2012-04-16, 03:10 AM
Every forum owner is aware that spam is an ongoing battle. I propose integrated spam protection for MyBB 2.x - do NOT confuse such a spam protection idea with a function specific, but instead continue to read on for a more simplistic approach at fighting spam.
Consider blogs and forums one-in-the-same. Why? Because blogs are forums in a large sense. An article or post is the same as a thread in which allows comments from - admin set - registered or unregistered readers. So let's combine the two philosophies and share tools that blogs use to combat spam with forums, MyBB forums.
- Akismet is the biggest and most reputable spam detection tool on the Internet today. It constantly develops new and updates its own algorithms to detect spam. Without Akismet, where would the web be? It'd be an utter spam infestation. Now being that blogs and forums are one-in-the-same, as stated and proposed above, let's share a necessary, fundamental tool in the war against spam; Akismet. Akismet should be included within the MyBB 2.x series with no questions asked. It should NOT be a plugin. MyBB as a core forum platform needs to be superior to its open source and commercial competition. Akismet is one key in getting us closer. Have settings for admins to obviously enable or disable Akismet, but ensure that by default it is enabled. Within the settings, an Akismet key needs to be provided. If an admin chooses to disable Akismet, please include a warning [page] to confirm the administrator's action to really disable it, as disabling it alone will allow spammers and spambots to infiltrate their forum(s). There should be an option for any threads/posts flagged as spam by Akismet to be either put into moderation, moved to a specific forum, or deleted altogether (with the choice of soft or hard deletion). Any thread or post flagged by Akismet will need to therefore contain a message to the violating user notifying them that the thread/post was marked as spam, put into moderation, etc; this message should also be editable by an additional option. Obviously such default messages are great but I would personally put "your account may be in jeopardy due to the nature of your post" etc.
- Spam control settings feature/function. This would allow administrators to blacklist and whitelist certain keywords. Since Akismet will monitor the behavior of members, it is necessary to have a spam control setting so that we can go above and beyond behavior. The option to allow or disallow the URL bbcode is imperative. Obviously too, a list of domain TLDs should be somehow pulled into this setting and constantly updated. You should also have the option of disallowing posts that include the keywords of a TLD (such as .com); within this option, the admin can set disallow or put into moderation. With either options, there should be an additional setting therefore to create a message to the user notifying them of what's happening with their post or what's not allowed or not allowed.
--- An option will need to be added so that you can also whitelist certain domains/URLs in which will be allowed to be posted within threads/posts.
- A signature URL control setting. This is much needed. Some forums allow URLs to be posted within signatures, others do not. There should be multiple options: to allow URLs in signatures, to disallow URLs altogether, or to ONLY allow URLs in signatures within a set usergroup(s). The set series of usergroups will be an additional option if this option is chosen where the administrator can input the usergroup IDs that allow URLs in signatures.
--- Following the signature URL control setting needs to be the setting to allow in-house URLs in signatures, meaning whether or not you will allow URLs in signatures that link within two options: your site domain as a wildcard, or just your forum URL. This is a great way to continuously gain traffic to your site and forum by setting this function to your desire/needs.
--- An option will need to be added so that you can choose to whitelist certain domains/URLs within signatures.
- A user profile homepage URL setting. This setting would allow or disallow this entire feature.
--- An option to allow this setting after x amount of time or x amount of posts would be justified.
--- An option of whitelisted domains/URLs within user profile homepages should be able to be set, including a wildcard setting. Obviously some forums/forum owners would want this. ie, a Facebook profile would be appropriate whereas someone's competing site/blog would not be.
- And finally, the ability to set URLs as dofollow or nofollow setting.
--- Obviously, there will need to be a whitelisted domain/URL option to this setting.
--- The option to set ALL in-house URLs as dofollow is most necessary.
- A setting in which disallows keyword-only posts would be brilliant, though such a setting would require an advanced script that can differentiate ordinary posts from posts that contain random words or random words and phrases with commas.
--- Threads/posts detected should have the option of: being moved to a specific forum, automatically soft or hard deleted, and/or being reported to Akismet with the user's username and email address. These options should all be individually set by the admin.
- Any spam that slides by, the post can be checked and within the drop down menu an option to "Delete Post(s) as Spam" - when check and applied to, this would bring the administrator and/or moderator to a screen that will allow them to submit the data (the post, username, and user email) to Akismet, have the option to delete ALL posts by that user, and the option to "apply punitive action to the user." Then on the next screen will be a list of ban options, the first being permanent ban. There should be a ban reason field, however, this field SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY be filled in with either the terms/phrases "Spam" or "Spamming" or "Mass Spamming". And once the punitive action is then put in place, there should be one more screen with that contains the user's IP address and a link to view ALL users with that IP address.
For example, my eBusiness revolves around its forum for business, but I would whitelist sister sites, sites that I own, and sites that don't pose a threat to my rankings (such as Facebook/profiles) or my users (such as sites that can contain pr0n etc).
Whitelisting is a far superior option to blacklisting. Blacklisting is IMPOSSIBLE to do.
With the proposed spam detection settings, options, and rules above, MyBB would provide the ultimate platform in detecting spam.
Next idea to come, in which will be in relation to this, is multiple user account detection and prevention.
