Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

We know you have an opinion on how things should be run around here. These are suggestions for the forums, and the website.This forum is not a place to ask for suggestions to your own coding (or otherwise) problems.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
McInfo
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1532
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 1:31 pm

Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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 38633 times
Attachments
phpbbmod.html.zip
Instructions
(1.6 KiB) Downloaded 1657 times
User avatar
Jonah Bron
DevNet Master
Posts: 2764
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:28 pm
Location: Redding, California

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post by Jonah Bron »

+1
User avatar
John Cartwright
Site Admin
Posts: 11470
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:10 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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.
User avatar
McInfo
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1532
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 1:31 pm

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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.
User avatar
John Cartwright
Site Admin
Posts: 11470
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:10 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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.
User avatar
Weirdan
Moderator
Posts: 5978
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2003 6:13 pm
Location: Odessa, Ukraine

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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.
mikeashfield
Forum Contributor
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:50 am

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post by mikeashfield »

This is something a siteadmin has asked for here viewtopic.php?f=26&t=132385 mcinfo.
User avatar
Benjamin
Site Administrator
Posts: 6935
Joined: Sun May 19, 2002 10:24 pm

Re: Post Count Threshold for URL and IMG BBCode

Post 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.
Post Reply