have no doubt that there are less paranoid members out there who'd love it.

[Welsh]

Yep, same here.  I don't know who has access to them, so I prefer to delete any ones that I absolutely don't need--or ones that don't contain any private information at least.  But lately I've been deleting most of them anyway, because I don't trust that they're not going to be read by people who intend to use any info contained in them for nasty/nefarious purposes.

So I personally wouldn't have any interest in a PM-saving tool, but I have no doubt that there are less paranoid members out there who'd love it.

Probably the best thing to do if you're communicating without any sort of encryption. Delete any private/sensitive data just in case of a compromised account. I'd assume that this is sort of a unwritten rule with a lot of people who have done trades on here. A while back I started to delete all conversations unless they were important enough to warrant staying there, but those that are important are few, and far between. I ultimately stopped when it became quite tedious.

Nowadays, if I were in a trade, and someone had to give me their PO box, or address, maybe even their email address I'd probably delete them; same with names etc. However, keeping the trade details or the back, and forth conversation is probably a good idea as long as it doesn't have any sensitive data. At least, that's now my approach. I sort of have a spring cleaning every so often, where I will go through, and delete any PMS of outdated questions, or conversations which aren't related to a trade.

I don't there's anything worth saving outside of the forum for my own personal records though. Unless, I wanted to delete certain PMS on the forum, and only have a local copy to free up my inbox, but for me I don't see any particular gain from that except a nicer looking personal message section.

[FIFA worldcup]

I'm the 18th person to vote and I voted yes, it's 50/50 now

10/9 for now, and I didn't vote either.

But I have to assume the people who did not vote do not care enough to.  That would mean only 10 people want the tool.  For those kinds of numbers, I'll probably just release it "as is" and let someone else finish it if there is demand.

Out of 25 people vote, 11 voted for Yes and 14 voted against it. So what are your plans now ? 
Are you willing to release the tool for these 11 people including me, i am sure once you put  a link to download the tool, many people will download it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I also voted for it. But I would like to add that PM messages should not contain any very sensitive information. For me, it would be useful in the case when the sender PM, after a lapse of time, denies what was written. And I unfortunately, deleted all private messages.
In all other cases, it is preferable to encrypt your messages or use one-time memo services.

[LoyceV]

I don't see any particular gain from that except a nicer looking personal message section.

I think it gets faster with less PMs, I now have 170 pages and it takes a few seconds to load.
But it's a small sacrifice for saving me the time of going over my PMs to delete them. I could quite easily loop wget through all pages (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=pm;f=inbox;sort=date;start=2000) to save them locally.

[Vod]

I posted the code here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284282.0

[Welsh]

I don't see any particular gain from that except a nicer looking personal message section.

I think it gets faster with less PMs, I now have 170 pages and it takes a few seconds to load.
But it's a small sacrifice for saving me the time of going over my PMs to delete them. I could quite easily loop wget through all pages (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=pm;f=inbox;sort=date;start=2000) to save them locally.

That's interesting, I've not noticed any effects on my end, but I have deleted quite a few over the years, and certainly don't have anywhere near 170 pages as I rarely communicate back, and forth through PMs. I always thought that the speed would be roughly the same due to the messages being nested on their own pages, apart from the links to the number of pages e.g [1] [2] [3] etc.

[LoyceV]

I always thought that the speed would be roughly the same due to the messages being nested on their own pages

I just counted (in my head, so not very accurate): opening MY MESSAGES on this account takes about 5 seconds. On LoyceBot, it's half a second. That one shows "No messages...".
But when I open MY MESSAGES again on LoyceV, it takes about one second. There must be some caching involved for my 172 pages.

[CryptocurencyKing]

PM entails private messages and it's only important that a persons or users private messages stays private. Even with the fact that the possibility of it remaining private on your proposed platform is possible, one can hardly tell what are the chances of this being the later outcome for sure or it won't be long before an exterior motive perhaps born out of curiosity sets in or maybe attacked by the many mischievous elements hidden amongst us who would grow despirate in figuring out a way to divert this to favour their mischievous schemes.
I don't think our PM needs any saving more than it already is, at least, users get the satisfaction of a fairly private and secured activity. The idea isn't a bad one but, I'll prefer it the way it is now, personally.

[vapourminer]

i wouldnt mind saving mine. but does this program run everything client side? ie nothing is sent anywhere (another server or whatever).. its just a program that slurps data right from the forum and writes the file locally?