Forbidden topics in PMs

[Mightymosy]

I am unclear about forbidden topics in PMs.

Given that these messages I assume to be "private", I have a hard time imagining two people who agree to talk privately about a forbidden topic via PMs would be forbidden to do so. (how would a Mod find about it, anyway??)

Any official stance on this, please?

[JNAProductions]

Better safe than sorry.

You can have PMs get reported and addressed by mods.

I would advise finding another way to talk to the person you want to talk about banned topics about, since the PMs still have to follow the rules.

[Keltest]

Not a mod, but my recall is that the official stance is something like "just because you might be able to get away with it doesn't mean it isn't against the rules."

Much in the same way that not every rules violation gets reported and flagged in the public threads, just because a mod didn't react to it this time doesn't mean it suddenly became allowed. It just means the mods are human and therefore not omniscient.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: The Forum Rules a quite clear about this:

These Rules apply everywhere on this Forum, including every subforum, spoiler box, signature, avatar, and Private Message.

People can, and do, report PMs. Often, it's because what they received as unsolicited and unwanted (flaming/trolling/harassment/etc.), but sometimes it's because an otherwise mutually agreeable discussion took a turn one party didn't like.

If it's not allowed on the forum, it's not allowed in PMs. That includes flaming, trolling, inappropriate topics, copyright infringement, and everything else prohibited by the Forum Rules.