I hope this is the right forum for this, if not...well i guess i'll get warned. We need to do something because the abuse of the IMG tags is getting ridiculous, its getting so you can't get on the forums anymore without worrying about some sort of foul.

What are the possible solutions?

Should they just be eliminated?

Can the Mod team tighten down w/o removing the tags?

I'd like some thoughts on the issue, and i'll add mine tomorrow.

I really am thinking that img tags are not worth it. I do not want to be afraid to brows the forums at work.

I'd leave them regardless of what happens. Turning image tags off means defeat. Anything and everything can be abused; it's just convenient and more effective using images.

Edit:

Also, don't know if its possible, but only allow people who have a certain amount of posts post images. I think it would only make sense since most abuse of images comes from newly registered nations with no post count.

But what about those who just started up an alliance? Or the people who only post here to make an announcement, with flags et cetera?

Tough luck really IMO, someone has to suffer and I'd prefer it to be the new members.

Edit: Either way, there will be people who will be upset regardless.

They can post a link. It's an acceptable loss. I say we make the limit one week of membership on the forum and 25 posts on the forum.

-Bama

I think making it so you can only post so many pictures per time period would be better.

I don't think there's a way to limit user accounts like that on IPB and even if we did spammers would just register a name a week early and then spam 25 quick posts to reach the image posting limit.

I don't see much of a problem with it right now.

There is at least one Mod on at a time, and they are good with taking that stuff off quickly.

The fact is, the internet is not "work safe", and people will find ways to abuse the system, no matter what the case may be. I would rather have a board with image tags than one without, even at the risk of an unappealing image. That's why we have moderators, to remove inappropriate posts and warn/ban the members who create them.

I'm not sure if it's possible to browse through the forums without this, but it is possible to disable images through your browser..

I have to agree with Katsumi here.

Its seems like the goal of all this NSFW spam may be to get the image tags removed in their entirety and in some way it would be caving to these people who don't care about the game or the community to remove them.

This is also very true. All people who are accessing the forums from work should have image tags disabled imo

Indeed. Instead of punishing all of us for the acts of some bad users, why don't you take the initiative yourself and block images when browsing at work?

Either that or you could actually get some work done. Is sitting around playing these geo-political nation sims gonna get that report in on Wednesday? No *whips*

http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=17186

My suggestion.
It may not stop the problem but the harder you make it for people the less likely they are to do it. also as stated in the suggestion it will stop the recent trend of impostors.

My name is Nick Saban, and I support this proposal.

-Bama

I like the idea, I'm just not sure if it's possible. Doing this manually would be hell, so it would have to be coded somehow...

It is possible to code it, and here's an idea:

Add a link under "My Account" in the main CN site named "Create fourm account"

On that page, a database query is run that will add an account with the user's ruler name as the login & display name.

Then disable user regestrations on the actual boards.

For browsing from work (or school, with kids etc.) I suggest to use Firefox with the extension ImgLikeOpera.

ImgLikeOpera:


I'd also recommend using the extensions: ProCon Latte: it filters/allows sites and/or words, can block the browser with a password; it's useful for people with kids.
BlockSite may be worth a try (I don't know it, it should block sites of your choice and disable links to them).

All of this would greatly improve your experience with the whole Internet, not only CyberNations.

If you don't have Administrative rights on your machine and Firefox isn't available, change/update your Administrator.

I like all the discussion and ideas going on here, because this is definetly an issue. In this month alone the forums have been hit 3 times that i know of. Its true the mods are amazing at taking it down and kudos to them for doing that, but its not something they should have to do. I have never seen a site get bombed with porn/gore/etc. as much and as frequently as these boards (in fact this is the only place i've ever seen it happen) and i really don't see a need for the img tags. I know we all like them and they're cool, but lets be honest, they add nothing to the gameplay. I want to display the super secksi flag of Obsidian w/e possible just like other alliances want to with their flags, but i shouldn't have to worry about wether i'm going to see a flag or some disturbing image that shouldn't even exist in the first place.

