Any way to block a specific group from using the shoutbox?

[Halabalu]

Hi once again, I have blocked a specific group from posting anywhere on my forum except in a certain category made for "Advertisers". Is there a way to stop them posting in the shoutbox? I really want to use the shoutbox for quick messaging but am loathe to allow "Advertisers" to shout out their trade.

Help is much appreciated.
My Forum

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 11:54:33 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

Hi once again, I have blocked a specific group from posting anywhere on my forum except in a certain category made for "Advertisers". Is there a way to stop them posting in the shoutbox? I really want to use the shoutbox for quick messaging but am loathe to allow "Advertisers" to shout out their trade.

Help is much appreciated.
My Forum

Is your "advertisers" category for guests, or do they have to join to post an ad?

If they're just guests, you can just set the shoutbox to members only. (Allow Guest Shouts > No)

If your advertisers are members, you could hide the messaging portion with a template change. Happy to walk you through that.

[Halabalu]

Lately, I have been bombarded with these people advertising their trade on my forum. I did think about banning them but that takes too much time, then thought I could possibly dissuade them from joining in the first place by making all new members be put into a specific group at joining.

My forum is "low turnover" concerning genuine subscribers so I have been trying this option and it seems to be working. Apparently, they don't like the option I have allocated to them and have not bugged me in a while. Now, I want to use the shoutbox, I am loathe to give them access to the shoutbox system to ply their trade.

All Guest access is limited to viewing status only.

Hope this helps.

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 12:50:24 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

Lately, I have been bombarded with these people advertising their trade on my forum. I did think about banning them but that takes too much time, then thought I could possibly dissuade them from joining in the first place by making all new members be put into a specific group at joining.

My forum is "low turnover" concerning genuine subscribers so I have been trying this option to auto place new members in a restricted group and it seems to be working. Apparently, they don't like the option I have allocated to them and have not bugged me in a while. Now, I want to use the shoutbox, I am loathe to give them access to the shoutbox system to ply their trade.

All Guest access is limited to viewing status only.

Hope this helps.

Got it, so the issue wasn't just random spamming, but rather people joining the forum for the purpose of spamming.

You can limit the ability to reply to the shoutbox by making a small template modification to hide the reply / send bit and effectively making it read-only; normally, I warn that template changes will not impact mobile users, but in this case that's not a hindrance as the shoutbox does not appear on mobile either, meaning it can only be used by a desktop user or someone in desktop view which will mean that the template change is in effect.

Go to admin > structure > layout templates. If you have multiple themes, you'll need to do this for each of them and you can switch between them with the dropdown theme selector on the top left of this page.

Find the layout template that says "Shoutbox" and click on this. You'll see some HTML and $[variables] on the subsequent page. Scroll down and find the following line, which should be around line 30 (the line numbers are to the left of the text box)

$[refresh_button]Click into the text box, and create a new line BELOW this that looks like this:
{if $[current_user.group.name] != "Advertiser"}
Then, find the text that says the following (should now be around line 35) :

$[cancel_button]
Create another new line under this, and add:
{/if}
And save your changes. You won't see anything on your end change, but the above template modification basically says that if the current user (ie: anyone who is using the forum) is not in the "Advertiser" group, they can see the reply options. Anyone who IS in that group sees nothing except the refresh button and the messages posted by others.

---

Edited conditional on 03 Nov 2023 to reflect change mentioned later in this thread.

[Halabalu]

Going to do this now Kami 😁

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 13:08:58 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

Going to do this now Kami 😁

Let me know how you get on. You won't see anything on your main account, but if you create a secondary account to test and it automatically gets assigned the Advertiser group, you can check the shoutbox just to confirm the posting options have disappeared.

