Why does vBulletin allow users to visitor message themselves?

[MarkFL]

Hello all! :D

I was wondering about this after seeing that one of our users had sent a visitor message to themselves, and the visitor message contained links. I deleted the visitor message, and then got to thinking that no one should need to send a visitor message to themselves, but since this is allowed by vBulletin I thought perhaps there is a good reason.

I am considering making it to that our users cannot visitor message themselves, but I wanted to ask here first about the possible consequences. What do you all think?

[ForceHSS]

VM?

[MarkFL]

VM?

Sorry, I thought that was standard vBulletin vernacular...VM = visitor message :D

I edited the thread title and my first post so that my question is clear.

[kh99]

Maybe so you can post a reminder to send yourself a PM. :D

But seriously, I don't know but I'd guess that since they would have had to write code to check for that, someone just decided "why not".

[ForceHSS]

Do you not have vm turned off for guests

[MarkFL]

Do you not have vm turned off for guests

I don't allow guest to even view user profiles, they are sent straight to the registration form if they try.

What I saw the other night was a newly registered member send themselves a visitor message. This shows up on their profile and on the activity stream and struck me as just another way to spam. To me it seems unnecessary to allow users to post messages on their own wall like that. :D

[ForceHSS]

Am sure with a small plugin that can be turned off

[MarkFL]

Am sure with a small plugin that can be turned off

What I did on my dev site is to edit the "memberinfo_block_visitormessaging" template, and wrap the editor form with the following conditional:

<vb:if condition="$userinfo['userid'] != $bbuserinfo['userid']">
editor form code here
</vb:if>

So, I posted in our staff forum to discuss it with my fellow admins on our live site, but I also wanted to bring points made here by others with vBulletin experience to our discussion as to why we might not want to disable this. :D

[ForceHSS]

If you had plugins to stop spammers then you would not need a plugin to stop it from being misused by members but on the other hand it might be good to have something like this to stop it from happening in the future. If no one here will make you one ask on ozzys site I am sure he will

[MarkFL]

I decided to go ahead and make the change on our live site. We found no compelling reason to allow our users to post visitor messages on their own wall, and this will prevent n00bs from posting to their own wall when responding to incoming visitor messages. :cool:

[ForceHSS]

I have mine set up new users auto added to a group when they register that have a lot of things turned off and are auto moved after 10 posts this finds all spammers but so far none can register on my site even know they keep trying

[Stratis]

I decided to go ahead and make the change on our live site.

Can you be more specific so I can make changes to, thanks

[MarkFL]

Can you be more specific so I can make changes to, thanks

In the template "memberinfo_block_visitormessaging" locate the line near the top:

<vb:if condition="$show['quickcomment'] AND $show['post_visitor_message']">

and directly above that, add:

<vb:if condition="$userinfo['userid'] != $bbuserinfo['userid']">

And then locate the code:

<input type="hidden" name="fromconverse" value="{vb:raw block_data.fromconverse}" />
</div>
</div>
</form>
</vb:if>

And directly below that, add:

</vb:if>

This will prevent users from posting visitor messages to their own walls. Many times, new users do not realize that they are posting to their own wall when they reply to a visitor message and then the person to whom they think they are replying does not see the message unless they happen to revisit the user's profile, and this will eliminate that. :D

[Stratis]

Just made it to my test forum, thanks MarkFL
The only thing is if user has own message, he can not modified it
Actually his message not supposed to be there..

very cool

[MarkFL]

If a user has already posted visitor messages to their own wall prior to making the above change, they should still have access to the edit function for those messages. I just tested that on my local dev site and found this to be the case. :D

[Stratis]

To me they cannot, the only button is "Edit" but when making changes save button does not take effect. :)

[MarkFL]

To me they cannot, the only button is "Edit" but when making changes save button does not take effect. :)

Oh okay, yes I see what you mean...when you click the "Save" button nothing happens.:)

[blind-eddie]

You do know that you can set usergroup permission so members cannot post on their own profile right?

[MarkFL]

You do know that you can set usergroup permission so members cannot post on their own profile right?

Yes, but I found it quicker to edit the template than update 2 dozen usergroup permissions. I just tested and found the same issue with editing messages posted on a user's own wall exists when using the permissions as a means of preventing self-messaging.

For those who wish to prevent self-messaging only for certain groups and/or who do not wish to hack their template, then editing permissions would definitely be the way to go. :up: