Admin "spy mode?"

[Elijah Bliss]

Is there a way were an admin can be hidden from everyone including Global Moderators?

[[Unknown]]

Well, yes, if the Global Moderators don't have permission to moderate forum members.

-[Unknown]

[Elijah Bliss]

Well, yes, if the Global Moderators don't have permission to moderate forum members.

-[Unknown]

I take it that is requires quite a bit of code modification if Global Moderators have permission to moderate forum members.

I know it's a low priority but I think it would be pretty useful for admins who are constantly hassled trying to get work on their forums, and also somehow remove of hide "Last Active" in the admin's profile, or make it not visible for other members to see, because eve though you can hide your status the "Last Active" in the profile gives you away.

[[Unknown]]

Sources/BoardIndex.php:

Code Select Expand

elseif (!empty($row['showOnline']) || allowedTo('moderate_forum'))

Replace:

Code Select Expand

elseif (!empty($row['showOnline']))

Find, Profile template:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr><tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

Replace:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr>';
if (!$context['member']['is_admin'])
echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

-[Unknown]

[Elijah Bliss]

Sources/BoardIndex.php:

Code Select Expand

elseif (!empty($row['showOnline']) || allowedTo('moderate_forum'))

Replace:

Code Select Expand

elseif (!empty($row['showOnline']))

Find, Profile template:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr><tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

Replace:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr>';
if (!$context['member']['is_admin'])
echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

-[Unknown]

Thanks! I'm going to tinker with this and see is I can make a spy mod.

[Red]

Find, Profile template:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr><tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

Replace:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt[233], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['registered'], '</td>
</tr>';
if (!$context['member']['is_admin'])
echo '
<tr>
<td><b>', $txt['lastLoggedIn'], ': </b></td>
<td>', $context['member']['last_login'], '</td>
</tr>';

-[Unknown]

i cant find this code in Sources/Profile.php, am i lookin in the wrong place?

[[Unknown]]

Themes/yourtheme/Profile.template.php.

-[Unknown]

[KERA]

how can I see if it works??

I did all the above but it doesnt work I think

[KERA]

 

[Oldiesmann]

It will work. You just have to test it from the viewpoint of another user. To accomplish this, create a test account on your board. Log in to your forum as an admin and make sure you've set SMF to hide your online status. Then log out and log in using the test account. As long as you do it quickly enough, it should work. You may have to try it using two different browsers though - login as an admin from one browser, then login to the test account in another browser...

[crappyday]

This isn't working for me with 1.1 Final.  I used my test account and I could still see my admin account in italics.

Interesting though, what it did do was make everyone invisible to me as an administrator.  I use Tiny Portal so the users online in the TP block worked like normal, but the one on the board index showed everyone online as hidden.

I reversed this and went back to the old codes, it didn't work.

[KERA]

test account on your board. Log in to your forum as an admin and make sure you've set SMF to hide your online status.

For all the members the hidden status is not allowed..

the spy mode doesnt work. I tried what u said and still I can see me!!

[KERA]

test account on your board. Log in to your forum as an admin and make sure you've set SMF to hide your online status.

For all the members the hidden status is not allowed..

it can work with that?

[Kaptin]

If I may, why would you want to hide from your Global Mods?  I would assume you would assign people you trust as a GM, so you should not have to hide.  But that's only my opinion.

[crappyday]

I can tell you why and it's sad but true.  Your GMs see you online while you're doing something you absolutely do NOT want to be bothered while doing it (i.e. coding or db type things), or if you are taking a day off or two and don't want to be bugged by them but they see you online and suddenly it's question after question and you don't have time for it.

[Dannii]

If your GMs bug you, then you need to find some better GMs.

[crappyday]

This is not going to go over well but I think that's a poor assumption to make.

I want my moderators to be as active and involved as possible.  Having them bug me with questions and problems are things I WANT them to do, normally.  Do you want moderators that sit on their hands and have only a cute name and color and stars?  Have you ever taken a few days break from a site you run and still check in but not wanting the headaches of your moderators asking a billion questions or saying "Hey you're back, I'm glad because this and this and this and this?"

I'm not saying I absolutely need this to work for me but I tired it, it didn't work and life goes on.  I'm just stating the reasons why a Site Administrator might want to appear invisible to everyone.  There are other things a person could do like turning off all messengers and such but if there were another way then I would have done it but it did not work.

[KGIII]

It sucks but they should respect your privacy. Can you code it? The code is above and should work. If you can't trust 'em to leave you alone then ask nicer. (Not us, them.) If they STILL can't leave you along maybe rethinking your choices will work?

For now there are no really good methods at getting around it - someone can almost always figure out who is online even if it is just looking and seeing who is invisible.

[crappyday]

This wasn't important to me really, for the most part I was playing devil's advocate but whenever I don't want to be bothered, I log off messengers or go invisible anyway

[xyxis_fahim]

Sorry, but the code isn't working for me. I tested it with another GM username and still no luck..
I really wanted this to work.

[Piggie]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the complete answer, but I'm pretty sure thats it's the nearest thing: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=37029.0

[N3RVE]

[unknown] hasnt said a word!

