An alternative to banning: Miserable Users

This hack is an alternative to banning a user. As the name suggests a user who
gets hit with this hack will become truly miserable while trying to access
your board.

So here is what really happens to a miserable user:

- There is a random 60-120 second delay each time they click on a link.
- 90% of times they have no search engine acccess.
- 75% of the times they get the server too busy error.

If they don't get the server too busy error:
- 50% of the times they may get a blank page
- 30% of the times they may get forwarded to the forum main page
- 20% of the time they may be able to see the page they asked for.

after doing all the math in actuality they have only a 5% chance of seeing the
page they clicked on. What kills them is the time they have to wait before
anything happens.

I actually once tracked a miserable user and watched him suffer for 2 whole
hours before he was able to make a simple post.

This hack is considered one of the most sadistic hacks on my board.

The hack allows you to make your user miserable via the admin CP. It also
allows you to search for all miserable users through the admin CP as well.

Also in showthread.php, it appends a red status that is only visibly to admins
and mods stating that a user is miserable.


Tables affected by this hack: user

Files affected by this hack: global.php, showthread.php, admin/user.php

[y2krazy]

Originally Posted by SloppyGoat

Maybe I misunderstood. You said there were no checkboxes, right? None at all? Or did you mean only the miserable user box? If the miserable user box is missing, then you missed something.

I just went in and did all the edits twice and found no errors in them. I have attached a screen of my ACP - Edit User page to show you that no checkbox comes up where it should. Don't know what is going wrong...

-y2k-

[Rob Weaver]

Mine is fixed. The programmers checked ... don't know what they did ... but the miserable user radio button is now right, just below number of posts.

[SloppyGoat]

It has to be in the admin/user.php file (your sure you edited the one in your admin folder?) where you screwed up. Check that part of the instructions again very carefully. Pay particular attention to these:

Replace it with:
Add the following directly below it:
Add the following directly above it:

And if it still doesn't work, don't feel bad, because I can't get the new version of this hack to work right on my RC2 board. It works, but it seems to put me into miserable mode too, then lock me out of my own CP!

I'm sure you made a copy of the three files before you edited them, right?

[cindyd]

Great hack! I'll enjoy watching a few of my miserable users.....bwahahahhaa

[SloppyGoat]

Originally Posted by greatwhite_hunt

IS it possible to make all "guests" miserable?

[cindyd]

Hi: I tried to make this change, but I keep getting a parse error on line 460. Which is this:

$onlinestat = "";

Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks

Originally Posted by Zzed

Change this:

PHP Code:

  $onlinestat = "";
  if(($post[miserable] == 1) || ($post[stunned] & 4)){
    if(($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] == 5) or ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] == 6) or ($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] == 7)) {
      $onlinestat = "$onlinestat<br><font color=\"red\"><b>Miserable User</b></font>";
    }
  } 


To This:

PHP Code:

  $onlinestat = "";
  if(($post[miserable] == 1) || ($post[stunned] & 4)){
    if($bbuserinfo[usergroupid] == 6) {
      $onlinestat = "$onlinestat<br><font color=\"red\"><b>Miserable User</b></font>";
    }
  } 


And it will be visible only to the admins.

[cindyd]

Would someone please show mercy on me. I have been trying to fix this hack (which I love BTW) so that only the Admins can see the miserable title.

Everytime I think I have found the problem it makes an error on some other line further up.

Thanks

[EricGT]

I think this is a great idea, but wouldn't it be simpler to just create a new user group for these users, rather than adding a new db field and having to modify the db calls? Eric

[Sweet Evil]

Ganna give this a go as someone pointed me to it to deal with a lame little one.. Seems like this is going to be fun! Thanks.

[David Coutts]

What a bloody fantastic idea. It looks good, I'm sure my admins will use it a lot.

[high]* David Coutts clicks install.[/high]