Advanced Warning System (AWS)

Advanced Warning System Version 3.5.0

The AWS version for vB 3.5 has been released. You can download it and get support in this thread:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=770032


Advanced Warning System Version 3.4.16 (latest stable release for vB 3.0.x)


LATEST ANNOUNCEMENT

The AWS has its own Premium Forum here at vBulletin.org, so please use that for questions and discussion on this hack.

The Permium Forum is located at :

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=105





This Warning System owes its existence to Zero Tolerance's Warning Hack (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65336). I liked the idea, so I installed Zero's hack in my forums site. However, as in most cases, I was not fully satisfied with the way it worked, so I started customizing it. Other people in the thread above, asked questions, which I had already answered by my customizing work, so I answered, giving away those parts of the code, that I had modified.

In the long run, I almost hijacked the thread and the hack from Zero, so I guess I owe him an apology. However, the mods I did have compiled a new, more complete warning system, with much more functionality. Several members from that thread, asked if this could be released as a new hack, so after discussing it with Zero, here it is.

What it does? Well, it is a Warning System, which means it allows you (the administrative team of your site, in other words the admins, the supermods and the mods), to define offences, which the members of your forum should NOT commit. But as we all know, there are instances where members do not follow the rules. In that case, this warning system, allows you to issue a warning to the member who commited the offence. The warning has some points associated with it, as well as a period over which it is valid. When a member gathers enough points, he is banned from your forums, for a predefined period of time. That's mostly it, but below, you can find a short list of features:

Full warning system with:

- post- and non-post-related warnings
- hierarchical warning schema
- hidden or real warners
- customizable maximum warning points
- automatically bans members who reached the maximum warning points
- customizable ban days
- customizable ban user group and permanent ban user group
- customizable restore user group, where users are restored after they get unbanned
- customizable option for who can see the warning level of the members
- automatically issued warnings for posts which contain censored words
- automatically issued warnings for private messages which contain censored words
- supports incremental banning periods
- supports multiple warnings for the same post
- warned members are notified either by Private Message or e-mail when they are warned and when one of the warnings they have received is either deleted or expired
- maintains historical listings of issued warnings (even if deleted or expired)
- customizable warning types
- each warning type has predefined warning points associated with it
- each warning type has predefined maturity period, after which it is automatically deleted
- reports for admin, mods and members
- cron job included to automatically remove matured warnings
- uses vBulletin's cron job, to automatically unban banned users
- all options are setable in your AdminCP
- user warning points and number of bans viewable in your AdminCP User Manager.
- statistics show warning per type, warnings per warner, bans per user.
- Allows you to warn a user from your AdminCP/User Manager.
- Large "Warn" sign, in posts which have received a warning, for mods, supermods and admins, to easily distinguish those posts.
- Ability to remove user's avatar, signature or usage of the Private Messaging system, depending on the warning points he has collected.
- Supports non-standard admins, supermods and mods user groups.
- Allows you to save a copy of the warning send to the warned user, in a predefined forum.
- Allows you to issue "Alerts" (warnings without warning points, for first-time offenders)
- Allows you to add private or public notes for a user, either post-specific or not. Notes appear in the postbit, above each user's message.
- etc.

Admitedly, this is not an easy hack to install. It requires 20 new templates and modifications to some existing ones too. It requires five new tables and modifications to some others. It requires several new phrases. I've tried to make the installation, as easy as I could, by automating certain tasks in an automatic installer. The installer will add the new templates for you, add the new tables required and change the existing ones, and will add the required new phrases. You will have to manually edit the existing templates and the php files though. I also included an upgrade script, which will upgrade those who are using Zero Tolerance's warning hack (version 1.5) to this one. An uninstaller is also included, which removes what the installer installs.

Please keep in mind, that this is a very difficult hack to install. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you back up your database before starting the installation. I also suggest that you keep copies of each file and template you edit, so that you can always revert to a previous stable condition. Finally, I strongly suggest that you always run the latest release.

The zip file always contains both the instructions and the files required to install the latest version. If you have installed a previous version and want to upgrade to the latest, there is a text file attached, in the zip with upgrade instructions. Follow them.

In this thread, you will also find a more detailed document describing the features of this hack, as well as a document describing its version evolution.

Also keep in mind that the installer, will add the AWS templates only to your default style. If you want to use them in another one, you may try this Zero Tolerance's hack, which copies the templates to other styles you may have.

Another thing, the installation instructions were written when vB was at release 3.0.3, so you may expect to find some differences, with the latest files and templates. As far as I can tell, I haven't faced any such case, but I post this reservation here, since I do not have the time to recheck all the instructions for compliance with the latest vB release. The hack has been installed and is working fine with the vBulletin version shown at the top of this thread.

Finally, if you are using more than one style, the installer will install the templates only in the default one. If you want to use the rest of your styles, here is a hack, that will do this for you.

This hack can also be integrated with Zero Tolerance's vBChat. However, since I am using a heavily-modified version of vBChat, I haven't included instructions, on how to patch the original vBChat files, in the documentation. If you are interested in having AWS issue automatic warnings when one of your user enters a censored word in a vBChat message, or if you want your moderators to be able to warn a user, who misbehaves in vBChat, please post a thread in this forum and I'll help you through.

This is my first officially released hack, so please don't be to harsh with me, if I broke any rules or made any mistakes. The mods have been tested extensively, both by me and two volunteers (thank you gentlemen), but I am only human.

