I'm just finishing up a custom hack someone commissioned via a service request. Once I'm done with it, I plan to get back to work on vbSecuritySuite.
Because the project is large and involved, I wanted to get feedback from those who might use it, and possibly prevent myself from missing important things or going down blind alleys.
Here is a description of each part of the suite:
vBis: An Image Management System
vBis indexes all images in posts, signatures, avatars, and profiles. It provides a one stop spot for moderators and admins to search and view images. They can view new images, images by poster, images by broken links, etc. Images are presented in a thumbnail/gallery format. vBis also allows the moderator to select multiple images and with one click edit them to links, or delete them.
vBis has a broken link detector that runs in the background as a cron job. Over time it sniffs out all broken image links and allows a moderator or admin to search for them and deal with them.
vBis also contains an auto-thumbnailer. If turned on then any image put into an image tag is automatically thumbnailed and the original link replaced with the thumbnail. Clicking on the thumbnail displays the full image. This is useful because it scales the image to a thumbnail only once, on the server side. greatly reducing bandwidth and dealing with the problem of users posting massive images.
vbSpamAlert
vbSpamAlert uses a bayesian filter, along with a few other techniques, to identify possible spam posts and give the moderator/admin a one stop place to view them, and manage them (split/merge/delete/edit/etc.).
Sensitivity, auto delete, and other features can be set on a forum by forum, or usergroup by usergroup basis.
vbBouncer
vbBouncer allows for completely customizable moderators and super moderators. A Bouncer can be created with almost any combination of abilities. Split threads but not edit posts. Move threads and edit posts, but not delete posts. Etc..
vbBouncer also simplifies the moderation process by allowing the administrator to set automatic rules, such as destination usergroup for problem members - letting moderators send a problem member to 'jail' with a single click on the members profile in a post.
vbBouncer can also be setup to require multiple Bouncers to request an action before it occurs. So, for example, if one bouncer marks a member as a problem nothing happens, but when the second bouncer marks the member they are immediately moved to the problem usergroup.
It's impossible to cover every feature of these powerful tools in a single post, but I've touched on the major points. I look forward to your input on shaping what will hopefully be a welcome addition to security and moderation on vBulletin forums.
Well, it's not just vaporware. vBis is nearly completed, and the guts of vbSpamAlert (the bayesian) is written and tested, and the hack will borrow alot of code from vBis.
06-09-2006, 03:00 AM
vbSecuritySuite
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