[Fatality-]

the easier way is to just create another account to surf the forum when you are taking a break.

[metallica48423]

what kind of 'hidden' are we talking about? can someone explain what this should be doing?

[Piggie]

Unless I'm mistaken, there would be no indication of the Admin being logged in on who's online, in their profile, or with their posts in threads. Additionally, it will not indicate in users online that anyone is 'hidden'. If the forum is set up so that members cannot set themselves as hidden, then 'hidden' can only mean 'hidden admin'. This defeats the object, surely?

[Oldiesmann]

Even if you prevent SMF from showing hidden users at all, users could still figure it out by looking at your profile to see when you were last online, and faking that would prevent other features from working properly (notably the "unread posts since last visit" feature, and possibly also the "mark as read" stuff).

[Father Luke]

Is there a way were an admin can be hidden from everyone including Global Moderators?

Well, there is this:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=253702.0

--
Okay,
Father Luke

[OnemanDH]

This subject is exactly why I made the account here. (First post so I can't start a request thread).

As has been said already, the "Last Online" part of profiles is the dead giveaway.

What I would like is an option to hide/show "Last Online" on a profile.

The option to use a different account is there ofc but then the user (me in this case) can't check messages or do other things on the main account, so it's not really a viable solution.

As admin I would like to be able to be able to choose when to admin and when to be just a user, and the option to hide "Last Online" would free me from the "but I saw you online and you didn't do X/Y/respond/edit etc etc".


Edit: to clarify, I recently took over as admin on a board with 1.1.4 and as yet I am far from familiar with SMF. An upgrade to 2.0 is in the pipeline but not an immediate happening.

[LPChip]

The best option still is to work with more users.

You can create a user and even give it admin privledges without it being seen as admin by the system.

To do this, make sure that the primairy usergroup isn't set to administrator. You don't even need to set a primairy usergroup. To do this, login using the admin account and edit the profile of your other account.

Go to Account related settings, and click the link: show additional membergroups. Its important to set the admin here instead of the combobox above. This will hide that you have admin privledges from the users but you'll still get all options, like an admin. Do note, that in the admin panel, you will be listed as admin. If a global moderator doesn't have any access rights to the admin panel, they will simply not know. If its a problem to be listed there, then simply create a new usergroup that has the same rights as the admingroup and place your subuser in there. Also, it can reveal you having admin status if you're in the admin panel, and someone clicks the "who's online link". It'll probably say: User location is unknown or hidden.

[OnemanDH]

That's a good workaround for the admin but unfortunately doesn't resolve the issue of using the main account and having access to all info contained therein such as PMs etc.

Surely the show/hide option is "easily" changed/incorporated and thereafter available to all users?

Edit: (I know this thread is re: admin spy mode but I was unable to make a new thread on this subject so threw it in here)

[Rumbaar]

You might want to try this mod:
Super Admin
It adds a lot of features that can hide information, etc.

[gbsothere]

Someone helped me with this once and it works beautifully for me.  I just had to remember to mark my status hidden in my profile.  I can also keep my test accounts hidden and no one can tell when I'm online testing the forum from a user's perspective (going into the test account as the admin and hiding that online status as well).  This is where it was resolved for me (and thanks, again, to Gazmanafc):

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=303764


When I'm online, there's not even a reference to "hidden user" at the bottom of the forum page.   

[Blinker]

gbsothere - thanks for posting that, and thanks to gazmanafc for providing the only semi-workable solution to this problem.

So far, it's the only quick and easy way to remove the (1 Hidden) from the boardindex that I've found. SuperAdmin caused too many issues for me, plus I want to log my time online and it prevents that in spy mode.

gazmanafc's solution still has a couple of issues though - on the boardindex it still shows the total number of users online.

For e.g. in testing I am logged in as myself with my main admin account and as a regular user with my test account (in a different browser). In the past (before I found this workaround) it would say "0 Guests, 2 Users, (1 Hidden)". Now it says "0 Guests, 2 Users", with only one user, being my test account, showing up. As far as I'm concerned, it defeats the purpose of removing the hidden user reference as it's still obvious I'm logged in as admin.

The other issue is with SimplePortal. I have a "Who's Online" block on the portal page and it still shows Hidden: 1,  Users: 2. I'm guessing it's because it doesn't pull that data from the boardindex template the way the forum index does.

Any ideas guys? Is what I'm asking even possible?

[Antechinus]

You'd have to ask Simple Portal how they code their blocks.

It should be possible to do what you want with a conditional statement. Basically something like if($context('user_aint_hidden')) echo ' etc. (and yes I did just make that up)
Do you still need help with this?

[Tamsin]

I would like to ask gazmanafc a question. I am after the same as everyone else on this thread ie hiding 'hidden' status from forum members. I am using Orangeline theme. Could you tell me what do I need to modify?

I am also keen to exclude admin from appearing in stats tables such as the number of hours logged in etc. Do you know of any way of achieving this?

[Arantor]

The modifications as outlined in the first couple of posts would hide the admin from other members - and don't generally touch the theme.

If you require something more please advise.