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Outta curiosity
- Thread starter Loony BoB
- Start date
Loony BoB
International Captain
Have you considered alternative measures?
I know that by default these fields are accessable by anyone and everyone, however you can set it up so that you have to be registered or even part of a certain usergroup to see the fields. It is possible to still be spammed, but having said that, it's also up to the individual to enter anything into these fields anyway.
I work with a similarly sized board (20,000+ members, 1.5 million posts, similar activity levels) as an admin and we've set it up so you need to be registered. The most spam we get is the extreme few who advertises their new site via PM, but we have a lot of memebers who know this isn't allowed and are happy to report these members to us and they are promptly banned. I'd say that this happens about once every month or two. We have only once had people spammed via instant messages, and that was before we set it up so that only registered members can see instant message IDs.
I think it would be of more benefit to the people here to have the field than it would be a problem to them. They can always not put it up if they like. If you would like to be shown how to set it up so that only registered members / a certain usergroup can see the fields, let me know and I can let you know what to edit into the template(s).
On a different note, I know that you have disabled PMs as well, although I don't know when this was, you might want to consider setting it up so that only people registered for three months (or more) can use PMs. Although I would much more easily understand if you didn't want to implement this feature given that it takes up space on your server.
I know that by default these fields are accessable by anyone and everyone, however you can set it up so that you have to be registered or even part of a certain usergroup to see the fields. It is possible to still be spammed, but having said that, it's also up to the individual to enter anything into these fields anyway.
I work with a similarly sized board (20,000+ members, 1.5 million posts, similar activity levels) as an admin and we've set it up so you need to be registered. The most spam we get is the extreme few who advertises their new site via PM, but we have a lot of memebers who know this isn't allowed and are happy to report these members to us and they are promptly banned. I'd say that this happens about once every month or two. We have only once had people spammed via instant messages, and that was before we set it up so that only registered members can see instant message IDs.
I think it would be of more benefit to the people here to have the field than it would be a problem to them. They can always not put it up if they like. If you would like to be shown how to set it up so that only registered members / a certain usergroup can see the fields, let me know and I can let you know what to edit into the template(s).
On a different note, I know that you have disabled PMs as well, although I don't know when this was, you might want to consider setting it up so that only people registered for three months (or more) can use PMs. Although I would much more easily understand if you didn't want to implement this feature given that it takes up space on your server.
James
Cricket Web Owner
User Profiles - this has been disabled for over 2 years now and no one has had a problem with it. The advantages of having it hidden outway the disadvantages in our eyes.
PMs - search the site discussion forum, its been gone into an awful lot. Its got nothing to do with server space, which we have a lot of.
PMs - search the site discussion forum, its been gone into an awful lot. Its got nothing to do with server space, which we have a lot of.
barmyarmy
U19 Captain
My personal view is that once the site reaches a certain size it doesn't matter if people abuse the PM system or profile fields to advertise/spam as members will stick with you anyway.
It's a case of sacrificing the convenience of the many for the crimes of the few.
However I don't want to reopen the debate as it has been done to death and ultimately it's entirely up to the people who run the site.
It's a case of sacrificing the convenience of the many for the crimes of the few.
However I don't want to reopen the debate as it has been done to death and ultimately it's entirely up to the people who run the site.
Loony BoB
International Captain
So long as you've considered it instead of just passing it over due to long-past issues. 
I think this is the only board I know of that closes the options down, so I'm sure you can understand the curioisity regarding it all.
What was the spam for, if you don't mind me asking? Were they bots, or just users who wanted to advertise "the next big site I just made today", or something else entirely?
I think this is the only board I know of that closes the options down, so I'm sure you can understand the curioisity regarding it all.What was the spam for, if you don't mind me asking? Were they bots, or just users who wanted to advertise "the next big site I just made today", or something else entirely?
James
Cricket Web Owner
Its been considered and talked about many times in senior CW circles, but its never got past first base really. We haven't talked about it for at least the past 6 months mind.
