What made YOU happy today?

[Terotrous]

I think that's a good solution to be honest. Sure, it's a little bad for new users, but I think seeing the forum flooded by spam posts is going to deter them even more.


Though, if that setting is on, if you make two posts, does the second one appear? Or does it wait until you've been approved once?

[IVstudios]

Either all your post say invisible until one has been approved. Or you can only make one, and until it has been approved you can't make any more. I forget which.

[McDuffies]

Those are, like, only two possible solutions.

I'm all for it, forum won't get flooded all the time, and admin will be able to see all spammers at once instead of going through multiple threads and boards. Maybe some new users will put off by this, but not as much as they're put off by a spammed forum. If you register to forum and see you need to be approved, no big deal, many forums do that. If you visit the forum and see it's full of spam - you just assume it's a dead forum, not maintained.
Put two or three people to approve posts and you'll have waiting time less than a day. Plus since these people won't risk deleting something important, Kisai won't have so much qualms about assigning newer people to do it.

I'm all for it. From here: "Administration Control Panel > General >>Board Configuration> Post Settings > Enable queued posts:set this to 1." Somebody get it done, please.

Code: Select all

./language/en/posting.php 'POST_STORED_MOD' => 'This message has been submitted successfully, but it will need to be approved by a moderator before it is publicly viewable.',

Or, someone bug Kelly or Kisai to do it, please.

[IVstudios]

Em Ugg Boots Vywqtou

Oh, you stay out of this.

Edit:

Or, someone bug Kelly or Kisai to do it, please.

Done.

[STrRedWolf]

Okay, I'm bugged. Plus, there seems to be some moderator support for it...

The thing is, someone's gotta keep an eye on it, and I've been horrible for that. I'd love to have all the moderators in the general (non-comic) section take on this role, so that we have multiple eyes keeping on it. If a majority want in, I'm for it...

...I'd just like alot more information about it. Drop me some pointers (aka links to posted info outside CG) here, I'll throw this thread on auto-bug for me.

[IVstudios]

...I'd just like alot more information about it. Drop me some pointers (aka links to posted info outside CG) here, I'll throw this thread on auto-bug for me.

I don't know that there's much info to give. When a new user post for the first time (you can set the approval for as many post as you want, I think, but one seems sufficient) it just get's hidden until an admin or moderator approves it. After that the user can post freely.

I've never used it personally for PHBB, but I have something similar on my WordPress pages. I can set it so all first time posters need there post approved before they show up. There's a little section for "posts awaiting approval," and I just head in there, check out the post and either approve them or delete them. It's no more work than reading through posts to see if they're spam, with the added benefit of not having to search through the forum to find them.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I know I don't have cool moderator powers, but if it's possible for me to help zap, I'd love to zap Most days I check in around here at least twice, and I don't mind helping clean up the place if I'm gonna be around anyway

[Kisai]

So can't we update PHPBB or something? Cause just cleaning up the forum constantly isn't a solution. They're just sending more and more spambots. Either we prevent them from being created or we're going to be overrun.

I have only partial access to admin board, all I can do is keep cleaning. If we want phpbb updated, we're gonna have to ask one of real admins to do it.

Edit:
Version we're running is 3.0.10 which dates from january this year, the latest is 3.0.11.

I update it at the same time as Keenspot, Starline (Candi) and Pixietrix's forums. Pixietrix has switched to admin-approval on new users. We can't do that here since that would block access to the siteadmin.

Post approval is still doable.

[Terotrous]

Post approval sounds good enough to me.

[McDuffies]

Thanks!

I know I don't have cool moderator powers, but if it's possible for me to help zap, I'd love to zap Most days I check in around here at least twice, and I don't mind helping clean up the place if I'm gonna be around anyway

I second the nomination, as Cuddly seems to be dedicated to wasting her youth on this forum as much as we used to be back in the day.

[IVstudios]

I guess since I did the bugging, it's only fair that I offer to help too.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I guess since I did the bugging, it's only fair that I offer to help too.

we'll be the Jerzy Terminaters

incorrect spelling purposeful

[Terotrous]

They're making a final stand, I think it's time for us to pull the trigger.

[McDuffies]

Since Wolf said he put this thread on watch, here's summation:

1. New system with first post approval not functional. There are 2000 new requests for approval every day, impossible to clean up. It's like number of spammers multiplied tenfolds when system for approval was installed. System doesn't actually intercept all spam, for some reason, some still manage to post on forum.
(I don't know how forum actually looks from non-mod accounts. I'm assuming other users don't see thousands of pre-approved posts all over the forum).

2. Is there any chance admins could look up one of these?:

I've found a couple plugins to be very useful on my own forums for deterring spambots:
http://www.projecthoneypot.org/httpbl_implementations.php
http://www.stopforumspam.com/contributions

I haven't seen any spammers since I instituted those two. The latter one is especially useful because it refers to a central database for IP addresses, usernames, and emails that belong to spammers. Flagged usernames can be potentially okay (anyone can use a particular username) but preventing certain IPs or emails from being able to register is awesome. You can also scan the existing userbase to see who is a spammer according to the database.

I forget if it was the StopForumSpam mod or the new version of SMF, but one of those lets you set registration questions that require plaintext answers (so you can ask math questions or whatever you please).

Please consider using these tools. They are very simple to set up and save a ton of time cleaning up spam.

3. VeryCuddlyCornpone and IVstudios are great candidates for admin duties and also volunteers.
(Terotrous too if that was volunteering)

[Terotrous]

Yeah, if I had spam blowing up powers I'd kill any I came across.


Anyway, I got the Wii U today. It's a big hit with the whole family:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/ ... tendo2.jpg

[IVstudios]

Okay, now this is the worst I've ever seen it. It looks like they've posted in just about every thread we've ever had.*

* Okay, I exaggerate, but still...

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

At least one of them gave us this gem:

"Put emphasize Outcome Be incumbent on REUSING The poop indee"


I ain't reusin no poop.

[IVstudios]

All of your food use to be worm poop! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT!

[McDuffies]

Poop indee is quite different from ordinary poop. It tastes like strawberry.

[LibertyCabbage]

I was gonna drive to an art store later this week to pick up some new Microns, but I ended up finding a pack of 'em at Michael's yesterday while out doing some holiday shopping. I'm not sure why I assumed Michael's wouldn't have art pens, but I felt giddy like a little kid afterwards. Hopefully, I'll have some time tonight to start using 'em.