Anti Troll

[gimmel]

I have some nasty (or perhaps only one with different names) trolls on my blog, so I’m trying to do a anti troll plugin. I’m not sure if this is possible with the existing hooks. It should work like this:

Each commenting user gets a unique id that is saved as cookie. Either the comment db table has to be extended to save this id (is that conform to Serendipity program rules…?) or a second table has to be created to save comment id and the associated unique id.
The backend (or admin frontend) comment list should contain „troll“ buttons for each comment. Pressing that button adds the unique id to a blacklist (another table) and the blacklisted user will never see a comment field anymore.

This should work perfectly as long the user allows cookies.

I can set the cookie in the frontend_saveComment hook, but I don’t know the id the comment is saved with. Is there a hook AFTER saving the comment where I can get the comment id? Is it possible to hide the comment field depending on the blacklist (without changing the template)?

It seems to be really easy to make a plugin like this. I’m only missing the right hooks.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

I wrote something like that called 'Stalkerbuster' which does something similar. Maybe it can give you a headstart.

I put it into CVS in the additional_plugins/alpha directory. You basically create a stalkerbuster.php file which contains all the uniqe ids of the visitor, and that blocks the person out.


HTH,
Garvin

[gimmel]

That sounds great! But I can’t reach the additional_plugins directory in your Berlios CVS.

[Timbalu]

thats why its here:
http://php-blog.cvs.sourceforge.net/vie ... l_plugins/

[gimmel]

Thanks a lot, Timbalu.

„Stalkerbuster“ does the same that my „AntiTroll“ plugin does now: generating unique ids and saving them in a cookie. It’s a nice workaround to attach the id to the notification mail, but I would like to have a list of all comments of a specific troll before I decide if I kick him. So I have to to add the unique ids to the comment table. But I don’t think this is possible with the given hooks.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

You need to use a seperate storage table; I think there shoud be sufficient hooks. Like you could use frontend_saveComment_finish after a comment is inserted, and then associate the cookie id with the commen id in a seperate DB table...?

Regards,
Garvin

[gimmel]

Wow, frontend_saveComment_finish sounds good and works perfect. Now I’m tracking the cookie to each comment. The rest seems to be easy.

Can you tell me where I can find those hooks like frontend_saveComment_finish? It’s not in your book, it’s not on the hook list. Since I know serendipity (and work on plugins) I’m missing a complete list of all hooks, their needed s9y version and most important their submitted and changable data.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Yes, I suppose it's a newer one. Maintaining the list of event hooks is a bit cumbersome; but you can grep for all of those, if you check for "serendipity_plugin_api::hook_event(" you should get a good list.

If you find hooks that are not on the s9y hooklist, I'll try to deliver them there - your help would be much appreciated.

Checking which s9y version they were introduced is of course much more time consuming

Regards,
Garvin

[gimmel]

There are 97 hooks! Incredible!
If someone wants a list, here it is. If I find the time, I will complete it with the submitted values of $addData.

