Ban for bad spelling

[JOSHSKORN]

I thought it'd be funny if a mod existed where you can apply the permission of "Ban for bad spelling" on each member group.  For each member group, you can specify the conditions of which members of that group get banned for spelling errors, whether it's 1, 2, 3 or however many errors they make.  Also, add words like "lol" to the dictionary.  Lets say I have a forum where people join as "New Members" and have to get at least 10 posts to become "Members", I would want to apply a more strict ban on New Members than just Members.  New Members could be banned for a week (for instance), and Members could be banned for 5 minutes.

The configuration could look something like this per member group:
Member Group: New Members
Allowed Errors:  <insert a number>
Banning Period: <insert a number for minutes> or have a check box next to it for permanent bans

It would also have to skip links as well.  It might be good if it counted the number of links as well, separately because that could be used for spam control.  Maybe even add a profanity counter in it, too.

Anyway, although I was thinking part of this concept would be kind of funny, it might be very useful too.  I don't know if something similar to this mod already exists.  Let me know if it does.

If such a post gets flagged, it would be put into a queue for the moderator to examine prior to being posted.

I haven't looked in a while but I'm pretty sure there's already a way to set up your member groups to automatically change once a member obtains a certain amount of posts, so that isn't part of my request.

[Jade Elizabeth]

So.... you want to scare new members off and insult everyone?

What about slang? Is that an error if it isnt in the dictionary? Usernames? Peoples Names? My last name is considered an error.


I run a forum for writers, and not even I would use that mod :X.

[bullbreedluverz]

sounds really amuzing if you was dyslexic or had a poor education to really offend people and punish them for not being able to spell upto perfect standards - if i recieved a ban from a site because i spelt a few words wrong, which i often do, especially as im english if i speak on an american site that can cause unintentional spelling mistakes as some words are spelt differently although they are both english....

a very flawed and discriminative idea for a mod

[JOSHSKORN]

a very flawed and discriminative idea for a mod

Hey, you're entitled to your own opinion. I respect that.  Mainly this is an idea I had to combat spammers, not so much spam bots, but other idiots coming into a forum and typing in gibberish.  It's something I had to deal with, years ago.  I'm probably not the only one, by far.

@Jade Elizabeth...I didn't think that all the way through.  Typically on a gaming forum though, anyway, no on refers to someone by their real name, but you're right, I didn't think of the possibility of a member typing in another member's name, let alone, user name, thus causing a spelling error.

Again, I'm REALLY only wanting to target brand new forum members.  After a certain amount of posts (2, 3, 4, 10, whatever), you're no longer banned for bad spelling.

[Jade Elizabeth]

Why don't you post mod all new members, then when they've proven themselves let them post? I did it:

http://www.bunnyrabbitsex.com/index.php?topic=309.0 (safe for work)

[JOSHSKORN]

Why don't you post mod all new members, then when they've proven themselves let them post? I did it:

http://www.bunnyrabbitsex.com/index.php?topic=309.0 (safe for work)

I was wondering who had that url...lol I'm kidding.

In all seriousness, at one point in time, it seemed like I was getting hit left and right with spamming when a couple years ago when I was admin of a forum.  It seemed like it was the same thing over and over again and that a mod similar to what I'm suggesting would've helped.  Yes, I also think it's humorous to an extent.  I was getting tired of approving every single registration, doing an IP trace on them and so forth.

Again, something like this would have to come equipped with a dictionary, and have the ability to add words, but only by groups allowed to add words to the dictionary.

[netmatrix]

Well I can see a problem with a mod like this.  Well actually I can see several problems with a mod like this.  Lets hit the first part of the problem now.  Unless it is a government website there is a specific language that has been created a long time ago which we will call the internet language.  You also have a lot of people including myself that used abbreviations for words, and that does mean as many words as possible.  Now I'm a moderator at a forum that has over 200,000 members, and with the spammers I have seen enter that site I'm never seen spammers use bad spelling on all words.  Just the usual spelling mistakes that people make sometimes.  On my personal forum that I own when I get spammers I've never seen bad spelling as a problem.  Spammers usually work in the form of SPAMMING WEBSITES!  Now I also want you to take a look at the other ways this can work against you which is work from members that get banned from your website will become very happy when words are misspelled and they are banned from your site.  Eventually word will get around, and you won't have members anymore.  I had the webmasters for my company read your mod request and they all got a good morning laugh out of it.  I doubt someone would make that mod for you considering their name would be involved with it, and do you really think that if people found out that person made a mod that if you don't spell every word with perfection you would get banned from a site that used their mod.  That people would want to use a mod created by that person.  See this isn't my opinion this is just common sense. I'm a member at several forums, own 2 forums, and moderator OR admin at a few other forums.  Yeah people would become offended by this very easily...

Also on the profanity counter part of your request.  If you go to the admin panel there is this magical thing called WORD CENSOR.  That means you can take a profanity which we will make up a word to be a bad word like BLAH.  See what you do is you type that word BLAH into the one side, and ass **** to the other side and poof those bad words don't even show up.

[Jade Elizabeth]

That means you can take a profanity...

LOL I stopped reading about there and started laughing.