This idea has been submitted at http://ideas.mybb.com
Please vote for it at this URL:
http://ideas.mybb.com/idea/integrated-sp...ndetection
Consider blogs and forums one-in-the-same. Why? Because blogs are forums in a large sense. An article or post is the same as a thread in which allows comments from - admin set - registered or unregistered readers. So let's combine the two philosophies and share tools that blogs use to combat spam with forums, MyBB forums.
- Akismet is the biggest and most reputable spam detection tool on the Internet today. It constantly develops new and updates its own algorithms to detect spam. Without Akismet, where would the web be? It'd be an utter spam infestation. Now being that blogs and forums are one-in-the-same, as stated and proposed above, let's share a necessary, fundamental tool in the war against spam; Akismet. Akismet should be included within the MyBB 2.x series with no questions asked. It should NOT be a plugin. MyBB as a core forum platform needs to be superior to its open source and commercial competition. Akismet is one key in getting us closer. Have settings for admins to obviously enable or disable Akismet, but ensure that by default it is enabled. Within the settings, an Akismet key needs to be provided. If an admin chooses to disable Akismet, please include a warning [page] to confirm the administrator's action to really disable it, as disabling it alone will allow spammers and spambots to infiltrate their forum(s). There should be an option for any threads/posts flagged as spam by Akismet to be either put into moderation, moved to a specific forum, or deleted altogether (with the choice of soft or hard deletion). Any thread or post flagged by Akismet will need to therefore contain a message to the violating user notifying them that the thread/post was marked as spam, put into moderation, etc; this message should also be editable by an additional option. Obviously such default messages are great but I would personally put "your account may be in jeopardy due to the nature of your post" etc.
- Spam control settings feature/function. This would allow administrators to blacklist and whitelist certain keywords. Since Akismet will monitor the behavior of members, it is necessary to have a spam control setting so that we can go above and beyond behavior. The option to allow or disallow the URL bbcode is imperative. Obviously too, a list of domain TLDs should be somehow pulled into this setting and constantly updated. You should also have the option of disallowing posts that include the keywords of a TLD (such as .com); within this option, the admin can set disallow or put into moderation. With either options, there should be an additional setting therefore to create a message to the user notifying them of what's happening with their post or what's not allowed or not allowed.
--- An option will need to be added so that you can also whitelist certain domains/URLs in which will be allowed to be posted within threads/posts.
- A signature URL control setting. This is much needed. Some forums allow URLs to be posted within signatures, others do not. There should be multiple options: to allow URLs in signatures, to disallow URLs altogether, or to ONLY allow URLs in signatures within a set usergroup(s). The set series of usergroups will be an additional option if this option is chosen where the administrator can input the usergroup IDs that allow URLs in signatures.
--- Following the signature URL control setting needs to be the setting to allow in-house URLs in signatures, meaning whether or not you will allow URLs in signatures that link within two options: your site domain as a wildcard, or just your forum URL. This is a great way to continuously gain traffic to your site and forum by setting this function to your desire/needs.
--- An option will need to be added so that you can choose to whitelist certain domains/URLs within signatures.
- A user profile homepage URL setting. This setting would allow or disallow this entire feature.
--- An option to allow this setting after x amount of time or x amount of posts would be justified.
--- An option of whitelisted domains/URLs within user profile homepages should be able to be set, including a wildcard setting. Obviously some forums/forum owners would want this. ie, a Facebook profile would be appropriate whereas someone's competing site/blog would not be.
- And finally, the ability to set URLs as dofollow or nofollow setting.
--- Obviously, there will need to be a whitelisted domain/URL option to this setting.
--- The option to set ALL in-house URLs as dofollow is most necessary.
- A setting in which disallows keyword-only posts would be brilliant, though such a setting would require an advanced script that can differentiate ordinary posts from posts that contain random words or random words and phrases with commas.
--- Threads/posts detected should have the option of: being moved to a specific forum, automatically soft or hard deleted, and/or being reported to Akismet with the user's username and email address. These options should all be individually set by the admin.
- Any spam that slides by, the post can be checked and within the drop down menu an option to "Delete Post(s) as Spam" - when check and applied to, this would bring the administrator and/or moderator to a screen that will allow them to submit the data (the post, username, and user email) to Akismet, have the option to delete ALL posts by that user, and the option to "apply punitive action to the user." Then on the next screen will be a list of ban options, the first being permanent ban. There should be a ban reason field, however, this field SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY be filled in with either the terms/phrases "Spam" or "Spamming" or "Mass Spamming". And once the punitive action is then put in place, there should be one more screen with that contains the user's IP address and a link to view ALL users with that IP address.
For example, my eBusiness revolves around its forum for business, but I would whitelist sister sites, sites that I own, and sites that don't pose a threat to my rankings (such as Facebook/profiles) or my users (such as sites that can contain pr0n etc).
Whitelisting is a far superior option to blacklisting. Blacklisting is IMPOSSIBLE to do.
With the proposed spam detection settings, options, and rules above, MyBB would provide the ultimate platform in detecting spam.
Next idea to come, in which will be in relation to this, is multiple user account detection and prevention.
This idea has been submitted at http://ideas.mybb.com
Please vote for it at this URL:
http://ideas.mybb.com/idea/integrated-sp...ndetection