backend_approvecomment
backend_auth
backend_cache_entries
backend_cache_purge
backend_category_addNew
backend_category_delete
backend_category_showForm
backend_category_update
backend_comments_top
backend_configure
backend_delete_entry
backend_deletecomment
backend_directory_create
backend_directory_createoptions
backend_directory_delete
backend_display
backend_entry_checkSave
backend_entry_iframe
backend_entry_presave
backend_entry_toolbar_body
backend_entry_toolbar_extended
backend_entry_updertEntry
backend_entryform
backend_entryform_smarty
backend_frontpage_display
backend_header
backend_http_request
backend_image_add
backend_image_addHotlink
backend_import_entry
backend_login
backend_login_page
backend_media_check
backend_media_delete
backend_media_makethumb
backend_media_path_exclude_directories
backend_media_rename
backend_pluginconfig_
backend_pluginlisting_header
backend_pluginlisting_header_upgrade
backend_plugins_event_header
backend_plugins_fetchlist
backend_plugins_fetchplugin
backend_plugins_new_instance
backend_plugins_sidebar_header
backend_preview
backend_publish
backend_save
backend_sendmail
backend_sidebar_admin
backend_sidebar_admin_appearance
backend_sidebar_entries
backend_sidebar_entries_event_display_
backend_sidebar_entries_event_display_profiles
backend_sidebar_entries_images
backend_templates_configuration_bottom
backend_templates_configuration_none
backend_templates_configuration_top
backend_templates_fetchtemplate
backend_thumbnail_filename_select
backend_trackback_check
backend_trackbacks
backend_updatecomment
backend_users_add
backend_users_delete
backend_users_edit
backend_view_comment
backend_wysiwyg
backend_wysiwyg_finish
backend_wysiwyg_nuggets
entry_display
entry_groupdata
external_plugin
fetch_images_sql
fetchcomments
frontend_calendar
frontend_configure
frontend_display
frontend_display:html:per_entry
frontend_display:rss-1.0:once
frontend_entries_rss
frontend_entryproperties
frontend_entryproperties_query
frontend_fetchentries
frontend_fetchentry
frontend_generate_plugins
frontend_media_showitem
frontend_media_showitem_init
frontend_rss
frontend_saveComment
frontend_saveComment_finish
frontend_sidebar_plugins
frontend_xmlrpc
genpage
media_getproperties_cached
media_showproperties
quicksearch_plugin

[gimmel]

Thanks so far for some very good help. The antiTroll plugin grows…

1. Is there a way to add elements to the backend comment list?
I would like to add the cookie user token. I see that the spam plugin modifies the entries (author, email, etc.), but does not add more entries.

2. I would like to give the troll comments the status "troll". That way they would not be listed in the frontend, but are kept in the backend to see what blabla a troll has written before. Are there any problems with using a new status value?

3. Is it possible to remove the comment form for recognized trolls? I could generate a 404 like StalkerBuster, but I think it would be cool to simply take away the possibility of commenting.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

1: You can add to $eventData['action_more'] in the 'backend_view_comment' event hook! Check include/admin/comments.inc.php to see where it gets outputted.

2: I believe you might get problems in displaying comments, because usually 'pending', 'approved' etc. are hardoced values. But I'd simply try it out, I don'T think something really bad should happen due to that

3: All blocks in the smarty output are variables; so I think if you replace $COMMENTFORM with an empty string in the frontend_footer event hook, this might work. But I'm too short on time to try this out right now


Regards,
Garvin

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Even better, I think if you use the frontend_display hook and check on troll status, you could simply fake the entry to be "comments closed"...?! ($eventData['allow_comments'] I believe)

Regards,
Garvin

[gimmel]

Hi Garvin,
thanks for the tips!

The frontend_footer hook does not give access to $COMMENTFORM but in frontend_display.
So this both works in frontend_display:
Hide the comment form
$serendipity['smarty']->assign(array('COMMENTFORM'=>''));
Block comments
$eventData['allow_comments'] = 'false';

But, much better: Let the trolls type until their finger are bloody and than show an error after sending the comment.
Block comments AFTER sending
In frontend_saveComment: $eventData['allow_comments'] = 'false';

(I hate trolls apparently…)

[gimmel]

The antitroll plugin is nearly final. I’ve included some functions to have fun with trolls… You can redirect them to appropriate places like here or here.
If someone wants to test it: you can download it here.

I only have one little problem: deleting the commentform with $serendipity['smarty']->assign(array('COMMENTFORM'=>'')) works as expected on my MAMP sandbox. Unfortunately it does NOT work on my live blog. Perhaps because there’s 1.5.2 an my live blog and 1.5.5 in my sandbox?

[gimmel]

Thats’s weird: I installed 1.5.5 on my live blog, too. But I still can’t delete the COMMENTFORM variable. Do you have an idea why this behaviour is different between sandbox and live blog, Garvin?