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

[Boofo]

Shouldn't that be?

PHP Code:

$DB_site->query("alter table user add miserable smallint(5) unsigned DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL;"); 


[Zzed]

I thought numeric fields are not required to be quoted but you can still quote them if you want.

[Boofo]

I don't think they are required but there are a lot of users who get db errors without them sometimes. So, it is usually better to just use them and avoid all of the "Why did I get this db error?" messages.

And where is my "fix" you promised me? I'm shaking here, Zzed!

[Zachery]

so i take it the changes to the mysql db are to make the user group? cuz i am abit confused about how this works

-btw still havent had time to install

[Zzed]

Today at 08:45 PM Faranth said this in Post #86
so i take it the changes to the mysql db are to make the user group? cuz i am abit confused about how this works


-btw still havent had time to install

No. The hack adds a new field to the user table to indicate whether a user is miserable or not. The default value for miserable is 0. When a user is made miserable a value of 1 is assigned to the miserable field.

[Hippycrack]

I'm still very new at hacking and I'm have a problem with this

################################################## ##########

From the MySQL prompt execute the following statement:

alter table user add miserable smallint(5) unsigned DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL;

################################################## ##########

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

PHP:

<?php

error_reporting(7);

require("./global.php");

$DB_site->query("alter table user add miserable smallint(5) unsigned DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL;");

?>

***and I got this error message.

Warning: main(./global.php) [function.main]: failed to create stream: No such file or directory in /www/n/nOpenworldz/htdocs/miserable.php on line 16

What do I do from here?

[Zzed]

What is the URL to your forums?

That file should be placed in the same directory that the URL points to.

[midnightz]

Hello,

Is there a fix for this hack to work with the arcade hack. It seems that the $postbits .=getpostbit($post); is where the problem is in the showthread.php. The arcde hack starts there, I tried some get arounds but had no luck, it makes your posts error with and not show up. i asked one person I know and they said they couldn't see a fix.

Helpers

midz

[lordofgun]

Today at 08:36 AM midnightz said this in Post #88
Hello,

Is there a fix for this hack to work with the arcade hack. It seems that the $postbits .=getpostbit($post); is where the problem is in the showthread.php. The arcde hack starts there, I tried some get arounds but had no luck, it makes your posts error with and not show up. i asked one person I know and they said they couldn't see a fix.

Helpers

midz

I had the same prob. I just took that part out since i didn't care about having the arcade icons in the showthread. The arcade still works fine.

[Zachery]

do you have to manually change the data in the mysql db to make them a miserable user?