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

[TheEDIGuy]

I installed, and changed some of the random values, but I'm getting this:

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/forums/global.php:366) in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/forums/showthread.php on line 151

Not every time, just once in a while.

[Rick]

Help... I tried to install this twice and I don't see anywhere in the Admin CP to implement it. I am running 2.2.8.

No errors.

TIA,

Rick

[Zzed]

The file used by admin CP is admin/user.php...

[Rick]

Ok, I got it to say "List Miserable Users" at the top of the user.php page when it's accessed. But how do I make a user miserable? Where is the "switch" for that?

[Zzed]

Today at 11:39 PM Rick said this in Post #75
Ok, I got it to say "List Miserable Users" at the top of the user.php page when it's accessed. But how do I make a user miserable? Where is the "switch" for that?

When you edit a user's profile in the admin CP.

[TheEDIGuy]

Yesterday at 08:20 PM TheEDIGuy said this in Post #72
I installed, and changed some of the random values, but I'm getting this:

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/forums/global.php:366) in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/forums/showthread.php on line 151

Not every time, just once in a while.

I should clarify, I made myself a Miserable User, and after the delay, this is what I see most of the time. Is this SUPPOSED to appear?

[TheVoidz]

Zzed, I feel sorry for members that get in the way on your boards :laugh:. Although great hack.

[Craigr]

I've now installed this hack as well as making the user unable to logout.

Fun.

Craig

[Zzed]

Yesterday at 08:46 AM TheVoidz said this in Post #78
Zzed, I feel sorry for members that get in the way on your boards :laugh:. Although great hack.

LOL

They get struck by plenty more than just misery.

[Zzed]

Today at 05:13 AM maoz440 said this in Post #81


As of this time I do not have access to the MySQL prompt, can anyone write a little script to do this for me? Thanks

maoz

Create a new ,php file in your forums directory and copy the following lines in there. Save the file, execute it one time and delete.

PHP Code:

<?php
error_reporting(7);

require("./global.php");
$DB_site->query("alter table user add miserable smallint(5) unsigned DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL;");
?>