Restrict Private Messages to Public if not Enough Posts

[Darkwaltz4]

This is a very small mod which will prevent users from sending private messages to anyone except the designated staff group (like admin) if they are below a certain threshold of post count.

Recently I've had two spam attacks in quick succession made via PM to dozens of my users in my community from spammers who verified their email address and didn't bother posting. Those are very annoying to find and clean up via the database, so better to stop it at the source.

There are two settings in the Private Messaging options section, one is the minimum post count needed to have free use of the private message system, and second is the sole usergroup they can contact via private message if they do not meet that minimum. For example, someone might not be able to post due to some technical issue, but still needs to tell the staff about it somehow! Besides, my particular spammers made sure they did not target any staff members...

I made this in about ten minutes to solve my own spam issue, so I will most likely not expand on it, but I will help with whatever minuscule support might be required.

edit: thank you similar threads for finding pretty much the same mod from a couple vb versions ago! I tried searching before I began but didnt find anything in the first few pages. Oh well, mine's slightly more straight-forward internally :p

[robdawg]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177704" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177704</a>

Really good one.

[MagicThemeParks]

I've been experiencing some of the same as a member of some other sites. Good work on this one :up:

[choccyclaire]

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177704

Really good one.

Some people might not want all them other settings that come with cyb's mod.

Thanks Dark. :)

[PixelFx]

nice just what we needed :P

[Silencer Groans]

thanks

[Black Tiger]

I know exactly what you're talking about. Didn't understand you were going to make the mod yourself, however... you can, because you're a coder.:)

Nice work Darkwaltz4, marked this one installed!

[Black Tiger]

Ehmz... where can I find the settings for this? I checked the Admincp and the Vbulletin Options in ACP, but can't seem to find the setup options.

[DefenceTalk]

Thanks!

I've been using Group permissions and Group Promotions to control this for years but a mod helps. :)

[Darkwaltz4]

The settings are in the private message settings for vbulletin. Theres just two.

:p I also noticed in the user editor that you can delete PMs sent from a user! Would have really simplified what I was trying to do :-/ but it seems to be working to stop it from happening in the first place, and several members coming to me asking why they got email/popup alerts about new messages, and nothing being there.

[Black Tiger]

The settings are in the private message settings for vbulletin. Theres just two.
Is it perhaps these ones?
Minimum Posts to Message Public
and
Valid Recipient Usergroup When Restricted

If yes... maybe the second one could be changed because it's better if one can define usergroups. That way, the users can write to Admins and also to mods and/or supermods.
The way it is now if you choose supermods, they can't write to Admins, which is a pity.

[AndrewRich]

INSTALLED on mousepad.mouseplanet.com (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com). Thanks!

[accludetuner]

Perfect! Thank you!

[brute4c]

THANK YOU!! Installed at m715zone.com

Anything to get rid of these jerks.

[Darkwaltz4]

youre welcome guys :D

[Selespeed]

Love it, thanks! All I need now is way to prune the spammer's PMs ;)

[BeefyBeefo]

**Installed**

Thanks so much! It works great!!

[Alecsmith]

Install thanks

me too facing similar problem few spammer sending spam online scanner mail to my forum members.

[Darkwaltz4]

Love it, thanks! All I need now is way to prune the spammer's PMs ;)

actually, if you go to that user's profile in admincp, there is a command in that big dropdown to delete all PMs!

[Black Tiger]

There is also a nice mod with inline moderation for that so you don't need to go to the admincp to clean these users and their posts.
One touch Spam Ban and Cleanup (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=156444)
I've got it installed together with Darkwaltz4's mod, works great against spammers.

To remove their pm's you still have to go to the ACP.;)

[masterme]

Nice mod, but would like to be able to set more than one designated staffgroups.

[el-q6ri]

It will be better if it possible to make more than one user group to recive PM.

[NickyDee]

Any chance you could give me a vague run-down of how this works? I'm going to make something along these lines for my vB4.1 forum.

[Ro7 Qatif]

Hey, is it possible to not include one group from this setting?
e.g. I set the option to disallow sending PMs unless member has 1000 posts minimum, is it possible to let members from group 11 for example to send PMs even if they have less than 1000 posts?

[Black Tiger]

No that is not possible. Would be a nice feature tho.

[Darkwaltz4]

Any chance you could give me a vague run-down of how this works? I'm going to make something along these lines for my vB4.1 forum.

When attempting to send a PM, if the user is under the post count threshold and they are including recipients outside of the specified usergroup, they are given an error.

I guess if I were to do an update (doubtful) I would have two usergroup settings vs two global settings - "Can be contacted when below post count threshold" and "Post count threshold to restrict PM recipients" - in case anyone would like to try making such an addon :p

[Scyther]

marked installed...very good mod

[Super-six]

This is a nice mod. Someone should bring it into v 4.x.x

[rpgamersnet]

Installed flawlessly on my forum, 3.8.x. Great mod, thank you.

[Paul Stenning]

Excellent thank you. Small straightforward mod which works perfectly on v3.8.11, and should stop the spam and scam PMs being sent to members by new zero-post members.