Really anonymous posting

pvalenca · April 2009

I have two Vanilla forums. One of them requires that the user registers. The primary reason is that I want to secure the privacy of the users. No problem here.

The other forum is a copy. However, there's still no content because people don't want to register. They prefer to react anonymously. I understand that and also I don't mind. There's no privacy issue.

The problem with Vanilla is that there's no good add-on for this type of forum. I tried Guestpost, only to discover after a while that it doesn't at all do what I expected. I expected that it would allow people to add a comment using a nickname.

There's another add-on: PostAnonymously. However, this one too doesn't do what I need.

What I need is an add-on that allows really anonymous posting, but the user must be allowed to use a nickname, not merely a 'Guest' name. Why is this type of add-on still not available? If it's impossible or undesirable according to the influential people in this community, then Vanilla is the wrong choice for me and I'll consider using an alternative.

S · April 2009

Anonymous posting is evil.
Try this extension: AnonyMouse.

pvalenca · April 2009

Anonymous posting evil? Sometimes perhaps, but not always. Anyway, I installed AnonyMouse in the traditional way. There's now a warning when logged in:

Warning! Not defined $Configuration['ANONYMOUSE_USER_ID']!

S · April 2009

Anonymous posting evil?

Yes, spam bots will kill your forum. By the way, in this extension (v 0.01) there is no spam protect functions at all.

There's now a warning when logged in:
Warning! Not defined $Configuration['ANONYMOUSE_USER_ID']!

Extension "real anonymous posting" is imposible (need modify vanilla framework, core files), if UserID <= 0 it will break chain of saving comment in vanilla core.
You need define UserID of exists forum member that will act as annonymous (in file extensions/AnonyMouse/default.php you will see $Configuration['ANONYMOUSE_USER_ID'] = -3;)

So, this UserID must be ID of real forum member. You can add that user by registration or use <a href="http://lussumo.com/addons/index.php?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=321">extension Add Member.

pvalenca · April 2009

Okay, I get the picture. The -3 must be replaced by the userID of an existing (or to be created) guest account. And this userID can be found in LUM_user.

It is now working on my forum and I like it. I have changed the following line:

$Comment->AuthUsername = $AnniComment['Nickname'];

to

$Comment->AuthUsername = "Anonymous reaction - ".$AnniComment['Nickname'];

This will make clear to readers that the reaction was from an anonymous person. It also prevents that someone uses the nickname of a registered user - e.g. admin - and that it is no longer clear that it's not the real registered user.

Thanks for the good work.

pvalenca · April 2009

Now that I think of it, isn't it wise to add a field RemoteIP to LUM_AnniComments?!

S · April 2009

It is not necessary, field RemoteIP is already in LUM_Comment.
If you want to show IP modify function SetAnniName() thus:


global $CommentGrid, $Context;
...
$Comment->AuthUsername = "Anonymous reaction - ".$AnniComment['Nickname'];
if($Context->Session->User->Permission('PERMISSION_IP_ADDRESSES_VISIBLE')){
$Comment->AuthUsername .= sprintf(' (%s)', $Comment->RemoteIp);
}

mis-one · April 2009

Everything on the script works for me except the user isn't returned to the discussion, rather a blank white screen.

pvalenca · May 2009

I can confirm that the code that shows the IP to the admin works fine.

There are indeed many spams coming in. I think most can be avoided by forcing an anonymous user to start the userid/nickname with a fixed sequence, e.g. by == or __ or 123 or whatever. The information to start the userid with this sequence can be mentioned in the instruction. Is this a nice idea?!

S · May 2009

I've never heard about that anti-spam method with a fixed sequence for username =) It is not good protection from spam bots, I think that simple CAPTCHA is better. Actually, I've already implemented CAPTCHA feature not long ago. I'll make official release of extension "AnonyMouse" soon.

pvalenca · May 2009

Well, I noticed that the spam bot that's hunting me uses weirdo, obviously automatically generated names. It seemed to me that it's easier to implement than a captcha. I'll await your next release. Thanks for the good work.

pvalenca · May 2009

The spam was always to my first/top discussion. This is a welcome message, so I decided to close that discussion. Then I logged out and tried to add an anonymous comment (as pipo). The following error message popped up:

Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /xxxxx/Vanilla/extensions/AnonyMouse/default.php on line 100
A fatal, non-recoverable error has occurred
Technical information (for support personel):

Error Message
    REPLACE INTO LUM_AnniComments SET CommentID=, Nickname="pipo"
Affected Elements
    AnonyMouse.SaveCommentInfo();

    The error occurred on or near: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ' Nickname="pipo"' at line 1

S · May 2009

Done. http://lussumo.com/addons/index.php?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=452

pvalenca · May 2009

It works great, but I have changed some settings in hnimage.php for the time being. I noticed that I frequently made erroneous assumptions about the numbers being displayed. So I enlarged the size of the fonts (from 19 to 27), reduced the noisefactor and rotationfactor to zero and increased the horizontal spacing from 0.9 to 1.1.

$MaxSize = 27; //19
$MinSize = 27; //19
$NumChars = 3;
$CharRange = '/[2-9]/'; //4-9
$NoiseFactor = 0; //8
$MaxRotation = 0; //5
$CharSpacing = 1.1; //0.9

Also, I had to increase the size of the rectangle from 1.1 to 1.5.
$SizeY = (int)(1.5 * $MaxSize);
And last but not least, I had to lower the display of the fonts in the rectangle (by changing 1.25 to 1.4), because their top was oftentimes outside the rectange.
$Y = (int)($Size * 1.4); // $Size = 1.2 of height