Do forum webmaster's have access to my password? I sign up for forum posting jobs in my spare time & was wondering if they personally obtain my password when I register?
but they do have the ability to change it and then they will know it, at least with vb. In the admin panel, under password for user, it comes up empty but they can easily just put something in there.
Most if not all forums will NOT have access to see your password... however, they can put a logger on the password pages and get it. Nothing is safe as nothing is sacred. Beyond that yousellstuff1 is correct. If you worry about your password, put a notebook on your computer desk and write down ALL of your passwords to each site. Then make sure you have a different pass for EACH site. It is important that you do not have your passwords on your computer (in case you get hacked or a virus that can hunt for such things).
Personally I would NEVER be interested in my members passwords or PM's no matter what it's NOT ethical. Oh yes some bozo over a vb.org wrote a product that allows reading of members PM's. I think that is bad karma. My site members trust me 100% and that's worth more than anything.
It would take anyone about 5 minutes to write a quick alteration so that when password is created it's stored before it's hashed. Very easily done. I personally have several levels of passwords. I have a couple generics that are easy to remember that I use on low security sites that if they know the password...it won't get them very much. Then I have my uber-l33t passwords used on banking and fincancial logins. Then I have my complex email login passwords. Oh also my severely complex 12+ character server passwords too. Hmm...depends on the forum really. If you have a niche where members are mature it's not a problem but when you have forums with immature members it's very very helpful to read them. You can sometimes spot trouble and prevent it from getting worse. Also when people complain about PM harrassment or advertising it's important to see what's going on for yourself. Most admins don't sit and read others PMs just to do it. There are reasons. If you can't trust the admins of a site you join to keep your PMs confidential then maybe you shouldn't join the site. My members on my sites know I can read the PMs but they don't care since I don't go around abusing their privacy.
Its only some bozo that abuses the system, and the ability to read PM's is already there if you look in your database tool such as phpMyAdmin. Its a useful script for someone reporting spam, or harassing members since forwarding PM's can be edited.
I don't need to worry about PM spam on my forums. SMF has a built-in "report PM" feature that forwards the original PM to the admins in a way that cannot be edited by the person reporting the PM.