[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by vikulenka

And thinking one step ahead, if you then approve that message and someone quotes it, it will get flagged again....

How do we direct newbies to other threads and stickies.

This is not going to work ...

I've been away today and trying to catch up on this by reading the threads.
can you give me a quick synopses of what you think?

I would appreciate it....

[vikulenka]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

I've been away today and trying to catch up on this by reading the threads.
can you give me a quick synopses of what you think?

I would appreciate it....

Any posts containing links to anything get flagged for moderator approval. Good for catching bots. Bad for every other conceivable reason, such as prevention of cross-forum references and a mountain of work for you.

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by vikulenka

Any posts containing links to anything get flagged for moderator approval. Good for catching bots. Bad for every other conceivable reason, such as prevention of cross-forum references and a mountain of work for you.

Thank you Vik....

Not a good thing at all, and especially since we were not told about it..

[vikulenka]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

Thank you Vik....

Not a good thing at all, and especially since we were not told about it..

Well, I think the intention was good

It may have not been fully thought out.

As they say - the road to hell is paved with good intentions

[skyforger]

the "links" issue however could be sorted out:
new users could be restricted to post links (such posts could be moderated or just purge links from body) in their messages, before they reach some "trustworthy" status.

the idea of "trustworthy" status is to distinct bots from newbies by some criteria (join date/num of posts/etc).

mods, what do you think of it?

[benv]

Originally Posted by skyforger

the "links" issue however could be sorted out:
new users could be restricted to post links (such posts could be moderated or just purge links from body) in their messages, before they reach some "trustworthy" status.

the idea of "trustworthy" status is to distinct bots from newbies by some criteria (join date/num of posts/etc).

mods, what do you think of it?

Or just, at least for the internal links issue, just breakdown the URLs and identify if its an internal link or not, and if it is, allow it through.

Testing... http://%77%77%77%2E%67%6F%6F%67%6C%65%2E%63%6F%6D

[benv]

Originally Posted by benv

Or just, at least for the internal links issue, just breakdown the URLs and identify if its an internal link or not, and if it is, allow it through.

Testing... http://%77%77%77%2E%67%6F%6F%67%6C%65%2E%63%6F%6D

Well that worked Don't panic it just goes to google

[vikulenka]

I just think there are OTHER WAYS to prevent bots from ever registering in this forum in the first place.

A 1 second search in google has led me to plenty of solutions and even code snippets which seem rather good and very simple.

SIMPLER than programmatically controlling who can post links.

SIMPLER than parsing the links to identify if it's a forum URL. Besides, it's not only the internal URLs that suffer.

I really HATE the idea of treating every newbie as if they are a bot.
So, this links thing is a really BAD IDEA from the start. It's not a solution to the bot problem.

[skyforger]

Originally Posted by vikulenka

I just think there are OTHER WAYS to prevent bots from ever registering in this forum in the first place.

A 1 second search in google has led me to plenty of solutions and even code snippets which seem rather good and very simple.

SIMPLER than programmatically controlling who can post links.

SIMPLER than parsing the links to identify if it's a forum URL. Besides, it's not only the internal URLs that suffer.

I really HATE the idea of treating every newbie as if they are a bot.
So, this links thing is a really BAD IDEA from the start. It's not a solution to the bot problem.

as i mentioned is some other thread recently, one can simply install small snippet (i used to call it "enhanced captcha"), so that bots are unable to even register.

those captchas are too hard for AI, and captcha breakers just suck and leave it alone

p.s. the snippet is free for sure, and could be easily found on google.

[vikulenka]

Originally Posted by skyforger

as i mentioned is some other thread recently, one can simply install small snippet (i used to call it "enhanced captcha"), so that bots are unable to even register.

those captchas are too hard for AI, and captcha breakers just suck and leave it alone

p.s. the snippet is free for sure, and could be easily found on google.

I sent a PM with a link to exactly that to aom3 yesterday.

I just honestly truly dislike the idea of blocking ability to link for the sake of bot prevention.

It's sensoriship with all the negative externalities that that brings. And it also makes newbies feel unwelcome.

There's enough complaining that goes around with regards to "advantages" of seniority status here.
No need to add oil to fire, as they say.