That said, i like the ideas about those browser additions, but not everyone has the luxury of using firefox. Not everyone can just go download it either, if they're younger members of the community they're probably using a family computer of some sort and often parents don't like them downloading things (they should have these filters in place already if its a family computer, but thats a different discussion).

I'll be real honest, the only real solution to the problem is the elimination of img tags altogether, as unpopular as that may be.

I would be concerned that blocking imagis via the browser would also kill Avys. This is not good.

I am for elimination of IMG tags, until a suitable solution can be found.

I'm for the blocking of [IMG] tags as a temp. solution, but in the long run, we can not have a bunch of immature 10 year old boys distroying the game's fun for us.

Does anybody know the method that google uses for safesearch? Maybe that can help?

With the solution I proposed you can allow/block the images you want. If you allow images originating from the site you browse you see by default all the uploaded avys; you can allow the other ones on a case by case basis, or display them (once) with a single click.
Actually, you don't "kill" anything.

i stated why that doesn't always work though because not everyone has the luxory of having said programs and or downloading them. Because the ultimate goal is to make the game fun for everyone, when you realize that a good chunk (most likely) would not be able to do this and would therefore be subjected to the porn/gore/etc. on the forums. Should they have to suffer simply because they are not allowed to download something?

Of course not. I was just replying to LS's concerns:

1. He is probably able to download and install everything.
2. If his concern is about people not seeing the avys, these people obviously already solved the problem you mention.

However, please also note that "my solution", though certainly not good for everyone and probably not "the" solution whole-CN-wise, is at the present moment one of the only ones we can rely on.
You may have noticed that the img tags are currently working and not filtering the porn/gore/etc.

Or are you suggesting that, since there's no solution that works for everybody, nobody should take any action to solve his/her particular problem, even if they would have the means to do so? [/irony]

I'm very naive about filtering (at least, server-side); I can use my imagination but I don't know if my ideas can be feasible.
However, after some thought about it, I ended up with this:
(Let's define "moderate" as the process of human-approving the content of an image/post, before it's displayed.)

1. Outlaw image file names that include numbers: every image file must have a meaningful name (this prevents the spam of jabba-001.jpg to jabba-999.jpg). (Edit: useless!)
2. Create a second level of moderators, with the only power of moderating posts. I'll call them "mods" (instead of "Mods"...)
3. Recruit a lot of volounteers for that position (don't let people apply, but go and ask them - like it's currently for the Mods).
4. Allow the mods to moderate the avatars.
5. Allow the mods to moderate the signatures, if they include images.
6. Allow the mods to moderate the posts, if they include images.
7. Intentional misuse of the moderating powers will end in being banned by the game/site.
8. Ideally, the Mods (as frequently as they can) should do an IP check over new posters that are using img tags.

All of this probably means too many headaches for the Mods, but maybe there's anyway something useful in these ideas...

you can't but there is a feature on the boards that you can use:

Admin CP -> Tools & Settings -> System Settings ->Topics, Posts and Polls -> URL Filtering options

You can then set up a whitelist of where images are allowed to be hosted from (say imageshack, photobucket, etc). If someone wants to use images from a specific site they can then apply (via a sticky in the moderation forum) to have a particular site added to the whitelist.

There is also a lacklist option which gives your users more freedom to post images but which allows you to pay that specific sites are not allowed and add sites which have offensive images to the blacklist.

Here are the options (copy pasted) from an admin cp of ipboard:












This is also possible to do and the IP.Board documentation actually provides an interface to do it with.

Admin CP -> Tools & Settings -> Log In Manager

Fill in the details of your external database and bang its done. Once thats set up then you can disable board registrations and then whenever someone creates an account in game they are able to login to the boards here using the same login data.

If you wish to code a solution you can use the following documentation to do it
http://www.invisionpower.com/files/ipb23docs.pdf
http://www.invisionpower.com/files/ipb23gsg.pdf
http://www.invisionpower.com/files/ipb23devdocs.pdf

A Third option is update the game code so it directly mimics the create user section of IP.Board and then when a nation is created it inserts the data for a user account into the database. This could also be set so that when someones ruler account gets deleted from the game their forum account here is moved to a group called No Nation/Left the Game so as to differentiate from the Banned user group here. The No Nation/Left the Game user group would have the same restrictions upon it as the Banned usergroup.

