Yes, it was a sporting website, that went all out on spamming Cricket Web for weeks on end. As far as I know the people who did and organised the spamming are still around on sporting/cricketing websites so what they've done in the past could happen again I suppose. barmyarmy might know a few of these people through his contacts.
Your option around members having a certain post account, etc before they can use these features was considered but the person who did most of the spamming orginally was a frequent visitor of the forums at that time.
The main reason though is that 99% of CW members don't seem to care whether it comes back or not so it hasn't been much of an issue because of it.
Yes, it was a sporting website, that went all out on spamming Cricket Web for weeks on end. As far as I know the people who did and organised the spamming are still around on sporting/cricketing websites so what they've done in the past could happen again I suppose. barmyarmy might know a few of these people through his contacts.
Your option around members having a certain post account, etc before they can use these features was considered but the person who did most of the spamming orginally was a frequent visitor of the forums at that time.
The main reason though is that 99% of CW members don't seem to care whether it comes back or not so it hasn't been much of an issue because of it.
Loony BoB
International Captain
Hmm, I see. Would it not be a better idea to just permanently ban anyone who does such a thing, and then run a quick SQL query deleting all the PMs they sent out (if there are many)?
Additionally, you could set it up so that such a usergroup was only able to PM one person at a time, and then enforce it so that you can only send out one PM every minute or two. If there are any spammers who would spend an hour on a website just so they could send out 60 PMs, I'd be surprised. You could even make it longer - 2-5 minutes - and it'll probably work even better while causing people who are having legitimate conversations little hassle.
The bonus of this idea is not only that people would have to have been registered and to have made a few decent posts, but also that anyone who does have PMs enabled would hopefully have been around long enough to know that advertising is wrong.
If that's not enough, you could also throw in a bit of text just above the PM field in the templates saying "Have you received an advertisement PM from a member? Please check the PM id (the number at the end of the url) and post it into the Site Discussion forum so that a staff member may investigate the issue."
And, finally, you can set it so that by default, PMs are not enabled. This way people will only turn on PMs if they actually intend on using them.
As for IM information, was the spammer using this as well as PMs? If not, it might be at least an idea to set that up again.
But if you're still not happy with the options then I understand - thanks for taking the time to read all of this and think about it, though, that's all I ask. Have a good one!
Additionally, you could set it up so that such a usergroup was only able to PM one person at a time, and then enforce it so that you can only send out one PM every minute or two. If there are any spammers who would spend an hour on a website just so they could send out 60 PMs, I'd be surprised.
You could even make it longer - 2-5 minutes - and it'll probably work even better while causing people who are having legitimate conversations little hassle.The bonus of this idea is not only that people would have to have been registered and to have made a few decent posts, but also that anyone who does have PMs enabled would hopefully have been around long enough to know that advertising is wrong.
If that's not enough, you could also throw in a bit of text just above the PM field in the templates saying "Have you received an advertisement PM from a member? Please check the PM id (the number at the end of the url) and post it into the Site Discussion forum so that a staff member may investigate the issue."
And, finally, you can set it so that by default, PMs are not enabled. This way people will only turn on PMs if they actually intend on using them.
As for IM information, was the spammer using this as well as PMs? If not, it might be at least an idea to set that up again.
But if you're still not happy with the options then I understand - thanks for taking the time to read all of this and think about it, though, that's all I ask.
Have a good one!
Loony BoB
International Captain
Oh, and one more thing, before I forget - could you please set up a Custom Profile Field for "Real Name" and have it shown along with join date / location etc? 
A large amount of the time people here refer to each other by their real names and it can get a bit confusing as to who they're talking to. This would also help for those in the CW Dev League which uses real names and it's often hard to keep track of who's who with the 80+ members involved.
A large amount of the time people here refer to each other by their real names and it can get a bit confusing as to who they're talking to. This would also help for those in the CW Dev League which uses real names and it's often hard to keep track of who's who with the 80+ members involved.