xenForo Improvements

Am I missing something or did the ability to block/remove/spam etc posts disappear.

Just yesterday I installed this Crowd Moderation add-on, which should give us something similar to a mod we had on vBulletin. It's currently set to remove a message from public view after 3 reports. Before yesterday reported spam only got removed when I happened to log in with the admin account (which I've been doing a couple time each day for these last couple weeks... but long term I'm hoping to spend more time on helping actual people and writing code and less time on server admin stuff).

The old system was set to send a message to moderation queue with only 1 report. We really needed that low threshold since so much spam was getting through vBulletin's feeble defences. But in hindsight, only 1 report meant a small but non-zero number of poorly written messages ended up getting censored, like the sometimes inflammatory messages Frank wrote from his sock puppet account. I really can't fault people for reporting that sort of thing. But the goal has always been to allow unplesant feedback, and thankfully the number of non-spam incidents has been so low that we haven't needed to really worry too much. I'm hopeful the new threshold of 3 reports will still quickly wipe spam from everyone's public view, and also provide some safety margin so we don't end up censoring unplesant non-spam messages.

We had some customization for "Senior member+" on vBulletin. So far I must admit I haven't really looked at whether that stuff imported correctly. Truth is, unless someone tells me we have a problem, I'm probably not going to spent time on it.

The other thing we lost was the IP numbers block list. I considered trying to dig through the old database backup to find it. But maybe losing it and starting over wasn't such a bad thing. Every day I've been watching the many failed spam attempts and blocking IP ranges. Where spam originates seems to have changed. Years ago we got hit every day by what appeared to be armies of low wage at-home workers, mostly from India and Bangladesh. Today it's mostly Russia and Vietnam, and various VPN gateways.

XenForo has a feature to discourage troublesome users and IP numbers. I turned off all its site-breaking features and I'm using it now as the primary way we block bad IP numbers. Anyone who happens to be using a "discouraged" IP range can still view the site and even use it normally, if they've previously registered. But spammers (and normal people) using those IP numbers can't register. Maybe some IP ranges should just be completely blocked from any access to the site, but I'm hopeful this lighter touch that only blocks new registrations will work out.

The good news is XenForo integrates automatically with servies like Stop Forum Spam and Project Honey Pot which is blocking dozens of spammer registration attempts every day. I've been watching pretty closely and adding repeat offending IP ranges to the block or discourage lists. XenForo also has much better IP blocking, where it shows the date each block was created and when (if) it last prevented that IP number/range from access. The ~500 ranges I've added over these last couple weeks are indeed blocking a lot of repeat spam attempts. Hopefully we'll continue seeing very low spam levels getting through, which lessens the need for reports and manual effort.
 
@Paul

Thanks for the detailed information. Have a better understanding now.

Really sounds like XenForo will make it alot easier in the long run with features like Crowd Moderation and its ability to integrate with Stop Forum Spam and Project Honey Pot etc. Sounds like it is saving you some time.

Having that option to set the number of reports to >1 is a nice feature.
 
unless someone tells me we have a problem, I'm probably not going to spent time on it.
Noted p#29: SR+ could close threads and post on closed threads - that allowed the noted closed thread to only issue 'future release notes'
> also catching dupe threads as was done today

Other thing was edit of 'user posts' - where that was limited to error correction on user request or p#1 type Thread overview notes/summary as thread/library progresses.
 
Some websites offer a 'copy button' for code blocks grabbing everything within to the clipboard. Is that an option? - rather than having to manually drag select code text start to end to copy.

Note: good for the forum - my bad - just came back to this thread a day or so later - and p#31 was sitting 'unposted' and the text was retained.
 
Old forum allowed BOLD and formatting within code blocks - though it also evaluated SMILIES :) ;) in code output unless that was manually turned off per post.
I supposed those two are tied together here in XenForo and their CODE formatting disables them togehter?
C:
:) ;) [B]BOLD[/B] :: CODE=c
:) ;) [B]BOLD[/B] :: ICODE inline
:) ;) BOLD :: Comment
 
I tried installing it. I'm seeing the "Copy to clipboard" button, but so far it doesn't seem to work. At least not in my browser. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong?
 
Maybe something like this:

EDIT: Never mind that is a paid software package related! Just got my coffee
 
Yes, that was the concept ...
On forum.arduino.cc it looks like this - the paper copy in the corner.
1700902497236.png
 
@PaulStoffregen

You might want to check this addon for copy button:
 
Do we need to be able to see new profile posts?
Looks mostly spammers that are bothering forum members?

1700988475609.png


Paul
 
Do we need to be able to see new profile posts?

Probably not. Profile posts seem like a pretty worthless feature relative to offering spammers a place to spew their junk. Apparently there's no way to completely shut them off, but quick searches turned up a few times the Xenforo people said to disable permissions. I've tried to do that.

Let me know if you're still seeing anything about profile posts?
 
Can we have an icon again - its hard to locate the forum tab without it (I tend to keep many tabs open).
 
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