uddeIM is an amazing component and your support is GREAT--thank you!

Is there a hack I can use that would allow the admin to receive a copy by email of all alert messages sent by uddeIM?

uddeIM does not send alert messages?

When you mean notification messages: What sense does it have to receive a copy of each "You have new mails" messages, when your user database contains several thousands users?

Well, we are looking for the best and easiest way to keep a searchable record of all communications between members that we as admins can easily access. We need this as we limit communication between members to only using uddeIM and we are often called upon to resolve disputes regarding communicated arrangements between members. Since we have it set such that notification mails also contain the text of the message, we thought that if we could also receive a copy of each message into a designated mailbox, then we would have the records available to us to go back and search for all messages between specific members.

We thought that this might be better and easier than trying to create some kind of custom database interface that would allow searching and listing data, especially since some data may be deleted or purged and we might not have access when needed.

Does that make sense? What is your advice?

No, I do not support this.

I was asked several times if I can implement a way to display messages written by users in the backend (some other PMS allow this).

Since uddeIM respects a users' privacy - this is why uddeIM also implements message obfuscating, so an admin cannot read messages by accident - I will never support features which allows third persons to read messages without the knowledge of the user.

Sorry, this is not discussible!

I can certainly appreciate your position but I think you misunderstand my request.
I will not ask you any more about this issue but I would like you to understand that we use your system as a means to PROTECT the privacy of our members. Using uddeIM, our members can communicate with each other without having to share their email addresses. As a result of our providing this intermediary communications tool, however, we are often asked BY OUR MEMBERS to become involved in resolving communication disputes or misunderstandings (our site has people from many different countries trying to make travel arrangements in Japanese and English) and they expect that we have a record of communications for just such resolutions. We have encountered much frustration and anger from our users when they find out that we do not have access to the communication record.

I am not asking you to incorporate this functionality into a future release, but do please incorporate this actual user situation into your thinking and attitudes about your software. There are many end users who expect that the operators of the PMS will be able to access the communication record IN ORDER TO BETTER SERVE THEIR NEEDS, especially since they are not using email where they WOULD have a complete record of communications.

Well, this is a very special business case and so it might be legitimate.

Nevertheless implementing such a feature is against the philosophy of uddeIM to protect a users privacy.
Sure an site admin can modify the source so uddeIM can be misused but I will not implement features that support this behavior directly. Responsible admins will respect the privacy and will not misuse the confidence a user has in the PMS.

When you need this functionality for your site you have to modify the relevant files but these changes will never find their way into the dev tree.