Hide Tag Special

[briggz5d]

I get same errors Mr o5185736 has... but only in sub.php and post.php
tried manual edit which is easy BUT some of the Search and replace terms were not found in my sub/post.. would like some help please..

Post & SUb attached

[MarkoKg]

Adk-team, can you please help me about finding a way to add some class for hidden content? If theres a way to do that?

Thanks.

[Kindred]

Updated to 2.0.2

Can you please remove the advertisement line from the forum footer? It appears all around the forum, on every single page. It's so annoying. SMF is free software, and the SMF community would be more than happy if it wasn't imploding with ads installed by mods.

I will note one thing regarding the insertion of copyrights for mods...
the SMF policy on the addition of copyrights is that the copyright can be displayed on a page which is generated by the mod (i.e. if the mod has its own template page) or on the general forum footer if the mod is basically in effect over the entire forum (like a portal)

Since this mod does not have its own page -- and is only affecting certain posts in certain threads, it does not qualify as either of those.

You could argue that this mod should be able to be displayed if the thread/post is triggering the mod -- which is a valid argument, if you can do it (I know aeva does this, or at least it used to do so.) but otherwise, you should be using the CREDITS page... (and this surprises me... since all of the other ADK mods seem to properly use the credits page)

finally... the use of base64 to "hide" the copyright from anyone looking for it in the code is a bit underhanded, IMO (and, since base64 is not a standard part of SMF, and is a favorite of the hackers, any use of base64 encoding in my source codes triggers a hacker warning.

[sharks]

I couldn't agree more with what you just said, Kindred. Finally! Some people are noticing the rising abuse of certain modifications with advertisement inserted into forum pages. SMF should create a new section in the Modifications section "Ad-ware Modifications" and move all mods like this one into the new category so people will know what to expect and prevent innocent/gullible free software users from getting bad surprises.

If i could possibly make my standing any clearer:

1. I like this mod, in fact, it is currently the only one still updated to handle hide tags and the use of hide tags is extremely popular. It transcends all forum software platforms. I also have licenses on paid forum software and they all have some form of hide tag mod.

2. I respect all developers who work hard to make something useful, but this is clearly an act of abuse and taking advantage of the SMF system to exploit its weakness for personal motives, which as i recall, has never been what free software stands for nor what people have come to expect from SMF throughout the years.

3. The fact of the matter is the developer of this mod knows the popularity of this mod and is blatantly exploiting its widespread use to display its advertising across hundreds, nay, thousands of SMF forums. Unfortunately, people can't really opt out and stop using this ad-ware modification, since there are no alternatives. On my forums, me and all my members are being forced to look at the advertising in the footer every time we load a forum page, and it's getting very annoying and almost a form of harassment. I even set up a poll asking my community if the hide tags should be abolished, so i could get rid of this ad-infected mod, but the masses chose to keep the hide tags as they thought it was useful. Some of my members even thought that i was making money by displaying the ads at the bottom of my forums! I had to make a news announcement about that! What a shame! I use paid hosting with the strict intent of housing zero ads to my members.

4. Aeva shows a discreet/clean line of copyright only when it is activated in a post and that ad wasn't really noticed most of the time, so it was not an annoyance. So, whenever you view a topic that used no tags handled by Aeva, the forum page would stay unchanged with no ads whatsoever. This condition to deal with the display of ads is the extreme limit of what should be allowed as far as displaying ads is concerned, in my honest opinion. Otherwise, like you have said, Kindred, that's what the Credits page is for!

5. The use of special algorithm to hide the ads so nobody can tamper with it, is really pushing too far. The developer of this mod must know that whatever he is doing, is WRONG! and people will try to hack it to make it RIGHT again! Anyway, that's certainly how SMF makes its entry into the warez scene... We'll probably see "proper clean SMF" packages distributed in warez channels soon. I don't think anyone would complain either, since SMF is supposed to be FREE SOFTWARE!

[Kindred]

well, let me be clear on one point...

SMF is (and always will be) free.

This does not mean that we require modifications to be free...
In the end, the community will decide which mods are popular and which are not.

The standards for mods which are distributed on out mod site, here are pretty straight forward..   if the author doesn't wish to follow those standards, then he/she can release a mod on their own site.

[hayley2007]

installed on 2.0.2 forum with no other add ons and cannot find where to turn this mod on? there is no Admin - hide tag option :/ any help?

