Machine-entered items into a Greymatter Weblog

[scscompa]

(I put this comment/query into an existing Security thread before I found this slot. Sorry, if you see the following there, also).

-----

I have set up a VERY open Greymatter "weblog". I have a number of entries in it and have modified the templates for my use.

I am a happy Greymatter user.

However, I recently had some "machine entered" entries (by some idiots...) that place silly/ridiculous htm-stuff/links as text.

I monitor the entries on a daily basis and get rid of the junk.

However, do you have some ideas about what can be done using Greymatter to balance my desire to be "very open" for the user to contribute -- and, yet, make it "difficult" for idiots to write machine-entered data?

Thanks for any comeback.

Regards,
Dave Shogren
[e-mail]

[Carlos Phelps]

Dave,

You should check out the Mod Dev area and read the Captcha Mod. This mod is not a easy one to install, but it should stop the machine bots from posting.

Best,
Carlos

[coldstone]

Dave, are you having trouble even with the spam control features introduced in 1.7.1?

P.S. I deleted your post in Security to avoid confusion.

[scscompa]

Both of you: Thanks for the comeback.

I was out today -- so, I have not had a chance to check the Mod Dev area. I might not get to it until Friday afternoon or this weekend.

I will also see what version of Greymatter I have used. I started using it a few months ago. I definitely have NOT tried any spam-control or something. All I did was modify the templates to fit my needs.

As I mentioned earlier: I was very happy with the fact that I was able to get installed/etc. and be usable "on my own". Thanks.

Thanks, as well, for moving this to this to a proper forum here.

[scscompa]

I am 1.3.1

I should have updated to the latest before I bothered you.

I will do that as soon as possible.

In the meantime, as I mentioned, I just check things a couple of times a day and get rid of the junk entries. Nothing (in that regard) came in today.

Ignore this until I get the latest installed and try Mod as you recommended.

Thanks again and
Regards,
Dave Shogren

[coldstone]

No problem. In fact there is a smallish change you can make right away if you are comfortable changing the code.

At line 136, change this:
} else {
&gm_addcomment;
to:
} else {
if( !exists( $IN{'postit'} ) ){
&gm_previewcomment;
}
&gm_addcomment;

Then modify your preview template to have the 'name=postit' attribute on the 'Post It' button:
<input type="submit" value="Post It" />
to:
<input type="submit" name="postit" value="Post It" />

This will force people to preview and should cut down on the spammers a little.

[scscompa]

Thanks!

I will give the suggestions a try tomorrow. A "preview" is a good idea.

I thought about the upgrade -- and, I assume that I will have to save my template changes in some intelligent way before I upgrade so that re-implementing the changes is painless.

Assuming that I can remember where my changes are!

I need a challenge, anyway.

Have a good weekend and
Regards,
Dave Shogren

[scscompa]

Your suggested cgi and template modifications worked great!

Thanks.

I hope the "spammer"/idiot gets (at least temporarily) wrapped up in a loop.

Thank you, again - and: Have a good weekend!

Regards,
Dave Shogren

[coldstone]

No problem, glad to hear its working