Unregistered people sending spam e-mail (Features)

by davwat, Saturday, June 19, 2010, 09:23 (5032 days ago)
edited by davwat, Saturday, June 19, 2010, 09:47

Unregistered people can send an e-mail using the forums contact form to any of the registered users who have chosen in their profile settings "E-mail address contactable".

I am getting a number of spam e-mails being sent to registered users from unregisterd people by using the forums contact form. Even though I have Captcha enabled it does not prevent unregistered users manually sending these spam e-mails.

For obvious reasons, most forums are now set up that only registered users who are logged in can post a message. I consider that that a forum administrator should also have the same option available in the forums settings so that if they wish, e-mails can only be sent to users by the contact form by people who are registered and are logged in.

Have a Good Day!
David Watkins

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Unregistered people sending spam e-mail

by Auge ⌂, Saturday, June 19, 2010, 11:45 (5031 days ago) @ davwat

Hello

Unregistered people can send an e-mail using the forums contact form to any of the registered users who have chosen in their profile settings "E-mail address contactable".

As first: If the user wishes to be reachable, he should be.

The problem is, to sort out spam emails before transmission or to detect a potential spammer by the script.

I consider that that a forum administrator should also have the same option available in the forums settings so that if they wish, e-mails can only be sent to users by the contact form by people who are registered and are logged in.

In some moments it has to be possible to contact a forum admin without registering as an user (a necessity in the European Union). That can be i.e. for a legal reason. Thatswhy it is IMHO not a good idea to protect the admin against emails from unregistered visitors of the forum (independent from the "status" as a spammer or not).

Tschö, Auge

--
Trenne niemals Müll, denn er hat nur eine Silbe!

Unregistered people sending spam e-mail

by davwat, Sunday, June 20, 2010, 05:49 (5031 days ago) @ Auge
edited by davwat, Sunday, June 20, 2010, 06:13

Auge

Thanks for your reply and comments.

Maybe, I did not explain my point correctly, my intention is not to protect the admin from receiving emails. I agree there should always be a contact form or similar available so people can easily contact the website admin.

What I am concerned about is that registered users are advising me that that they are receiving spam email which is being sent from the forum, they know the email is generated from the forum as each email they receive states so.

Users then ask me what I am doing to prevent them receiving the spam emails. All I can do is to reply and tell them I can't do anything. They can of course change their settings so their email address is not contactable but they do not want to do this as they still want other registered users to be able to contact them.

In checking on many other forums to see how this situation is handled, I have clicked on email icons or similar and every time I am advised that I must be a registered user to send an email. I have yet to find a forum where I am able to send an email to a user without being registered.

I have a contact form on my websites for people to contact me which is not part of the forum. I notice Alex has the same on this website and I imagine you have also on your website. I do not see it as the responsibility of the author of the forum software to make a contact form as part of the forum so people can contact the admin of the website but it is the responsibility of the webmaster to have a link to a contact form on their home page at least.

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Unregistered people sending spam e-mail

by Auge ⌂, Sunday, June 20, 2010, 12:20 (5030 days ago) @ davwat

Hello

What I am concerned about is that registered users are advising me that that they are receiving spam email which is being sent from the forum, they know the email is generated from the forum as each email they receive states so.

Users then ask me what I am doing to prevent them receiving the spam emails. All I can do is to reply and tell them I can't do anything. They can of course change their settings so their email address is not contactable but they do not want to do this as they still want other registered users to be able to contact them.

Ok, I state that I misunderstood your posting.

In checking on many other forums to see how this situation is handled, I have clicked on email icons or similar and every time I am advised that I must be a registered user to send an email. I have yet to find a forum where I am able to send an email to a user without being registered.

Yes, most of the forum scripts makes it possible to send emails only from and to registered users (if this is wished).

I have a contact form on my websites for people to contact me which is not part of the forum. I notice Alex has the same on this website and I imagine you have also on your website.

I have a contact form too on my site. :-)

But im my opinion the forum should have a separate form to contact the admin. In some cases the forum is the only content of the site and then you'll need this form. For the registered users of the forum is it reasonable to get emails only from other registered users if the forum is only open for registered users.

So it is required to take away the link to send an email to a user for non registered users (if it is wished by the user or the admin). It is also required to check the state of a potential poster (email sender) in the form script.

Tschö, Auge

--
Trenne niemals Müll, denn er hat nur eine Silbe!

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Unregistered people sending spam e-mail

by Alex ⌂, Monday, June 21, 2010, 10:13 (5029 days ago) @ davwat

Hi David,

you're right, there should be a choice like this:

[ ] contactable for all users
[ ] conactable for registered users only
[ ] not contactable

But I'm afraid this has to wait for the next major branch (2.3) as it would cause changes in many files (script files, templates and language files). By then users who want to be contactable by registered users only could insert their email addres in the profile field. This is only visible by other registered users.

Alex

What will you have as the default value

by davwat, Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 01:50 (5028 days ago) @ Alex
edited by davwat, Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 02:44

[ ] contactable for all users
[ ] conactable for registered users only
[ ] not contactable

By then users who want to be contactable by registered users only could insert their email addres in the profile field. This is only visible by other registered users.


Alex

I'm a little confused, does that mean that if a user wanted to use the "conactable for registered users only" option that he/she would have to type their email address in the profile field?

Could you please advise me of which one of the 3 options you intend to make as the default value?

I consider it would be best to have "conactable for registered users only" as the default value and if they wished to be "contactable for all users" or "not contactable" they would check the appropriate box.

I think the majority of users would choose "conactable for registered users only" and would expect that option to be already set for them. Many never go to their profile section to look and see what options are available for them, especially those of the more mature aged group which many are on our forum.

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