You could download Firefox Portable (no install needed) which is a standalone version of firefox and can be run off of a usb key. Everything about it is identical to firefox except that it doesn't need to be installed.

Yes, that also (it may not work though, depending on the rights you have over the computer you are using. I know it for personal experience).
Here's a link I found via Google.

Ack. Another one.

Can we -please- have image tags removed until a solution is found?

If you remove the tags, then you accomplish what they want you to do: to make everyone as miserable as they are.

Just keep on deleting the threads until they tire.

Oh, please. Why would we be miserable without image tags? They are used to post flags in announcements. Everything else is frivolous.

As for a possible solution: Can user groups as a whole be restricted from using img tags?

If so, then perhaps 2 user groups, the newbie one, and the general member one. Newbie requiring a time commitment and a post count to "graduate".

It is very possible. And it would be a valued security addition to the game. All you'd need to do is to link the game DB with the forum DB.

The only problem with that is while the game and forum share the same domain name, they are not located on the same server. And thus any communication between the forum and the game would count as external bandwidth use.

So until the game and forum are hosted on the same server this solution is not viable. But why they are not on the same server is something that should be corrected IMO.

The RP factions use them allot.

E.g

Which is better.

I just torpedoed your cruiser.

or


After capturing several crew members of your cruiser we discovered this image, showing the last moments of the ship

ok, thats a bad example, but you get the idea.

I'll just throw it out there that I've been hearing about goatse'ing for like two weeks, yet last night was the first time I personally saw anything.
"Oh, damn, that's nasty" : ::close:: : End of story, really.
I know there are children, but everyone below 18 I've met in this game already shocks me, not the other way around.

I do think the lagtime of thirty-forty minutes on those two threads last night was pretty slow, though.

If this is possible, then this is the best solution. Also prevents a world of other issues.

yup very possible

see here: <a href="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?s...st&p=470851" target="_blank">http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?s...st&p=470851</a>

to save on bandwidth you could actually set up a database so that it clones another database,or even just a table from another database, x number of times a day. That way it only needs to be run say 3 times a day and all the forum accounts can be made. It means that people would need to wait for up to 8 hours before getting their forum account but i'm sure people can wait.

Best idea, so far, right up there with the linked DB for forum AND game. People without a nation should really not be able to post images, etc.

Another forum I use replaces the image with this:



if the image is above a certain size. I believe they use 800x600, but you can set it to anything. Perhaps anything bigger than the max size signature picture allowed gets tagged, and must be clicked on to be displayed. This way, if you're at work, you can ignore images posted by a questionable user, yet still see "important" images. In addition, users can select to ignore this feature and always show any img.

This is the internet. There are certain risks associated with perusing it. That said I think it would be quite simple to find a mod that allows users to turn off user-posted images. This gives users a choice without punishing those of us desensitised or unaffected by shock images for the sake of the sheltered few.

I would also like to comment that in general the moderator responce time on these things is incredible and that the shock image posting does not affect a vast majority of users.

Shock images can be put in avatars.

Naturally, but this is a lot less common.

It was not uncommon the last time we disabled image tags.

Oddly, throughout my CN career, I have never seen anything even questionable.

I am sure it is available at invisionize

also, it would be very easy to code in yourself

TBH I don't think spammers would go through that much trouble

The repeat offenders who often go to pretty sad lengths in attempt to mask their identities for even a mere 15-60 minutes of forum time until we catch the existence of the account (or a shorter amount of time if we don't catch the initial creation and they start posting with it a week or month later) are seemingly so obsessed it wouldn't stop them at all. When the picture spam comes in spurts it's usually one of those individuals throwing another one of their quarterly fits.

Firefox using the Adblock add-on is wonderful in that regard. If I remember playing with IE eons ago, I do believe there is a function to disable images, but I'm not sure if it's just a general all encompassing thing....

You can also disable images if you're known to browse at work. It's in the board settings in the control panel. It gives you the link instead of the image.

We'll let you know if/when we decide to change our policy on images. Thanks for another lucrative discussion and many valuable suggestions, we appreciate it.