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Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:03 pm
by McInfo
Disabling URL and IMG BBCode tags for users with post counts below a minimum threshold (new users) might make this forum less attractive to spammers.

I have attached instructions in HTML format for a phpBB modification that gives administrators the ability to set such thresholds from the Post Settings page of the Administration Control Panel, as illustrated in the image.
Changes to the Post Settings page
Changes to the Post Settings page
phpbbmod.jpg (5.03 KiB) Viewed 38632 times

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:04 pm
by Jonah Bron
+1

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 4:27 pm
by John Cartwright
While I think it is probably a good idea, and may be considered in the future, I don't think we really need to implement much more anti-spam measures until it becomes a problem again.

We haven't had 1 single spam post since our initial measures were implemented, and this would kind of defeat our current implementation, therefore it will be unlikely we will implement this.

It is very much appreciated and we will certain keep this on the back burner.

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 2:26 pm
by McInfo
When did the new measures take effect? This topic is actually a response to a flood of about 10 shoe-related messages posted some time last week, seemingly after the proposed updates had been installed.

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:36 pm
by John Cartwright
Hrmm there may have been spam accounts that got through, but I sure haven't seen any. Looking at the admin logs I see a couple accounts were banned in the last few days, but nothing was logged in related to if their posts were deleted so I cannot confirm/deny this. I can tell you we've had several hundred accounts binned already since the new measures.

Regardless, spam is down to nearly nothing. We will never be able to fully protect ourselves as there are spammers that employ actual people to do the spamming (non-automated).

Furthermore, I'm not sure it's a good idea to restrict users posting links completely until a post threshold is met. There are often legitimate situations where new users will want to share/comment/question something from a url, and our goal is to be as least obtrusive to the user as possible. Food for thought, though.

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 7:16 pm
by Weirdan
John Cartwright wrote:Hrmm there may have been spam accounts that got through, but I sure haven't seen any. Looking at the admin logs I see a couple accounts were banned in the last few days, but nothing was logged in related to if their posts were deleted so I cannot confirm/deny this.
There were some, yes. I'll make sure to back up their posts for you to see next time I ban those nasty bots.

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:38 am
by mikeashfield
This is something a siteadmin has asked for here viewtopic.php?f=26&t=132385 mcinfo.

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:27 am
by Benjamin
I'm looking for a solution that will display an error message if they even try. Otherwise I'll still end deleting all this garbage, it just won't be linked.