I have my censor as :censor: which comes up as . One of my members gave me the idea, was pretty cool .

But seriously, if you need real antispam mods (for spambots - porn, drugs, etc adverts) I can list you off some. People spam is a different matter, but I have ways to combat that too .

[kat]

I'd love a mod that auto-converted text-speak into English...

Or American English into proper English...

[Jade Elizabeth]

I'd love a mod that auto-converted text-speak into English...

Or American English into proper English...

Now THAT I'd use - but only for the first.....the second could offend people...

[netmatrix]

That means you can take a profanity...

LOL I stopped reading about there and started laughing.

I have my censor as :censor: which comes up as . One of my members gave me the idea, was pretty cool .

But seriously, if you need real antispam mods (for spambots - porn, drugs, etc adverts) I can list you off some. People spam is a different matter, but I have ways to combat that too .

I like that one with the picture. 

[JOSHSKORN]

In terms of censoring bad words, what I'd done before is just replacing them with other random words just to make the person look kinda dumb so the post wouldn't make sense.  This was back when I was using InvisionFree, and unfortunately I couldn't apply it to just new members so I eventually removed it because some got a little ticked of at me.

@netmatrix:  Thank you for your input.  It's nice to hear from someone that has to deal with so many other members in their forum.  The forum that I use to run was on a much smaller scale but still, between the new forum registrations and the spamming, it still drove me nuts.  Although my idea I thought was somewhat humorous, I also felt some sort of need for it.  Maybe instead of actual banning, a warning system for bad spellers would be more appropriate.  Again, something customizable per member group.  A warning in the sense of either zero consequences or a temporary or permanent ban, whichever.  Whatever the case may be, the moderators would be notified about a particular member.

Regarding other comments...yeah I wouldn't change someone's grammar into something that's proper.  I'm not THAT anal retentive.  I use to have a guy from Scotland in my forum and a couple from Australia.  Yeah, their English grammar wasn't the same, but it was understandable at least.  Maybe if such a mod like the one I'm proposing existed, it should give an option to ignore bad spelling from members registered outside the USA.

Anyway, if there aren't any modders that want to take this seriously, I don't see a point in further discussing this.  Obviously the overall idea has not been well received.  Thanks for your input, everyone.

[netmatrix]

The big thing with bad spelling is that yes some people will misspell words.  I misspell words all the time, but I also know that I can use spell check to fix my spelling issues.  Not all members of a forum will do that wether it's from not having time or they just don't care about the spelling.  You can't always look at spelling as spamming.  Like with my website that I own I have 3 members in it that are one is 13 the other is 14 years old.  My site is a gaming site so anyone over the age of 13 is allowed to join my site cause even teens play video games.  They are young and their spelling really sucks badly, but I also know how old they are as well so I don't give them any crap about it.  I did eventually tell them to start using spell check cause other members weren't able to understand what they were saying and everything.Yeah in one way it could be a good idea, but over all honestly it isn't really that great of an idea cause it will affect your forum extremely negatively in the future.  Eventually word will get around about the ban and everyhting then your going to be screwed on getting members.  Now with words that you don't want to appear use the idea like what Jade Elizabeth came up with with the picture or just use (****) to show that word isn't allowed.  See using something like that for the words won't make the poster look stupid, and it will show everyone in a nice way that they used words that aren't allowed to be used on the forum.  With the censorship on my gaming forum there is over 100 words that are censored on there.  I use use the star (*) to replace each of those words.It's upto the admins/mods to read each post that is posted and if there is something you feel is spam just ban a person the normal way.  It is honestly a lot easier than installing a mod, having it created, and hoping that it will work correctly.  Another thing that will also cause a mod creator not to take your request to seriously is your looking at it from a humor point of view.  Something like that isn't something to take humor on.  Like I said in the first reply to your post I deal with a forum on a very large scale, and that forum that is on that very large scale is a business forum.  Trust me that takes a lot of work to sort out all the spammers.  I know on a daily basis I have to ban at least 9 members a day for spamming.  On a lot of scale things can be pointed out on the good and bad of making a mod request.  When making a request for a mo you have to weigh the cons vs. pros.  If there is more cons than pros you seem to find then it's not a mod that will be taken seriously.  Like the xbox leader board mod I requested to be made for SMF ported from vBulletin.  I knew that mod would be taken seriously at some point in time cause it deals with gaming, and everyone seems to love gaming.This is just a few things to look at.  I am sorry to hear that this mod won't go to far with anyone, but I just wanted to myself personally point out the bad things that could happen with this type of a mod.[/]

[kat]

Now THAT I'd use - but only for the first.....the second could offend people...

I'm a regular on a couple of Anglo-Yank boards.

We take the pee out of each-other, all the time!

Gets absolutely hilarious, at times...

Especially when the Antipodeans join-in. 

[Jade Elizabeth]

Banning is an extremely sensitive subject. To be frank banning is a last resort for me because of the sensitivity. When I do ban, I send an email explaining it to the member, and sometimes I let the rest of the forum know as well.


A mod that bans people is kinda harsh. Even as a joke.

[kat]

I don't think they mean Ban.

They mean "Ban".