Moderators Functions - One-touch Spam Ban and Cleanup

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident. We wish his family all strength in dealing with this tragic issue. ***

One-touch Spam Ban and Cleanup




The main purpose of this mod is to clean up after a spammer. With a minimum of fuss it will:

• Delete all threads started by the spammer
• Delete all posts made by the spammer
• Delete all PMs sent to other members by the spammer
• Delete all calendar events made by the spammer
• Ban or delete the spammer as you like
• Ignore permissions - posts can be deleted in areas that a moderator may not have access to.

The option to activate this tool appears in the drop-down menu in the postbit, as well as on the profile page. From here it is a "one-touch" operation, with the small exception that you must press a confirmation button before the cleanup is made.




See the screenshot for the various options, but some of the more interesting ones are:

• You can specify individual users (in addition to groups) who can use this tool. This means certain trusted, non-moderator users could have the ability to clean up spam and ban spammers.
• You can specify users or groups who are protected - they cannot be deleted by this tool.
• By default, users who have registered more than 30 days ago are also protected from this tool (spammers tend to be caught and removed fairly soon after registration)
• You can turn the various deletion targets (threads, posts, events, PMs) on or off
• Select between hard delete or soft delete

This mod is similar to some older mods, but improved in a number of ways:

• You also have the choice to alter the standard ban and delete reasons before you press confirm.
• Deletes more types of spam (PMs, events)
• Simple, quick, effective
• Single file import (.xml) no file edits, no template edits, no .php files to upload
• Should work on all versions of 3.6.x and future versions

Installation

Download and import the .xml file via AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product. Remember to click overwrite if upgrading

Configuration

Once installed, check in your AdminCP under "VBulletin settings" and look for the configuration group called "One-touch Spam Ban & Cleanup Options". The default options should be fine for most people.

How to use

If you have rights to use this tool (i.e. are an admin or moderator, or have configured it for the relevant user or group ID) you should see the option appear on the member profile page, or in a drop-down on the postbit (see attached screenshots for an example). The idea is that as soon as you see a spammer select the "One-touch Ban & Clean" option to remove all trace of the spammer.

Support




Support will be given to those who have:

• Read these instructions (and followed them) and
• Clicked install

Version history

1.0 - initial version (28.08.2007)
1.1 - security fix (21.09.2007)
1.2b - Beta Fix to work with vb3.7.0 (20.05.2008)

[Baldrick]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

It would be nice if a 3.7 version would be released making use of vbulletin's functions to clean up spam quickly. vbulletin allows for multiple spammers to be banned and cleaned up in one go. But vb's interface is not as easy / one touch as this one.

I just installed the 1.2b and it works fine on my version 3.7.4 here.

[Chachacha]

It was a bit disturbing to find out what happened to the author of this mod. Very sad.

R.I.P.

[Fungsten]

I found out what was interfering with this MOD. It was the Member Rss Feed. I'll be notifying the author of that MOD.

[sherwood]

Well this works perfectly on vb 3.8 RC 1. .

>RIP<

[nectons]

So sad really

R.I.P.

bytheway works so perfect with v3.6.8 pl2. I installed the 1.2b.

[Toopac]

Ideal, one of the best mods, clicked installed.

[tiekie]

Originally Posted by Fungsten

I found out what was interfering with this MOD. It was the Member Rss Feed. I'll be notifying the author of that MOD.

Thanks dude ... your a star.

My mod was in the graveyard untill you resurrect it

[r5e]

Thanks Quarterbore and CCV Pinto for your suggestions on the template edits, they've saved me a bit of time investigating and they make perfect sense.

As those of you who have read further back though this thread may know, I will try to keep my late brother's mod going as best as I can, but I lack the time and the skills that he had, so I will have to rely on the community in here and do the best I can.

I would like to release an update for this product that allows for the changes made to the user profile page (MEMBERINFO template) since 3.7. However, I want to make sure that I do this properly and not just a "dirty hack" as the original author felt quite strongly about. He was big on making a product that did not require template edits and was easy to keep going after vb upgrades. In some respects, he did a very good job on this, as the product is still going strong even on 3.8, though the change on the MEMBERINFO template since 3.6 has removed part of its functionality.

Whilst I appreciate the suggestions for template edits made so far, ideally, I'd like to do this properly and change the code in his product so that extra template edits are not required and the new version works without requiring them - just import product xml and forget. There seem to be 2 ways of doing this:

1. Have code that specifically looks for the last link in the profile page and adds the link for this product after it. The current code works specifically for the 3.6 template, so ignores the new one. If this option were used, it would still be specific to the 3.7/3.8 template and may need to be updated if this template changes again in the future.

2. Use existing hooks in the postbit and MEMBERINFO templates to insert the links for this product. I have experimented with this already, but the positioning of the existing hooks in the MEMBERINFO templates is not ideal, though functional. This would ultimately be the preferred option as it is a little bit more future-proof, as well as being simpler to code (I think).

This is where I am now stuck. I am not a coder, but I can hack. I can release a quick and dirty hack based on suggestions so far, but I won't do this as it is not in the spirit of what Mark would have done with his code. He had written some very good and detailed tutorials on how to do this properly, but after spending a few hours on this already, my head hurts as this is not my native language.

I was hoping that someone out there could offer me some code to do either option 1 or 2 properly and then I will release it and make everyone's life easier (hopefully).

I welcome your suggestions.

Robert (brother of the late author of this mod)

(P.S. while condolences and appreciation are appreciated, they are not necessary, let's just get some working code instead please.)

[Prince]

very nice, just installed it.

[Prince]

I just tried using this and got this error:

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing or mismatched.