" Anti guest addon " - Reducing spam - guests cannot post links

Hello Team,

I've noticed that whenever I get spammed, the posts are usually by guests and have a long list of urls or links. My suggestion is to make it so that guests cannot post links. In some cases you don't want to make your board members-only, you want to be able to let guests post too. In this case they can still post replies but just not links. What do you think? It probably won't be hard to implement.

Lime.

Have you take a look at our Captcha addon? With it, it's near to impossible to spam you. As you see, our own forums are opened for anonymous (with small exceptions), but only manual, not automatic, spam appears here rarely.

I have never tried using captchas because I find that it is tedious to the user and I think in some cases it would impede casual posters from posting valid posts which could be potentially valuable. I thought that preventing links would be a better/simpler approach. I currently manually delete spam posts but if it ever gets really bad I'll consider using the captcha. Thanks for the suggestion Paul.

The Captcha can be configured, so Anonymous poster enters code only once per session. I don't think it's kind of annoying or something... guests must understand, that they privileges are limited.

The Captcha can be configured, so Anonymous poster enters code only once per session.
That's a good feature, I haven't tried the captcha so I didn't know.

Anyway I coded a solution for myself before I read your post Paul. If anyone wants to use it I've posted it for download here. It is only an add-on php file that you include in bb_plugins.php, instructions are included.

Ok, thank you! I have uploaded this addon to our Storage and changed the URL you provided. Clicking on file icon, you are allowed to update this file later.

Thanks Paul, looks like it worked.

So here is the lastest update of the Guest Anti-Spam Addon. Now, checking the forbidden terms is case insensitive.

I have some ideas to expand your addon. Could you implement them? That would be perfect! I can do this all myself of course, but have no time currently.

1. Let the plugin set 1 option at the top:

$membersRule=10; //defines amount of posts, which registered member should have in order to bypass the addon rules. Setting to 0 disables checking of members.

All guests should be automatically (without any option) be applied to the addon rules.


2. Let the addon use an external dictionary, let's say, addon_anti_guest_dict.php, which contains $anti_guest_wordlist; in this array, you may define any possible word, which needs to be prevented in user postings. You can take the dictionary from old Flood Filter addon.

You can keep the URLs rule additionaly, for displaying two different kinds of warnings. If user has typed something related to URLs or emails ('@' sign) - this is what currently $anti_guest_terms has - but it's also needed to prevent guests from posting email addresses, too - you display the error like current. "Because of spamming issues, you are not allowed to post outgoing links, URLs or email addresses." If user has typed a forbidden term from dictionary - the warning should be "You are not allowed to post the term '[WORD]'".

3. $anti_guest_title and $anti_guest_msg should be separated in language pack.

Let us know what do you think.

Great! I would add point #4:)

4. Let this addon "work" with the preview addon (meaning when there is a forbidden text or url - the preview will have a blank screen just like when someone didn't enter any text and did a preview).

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll see what I can do.

Additionally - in the screenshots for this addon, please use more fresh miniBB version. ecoupons advertisement has been ended and should not be mentioned anywhere.

Oki doki, I've got sponsored and shared 1,5 hours of work :-)

I've updated the addon's code, and added new features I've suggested. It also works with Preview addon.

Newest version has been renamed to miniBB_anti_guest.zip.

Ok, the addon is updated a bit but a fix is very small... it contained about regarding of how much postings user shall do before the hypelinks will be activated. So even if $membersRule is set to 3 it still would allow to post the links after 10 postings ;-) Fixed the code for bb_plugins.php...

In the line where it lists

......and $user_num_posts<=10....

it should be

.....$user_num_posts<=$membersRule........

that's all.

I updated my anti-guest code in the bb_plugins.php. Set the $membersRule to 0 so members can post links immediately after joining. Here's the code:

/* Anti-guest addon */

$membersRule=0; //defines amount of posts, which registered member should have in order to bypass the addon rules. Setting to 0 disables checking of members.

if( ($action=='ptopic' or $action=='pthread') and ($user_id==0 or ($membersRule>0 and $user_id!=1 and $isMod==0 and $user_num_posts<$membersRule) ) ) include ($pathToFiles.'addon_anti_guest.php');

/* --Anti-guest addon */

But for some reason, members cannot post links until after posting 6 times. I'm sorry to ask for help once again. I also have the CAPTCHA addon in case that's of any interest. I thought I had things just right! If you have any suggestions, I appreciate it. If it's too much bother, I certainly understand.

You may check point#4 at http://www.minibb.com/forums/9_4433_0.html