[Biology Forums]

Want to mention how much of an excellent mod this is... Is it possible to automatically hide all the first responses to threads, say, in board 13?

How would I do this?

[sharks]

Want to mention how much of an excellent mod this is...

As good as it might be, it is still an advertisement-infested modification, and it does not follow the rules set by SMF for the modifications allowed to be distributed through this official SMF channel.

The standards for mods which are distributed on out mod site, here are pretty straight forward..   if the author doesn't wish to follow those standards, then he/she can release a mod on their own site.

The mod author has included so many advertisements and somehow this inappropriate mod is still allowed to exist on the SMF modifications site. I haven't been able to upgrade my site to SMF 2.x due to the ads from this mod which are annoying and bothersome. I am forced to keep using SMF 1.1.x since the 1.1 version of this mod doesn't have ads. On top of that, no paid version is available to allow an ad-free installation on SMF 2.0, so i'm stuck until someone hacks this code and cleans it up as it should be.

The SMF team has to step up and ban this mod from the SMF modifications site. It's unfortunate, but it's the right thing to do. If other developers follow the same crooked ideas set by this example, we'll soon have advertisement pools swirling around SMF sites, and the idea associated with the word "free" won't have any value or be trusted any more. SMF is slowly becoming ad-supported software through such unscrupulous mod authors.

[Chalky]

What ads where?  I'm a little irritated by the additional entry in my copyright footer for a minor mod that I don't really need, but you've concerned me with the mention of ads - where?

[Kindred]

he means the "copyright statement" for the mod which appears on every page (despite the fact that the mod is not used on every page) and links back to the author's website.

[Chalky]

Thanks Kindred, I thought there were some banners somewhere that I couldn't see because of my AdBlock...

I completely agree that the copyright statement on every page is out of order.  If all mods did that then I would have a footer a mile long, and I have mods installed that deserve the space far more than this one yet haven't abused their powers by taking it.

[Kindred]

well, as I said, it's odd... because every other ADK mod correctly uses the credits page....

I actually had to remove this mod, since anything using base64 text automatically flags the protection routines on my site (base64 is often how hackers encode their crap in order to try to prevent you from noticing what they did to your code)

[sharks]

I completely agree that the copyright statement on every page is out of order.  If all mods did that then I would have a footer a mile long, and I have mods installed that deserve the space far more than this one yet haven't abused their powers by taking it.

Exactly! I'm glad to see that finally someone else is realizing the point that i've been trying to get across to all the other users of this mod.

I am also getting increasingly suspicious of this mod and what it really does other than what is stated on the mod's description page, silently in the background of my forums, with all that hacker code protection. Is it sending any private data (PMs, logins and passwords) from forums to ADK's servers? Maybe. With all that protection around its code, it just makes me really nervous and i just can't trust this mod to allow it on my live forums. The problem is that we need a modification that allows hiding text and reveals it after a member replies, so i'm waiting for someone to clean this mod's code or create a new clean mod with the same official features (which i'll be willing to pay for).

[Kindred]

sharks,

lets not fly off the handle. the base64 code inserts the copyright statement into the footer. That's it.
This mod does not read or send any forum data to anywhere.

[Adk-Team]

Is it sending any private data (PMs, logins and passwords) from forums to ADK's servers?

[Kindred]

ah... since the ADK team appears to be actively reading this topic now, let me say this...


Please remove your obfusated copyright from the code.

1- your hide mod does not appear on every page nor does it significantly change forum functionality across the board; therefore, based on the SMF mod guidelines, the copyright should not appear on every forum page. Either figure out a way to only display the copyright on pages using the hide mod function (like AEVA did/does) or use the credit page.

2- please do not ever use obfuscated code like that crummy base64 line...

[Adk-Team]

Many things need to be made.
This version was adapted the author's work to current versions.

In the next version there will be many changes.

[Kindred]

no.... you are incorrect.

Hiding information on the website is not a violation of Google ToS.
Making some information visible to Google while not allowing guests to see it *IS*.
but that's not what this mod does. This mod makes the information hidden until the user selects "show it"

[jaisi]

i wann to install this mod But i'am getting this error with this same error: Sources/Post.php test failed  test failed. my forum V 2.2 And default theme

[Kindred]

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Error_in_mod_installation