New Posting Features - Allow URLs in posts only after a minimum number of posts (to reduce spam)

With the recent increase in CAPTCHA-beating bots spamming their URLs, I have a feeling this mod will be very useful. Inspired by this vBulletin 2 plug-in.

To install, first upload "bitfield_restricturls.xml" to "includes/xml", and then just install restricturls.xml via the product manager in the AdminCP. The plug-in should automatically rebuild the bitfields cache - as long as you upload "bitfield_restricturls.xml" first.

The amount of posts required is configurable in the usergroup manager, simply look for the group of settings with the header "Restrict URLs". The default is set to 5, however most bots tend to only make one or two spam posts at the most.

For obvious reasons, moderators and admins don't have this restriction, but if you want to add it, you can remove the group id from "bitfield_restricturls.xml".

If people find this useful, I may also update this to make an option so the posts containing URLs are set to be moderated rather than just completely restricted.

Enjoy

Update (13th Dec): Added code to rebuild bitfields, just re-install the .xml file. Also fixed a major bug. If you already have this installed... re-install it!

Note: This works by detecting the [url] tag and so it relies on vBulletin BBCode enabled and vBulletin to automatically parse URLs in to BBCode. If you have either of these disabled it will not work.


You're free to do what you like with this code, although credit is appreciated, it's not required.

Brought to you by eXaltic - vBulletin skins.

Update: If you're looking for a more advanced version of this, I recommend this or this. Because of these, this plug-in will no longer be updated unless needed. I recommend you use either of the first 2 if you're looking for more control.

[josiespencer]

Great mod! Not only does it eliminate those nasty porn/drug SPAMmers, it allowed us to create a user group called LimitedUsers with a minimum posts restriction of 999999. Now we can control the users that are constantly redirecting threads to links outside our website when we already have the answer/resource posted somewhere on our site.

Gotta love it!

[Hawk7173]

any way of adding [img] tags to this also?

[LoreleiWeb]

Thanks for this awesome mod. installed and nominated it (if its not too late )

[Xoligy]

phreak2010, good point, I'll look in to it - but hopefully spammers aren't clever enough yet to edit posts :P

Hawk7173, I'll possibly add that option too, but at the moment, you can use the attached one. It will block with images and URLs, but generally most spammers don't post images without URLs.

I'll also update this plug-in so that when "Automatically parse links in text" is unticked text links (eg. www.google.com) don't get through.

[Hawk7173]

Originally Posted by Xoligy

phreak2010, good point, I'll look in to it - but hopefully spammers aren't clever enough yet to edit posts :P

Hawk7173, I'll possibly add that option too, but at the moment, you can use the attached one. It will block with images and URLs, but generally most spammers don't post images without URLs.

I'll also update this plug-in so that when "Automatically parse links in text" is unticked text links (eg. www.google.com) don't get through.

Thanks a bunch! I'll give it a shot. Most appreciated! Hawk

[sarahk]

I'm still trying to work out this gotcha but it appears that in the rebuild of forum permissions that locked down forums may be opened up - eg mods forums. Test for that after installing.

It's a shame development and support won't continue. Sometimes the simplest solutions are all that are needed. Those other options seemed like overkill when added to the existing vB functionality.

[v12kid]

got it installed but cant find the settings in th admincp, anyone point out where I should be looking?

cheers

[Tearstone]

Excellent, I've been looking for something to help with this.

[Wild-Wing]

wow this is a cool *** mod man.

[Masiello]

Hi, please tell me what products I've download for vB 3.6.7?