Closing, let me thank Zero Tolerance, who got me started in this, and who owns a big part of the code of this hack. I definnitely couldn't have done it, without his code.

Special Note
For those who upgrade from Zero Tolerance's hack to my AWS, even though I have included a script which will do some of the work automatically, not everything is done by that script. Read the installation instructions carefully. You have to run the upgrade script first and then do several things manually. If you just run the upgrade script and just upload the files, the AWS will not work properly. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to post here.

Also, let me add here, that version 3.3.0 wouldn't have been possible without the contribution of Revan.

And a couple of warnings:

PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE LATEST ZIP FILE FROM HERE, BEFORE YOU START INSTALLING THIS HACK. JUST BECAUSE YOU DOWNLOADED IT A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS THE LATEST VERSION. MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE ZIP, JUST BEFORE YOU START INSTALLING THIS HACK.


LATEST VERSION

Version 3.4.16 (released Thursday August 25th, 2005 GMT 18:18)

A couple of bugs fixed in this version. One is related to the Notes feature, and it allowed plain users to see the notes entered, if the "Who can view warning points" setting was set to "All".

Features.txt a new version of this file has been uploaded on April 4th2 005 GMT 09:30, which covers the latest additions to the hack. The original Features.txt file hasn't been updated since the first release of this hack, so it was time for an update.

John

[sv1cec]

Originally Posted by TRStealth

Any idea why I'm getting my error?

Are you using a table prefix? If not, try running the query without the ".TABLE_PREFIX." part.

[Acido]

Hi

My only problem, is that the variable $_POST[comment] is not working. Both email and PM, are sent wiht a empty space for the moderator commentslike this:

The admin/moderator who warned you, entered this comment:

=======================================
(nothing here)
=======================================
May you help?

[skinny]

Originally Posted by sv1cec

I uploaded a new zip file, which should be OK, please let me know if it is.

Yes, the zip seems to have maintained its dir structure. Thanks, I can get to work on installing now.

[skinny]

Installed very smoothly indeed. Now, I'm going to sit back and watch the bans flood in Thankyou for a great add-on.

[sv1cec]

Ooops, good one Acido, thanks for catching that. I forgot to copy an <if> thingy.

Please download the zip again, and upload the Warn.php file and the include/functions_warning.php file to your server.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

[sv1cec]

One word of caution please, if you allow me.

If you do use the automatic warning functions of this hack, make sure that you set up everything properly. For example, use your common sense when setting up your censorship options. Words have to be selected very carefully, or else expect complains from your users who get warned for calling another member by his name (like the short name for Richard).

Also, if you use the Automatic Warning for PMs, please understand that each PM which is caught containing censored words, is kept in a log, which you can see. This may be in violation of your user's privacy, since a PM is a private message from one member to another. You may receive complains about it.

Don't shoot the pianist for the above!

Rgds

[jluerken]

Originally Posted by sv1cec

One word of caution please, if you allow me.

If you do use the automatic warning functions of this hack, make sure that you set up everything properly. For example, use your common sense when setting up your censorship options. Words have to be selected very carefully, or else expect complains from your users who get warned for calling another member by his name (like the short name for Richard).

Also, if you use the Automatic Warning for PMs, please understand that each PM which is caught containing censored words, is kept in a log, which you can see. This may be in violation of your user's privacy, since a PM is a private message from one member to another. You may receive complains about it.

Don't shoot the pianist for the above!

Rgds

Hi Sv1cec,

I updated to v. 3.0.1 but two functions are not working for me now:
- automatically issued warnings for posts which contain censored words
- automatically issued warnings for private messages which contain censored words

I entered censored words but If I use them in a post I will never get warned.
I created a normal 'registered user' testaccount to test this.

Can you give a helping hand?

[sv1cec]

Originally Posted by jluerken

Hi Sv1cec,

I updated to v. 3.0.1 but two functions are not working for me now:
- automatically issued warnings for posts which contain censored words
- automatically issued warnings for private messages which contain censored words

I entered censored words but If I use them in a post I will never get warned.
I created a normal 'registered user' testaccount to test this.

Can you give a helping hand?

I sure can.

First of all, from which version did you upgrade to 3.0.1? Have you installed V.3.0 first? Did the automatic warning worked with that version?

The automatic warning was first implemented in version 2.0. If you have installed that version, and followed all the upgrades, you shouldn't have a problem.

Make sure that you have the proper code changed in the files newreply.php, newthread.php and private.php. Also, please make sure you have done the appropriate changes in includes/functions_newpost.php.

Let me have that info, and we'll make it work for you.

Rgds

[jluerken]

Originally Posted by sv1cec

I sure can.

First of all, from which version did you upgrade to 3.0.1? Have you installed V.3.0 first? Did the automatic warning worked with that version?

The automatic warning was first implemented in version 2.0. If you have installed that version, and followed all the upgrades, you shouldn't have a problem.

Make sure that you have the proper code changed in the files newreply.php, newthread.php and private.php. Also, please make sure you have done the appropriate changes in includes/functions_newpost.php.

Let me have that info, and we'll make it work for you.

Rgds

I upgraded from version 3.0 and no the automatic warning if a user uses a censored word was never working for me.


I'll recheck the changed in newreply.php, newthread.php, private.php and includes/functions_newpost.php and will then come back to you.

[Viol8or]

Hey, sv1cec
thanks for the solution on the colour for warning levels. I'll update the system and try your scripts this weekend. I'll let you know how it went!
Have a good end of the year and see you all next year!!!!