[Halabalu]

<div class="$[shoutbox_class] container full">
<div class="title-bar"><h2>Shoutbox</h2></div>
<div class="content">
{if $[welcome_message]}
<div class="pad-all-double content-box shoutbox_welcome_message">
$[welcome_message]
</div>
{/if}
<div class="shoutbox_container orientation-$[reply_box_position] {if !$[can.post]}no-post{/if}">
<div class="$[shoutbox_posts_class]" style="height: $[height];" aria-live="polite">
{if $[shoutbox_posts]}
$[shoutbox_posts]
{else}
<b>There are no posts here.{if $[can.post]} Start the conversation {if $[reply_box_position] == 'bottom'}below{else}above{/if}.{/if}</b>
{/if}
</div>
{if $[can.post]}
<div class="shoutbox_form_container">
$[shoutbox_form.header]
<div class="shoutbox_name">
{if $[shoutbox_form.guest_name.input]}
Shout as: $[shoutbox_form.guest_name.input]
{else}
Shouting as: $[current_user]
{/if}
</div>
<div class="shoutbox_form content-box">
$[shoutbox_error]
$[refresh_button]
                           {if $[current_user.group_name] != "Advertiser"}
$[reply_box_buttons]
$[shoutbox_form.message.input]
$[message_character_count]
$[post_button]
$[cancel_button]
                           {/if}
</div>
$[shoutbox_form.footer]
</div>
{/if}
</div>
</div>
</div>

If this is the correct placement, then unfortunately it didn't work, any ideas Kami?

[Halabalu]

Sorry for the formatting, I used the code button but it looks funny lol

Let me know how you get on. You won't see anything on your main account, but if you create a secondary account to test and it automatically gets assigned the Advertiser group, you can check the shoutbox just to confirm the posting options have disappeared.

Is what you're saying that only those who join after I entered the code will not be able to use the shoutbox?

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 13:27:58 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

Sorry for the formatting, I used the code button but it looks funny lol

Let me know how you get on. You won't see anything on your main account, but if you create a secondary account to test and it automatically gets assigned the Advertiser group, you can check the shoutbox just to confirm the posting options have disappeared.

Is what you're saying that only those who join after I entered the code will not be able to use the shoutbox?

When you say it's "not working", are you viewing it on your personal account?

If so, as I mentioned, you won't actually see any difference. To explain, the instructions I provided you are actually "instructions" to the coding. If I were to write it in a sentence, it would look like this:

If the current user looking at the forum is not a member of the "Advertiser" group, they can see the chat text box and buttons.

In other words, if the account you're on is NOT in the "Advertiser" group, it's going to look normal for you.

The reason I suggested creating a new account is because you mentioned that new registrations are automatically sorted as Advertisers. It would be an easy way to see what anyone in the "Advertiser" group sees, irrespective of when they joined.

Does this make sense?

[Halabalu]

I have done everything you said to do and created a test acc to test with, and if you come to my forum you will see "Test acc is able to post in shoutbox. my-blog2020.freeforums.net/

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 14:18:14 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

I have done everything you said to do and created a test acc to test with, and if you come to my forum you will see "Test acc is able to post in shoutbox. my-blog2020.freeforums.net/

I can't see the profile of the test account, but are you certain that it is in the correct member group?

If it is, let me know, and I'll dig a bit deeper. If this is necessary, I will likely wind up making a test account on your forum (you'll know it's me, the name will be "kamitest"). 

[Halabalu]

I can give you access to the test account if you wish, but yes, it is in the Advertiser group. ok that's a good idea too lol

[Kami]

Nov 2, 2023 14:25:16 GMT -8 Halabalu said:

I can give you access to the test account if you wish, but yes, it is in the Advertiser group. ok that's a good idea too lol

Sharing accounts is against the PB TOS, even for the purpose of testing. I appreciate it, but I really discourage you from offering this at any point in time to anyone, no matter how much you trust them.

Turns out the issue is me.

Change $[current_user.group_name] to $[current_user.group.name] and see if that doesn't fix the issue.

[Halabalu]

ok, I'm going there now

[Halabalu]

WOOHOO...! That change worked like a charm. You are probably right but you wouldn't have been able to do much being limited to one category.

Thanks heaps Kami for all your help. 👍