Feature Request: Ghost Posting

Started by MrMike, November 23, 2008, 06:29:05 PM

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MrMike

I've seen this "Ghost Posting" implemented on another board and it might be a good feature to have in SMF. It's meant to discourage trolls and inflamatory posters. It would make a nice mod if someone would like to code it up.

How it works: Annoying users can be tagged by the admin as a "Ghost", and once they're tagged that way their posts only show up to them. Other users don't see their posts at all.

The troll/ghost makes a post and, yes, it appears, but only to them...no one else sees it. After a week or so of furious posting and getting ZERO response, they usually bag it and go elsewhere. Most of the time they have no idea what's happening, all they know is that absolutely no one is responding to them or their trolling. And that's because no one can see anything they post (except Admins).

It's actually a lot of fun to watch them get crankier and crankier, posting away in a frenzy, getting more and more provocative...and getting no response at all. None, zero, zip, nada. Almost like they're a "ghost" or something.  :D

swtdivalove


Marcus Forsberg


guppy


RustyBarnacle

Blabberizer is pretty cool.  Not as effective I suppose, but cool.

manixless

wow ... what a really nice idea. Pretty cool to roll forums

Antechinus

This is a totally awesome idea. Someone has got to do this for a mod.  :D

Marcus Forsberg

Consider this mod done. I'm on the job ;)

KahneFan

The way you say it's "fun to watch them get crankier and crankier", I'm guessing the admin/mods can see the posts still?
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MrMike

Quote from: KahneFan on November 26, 2008, 05:50:31 PMThe way you say it's "fun to watch them get crankier and crankier", I'm guessing the admin/mods can see the posts still?
Yes, the admin (and optionally any moderators with permissions) can see the Ghost's posts in order to keep track of what's happening.

swtdivalove

I LOVE IT!  Can't wait to download this mod! :)

Marcus Forsberg

Looks like this will be pretty popular if I succeed.
I've had a few problems latly whit being sick and accidently removing a file I worked one for 1 week.. (No backup)
Therefor I haven't started, but I'll do it this weekend, or next.

Antechinus

No rush mate. Sort your own stuff out first. :)

Papa

This is gonna be awesome. I wish I could use it on my main forums..but it is a drama based site. lol

However it would be perfect for some other sites I have in mind and can not wait to use it. haha.

Hoodwink

What a good idea. Quality if someone could implement this.

Marcus Forsberg

Quote from: Hoodwink on December 01, 2008, 01:22:23 PM
What a good idea. Quality if someone could implement this.

Working on it ;)

Hoodwink

Any further progression with this?

labradors

We used to have this feature, back in the old dial-in-BBS days, on Citadel BBS.  It was called "Coventry."

A user who was placed into Coventry could see his own messages, and the admins/moderators could, as well, but nobody else would see them.  This was done by marking the user AND the messages with a "Coventry bit."  That way, if the user posted something worthwhile, the "Coventry bit" that had been set for the message could be reset without affecting the rest of his messages.  Thus, the worthwhile message WOULD become visible.

Most of the time, such users would get increasingly worse for a short period of time, then never come back again.  In some cases, though, they realised that nobody would respond to their rants - only their helpful messages, and they would quiet down to become good, productive members of the board.

Needless to say, as a former sysop of a Citadel board, I would wholeheartedly encourage the development of such a "ghost posting" mod for SMF, and would be more than happy to help test it out.

Marcus Forsberg

If you wouldn't like the admins to see the ghosts posts, I could do it in 5 minutes :P
Anyway, I'm working on it.

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