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Support #11908

closed

overeager spam filter

Added by Marilyn Weber about 5 years ago. Updated almost 4 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority name:
Normal
Assignee:
Category name:
Spam/Spam Prevention
Target version:
Start date:
2019-09-25
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Deployment actions:

Description

Rebecca Krisel writes
I just created the following blog (https://gcurbanstudies.commons.gc.cuny.edu) for one of my courses. Is there a way to completely turn off the Spam filter? I already went into Settings/Discussion and opted out of all the relevant settings - but, while students in the class can post short comments like "test! test! test!" when they try to post longer comments (which is what they are required to do for the course), their comment gets sent to Spam and I have to manually approve it. On our old blog not supported by the commons, this wasn't an issue. What can I do to stop this?


Related issues

Related to CUNY Academic Commons - Bug #11313: Overly aggressive spam filtersResolvedRaymond Hoh2019-04-11

Actions
Actions #1

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

  • Related to Bug #11313: Overly aggressive spam filters added
Actions #2

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

  • Assignee set to Raymond Hoh
  • Target version set to 1.15.11

It looks like this is probably a similar issue to #11313. Everything mentioned there (about how Akismet is a black box, etc) applies here. For that ticket, we introduced a flag that allows the Commons team to disable Akismet filtering for individual sites - I suppose we can do so in this case and see what happens. Ray, could I ask you to handle this?

Actions #3

Updated by Raymond Hoh about 5 years ago

  • Category name set to Spam/Spam Prevention

Boone, I did some more research into disabling Akismet and I've created a small plugin to allow Akismet to be disabled on sub-sites. The admin would need to activate the plugin though.

It wouldn't require a manually-curated flag like the previous solution in #11313.

The question is whether we should only enable this functionality if the sub-site has set up comments to only be allowed by logged-in users. If the site is public and allows anonymous comments, with Akismet disabled, a lot of spam comments could be submitted.

Actions #4

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

A plugin sounds good, though I'm unsure this is something we want to expose to users at all. We have a responsibility to protect the Commons from spam, or we'll get shut down by CUNY IT.

In the specific case described in this ticket, the commenters are not logged into the Commons. So your restriction wouldn't help in this particular case.

Given this, I'd say it's something we should be able to toggle as network admins, but not something we want site owners to be able to do.

Regarding logged-in users, though, I'd be willing to consider disabling Akismet checks by default for logged-in users.

Actions #5

Updated by Marilyn Weber about 5 years ago

I've advised Rebecca to ask the commenters to join the Commons and log in. She may even add them as authors to the site.

Actions #6

Updated by Raymond Hoh about 5 years ago

Boone Gorges wrote:

Regarding logged-in users, though, I'd be willing to consider disabling Akismet checks by default for logged-in users.

I've added a new plugin disable-akismet.php to handle disabling Akismet's checks:
https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/64baed880eaf1f078aeaf725aad36d95611ddca4

This plugin is automatically enabled on sites where logged-in users are the only ones allowed to comment. Also network administrators can enable the plugin on sites where we need to disable Akismet manually.

Boone, the code isn't merged into 1.15.x branch because I wanted to know what you think of the approach. Let me know what you think.

Note: We would need to enable this plugin manually on the bmccopenpedagogy and bmcccetls sites since those sites allow anonymous users to comment.

Actions #7

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Reporter Feedback

This is a really elegant solution - thanks, Ray.

Marilyn, can you confirm whether it's doable for Rebecca to require commenters to be logged in? If so, this problem should automatically be resolved after the next release. If not, but she'd like spam checking disabled anyway, I'll have to enable Ray's new plugin on her site after the release.

Actions #8

Updated by Marilyn Weber about 5 years ago

I had suggested that to her on September 27th, but she never let me know what she was doing. I'll follow up

Actions #9

Updated by Raymond Hoh about 5 years ago

Boone, I've added the disable-akismet.php plugin for 1.15.11:
https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac/commit/53243a88f4445047e3886d16764fb64a9d3a0606

I've also added a note to the ACTION_REQUIRED list because the plugin will need to be manually activated on the bmccopenpedagogy and bmcccetls sites as per #11313.

Actions #10

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

Excellent, thanks!

Actions #11

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.15.11 to 1.15.12
Actions #12

Updated by Boone Gorges about 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.15.12 to 1.15.13
Actions #13

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.15.13 to 1.15.14
Actions #14

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.15.14 to 1.16.1
Actions #15

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.1 to 1.16.2
Actions #16

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.2 to 1.16.3
Actions #17

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.3 to 1.16.4
Actions #18

Updated by Boone Gorges almost 5 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.4 to 1.16.5
Actions #19

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.5 to 1.16.6
Actions #20

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.6 to 1.16.7
Actions #21

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.7 to 1.16.8
Actions #22

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.8 to 1.16.9
Actions #23

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.9 to 1.16.10
Actions #24

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.10 to 1.16.11
Actions #25

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.11 to 1.16.12
Actions #26

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.12 to 1.16.13
Actions #27

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.13 to 1.16.14
Actions #28

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.14 to 1.16.15
Actions #29

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.16.15 to 1.17.0
Actions #30

Updated by Boone Gorges over 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.0 to 1.17.1
Actions #31

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.1 to 1.17.2
Actions #32

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.2 to 1.17.3
Actions #33

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.3 to 1.17.4
Actions #34

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.4 to 1.17.5
Actions #35

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.5 to 1.17.6
Actions #36

Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.17.6 to 1.17.7
Actions #37

Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 4 years ago

  • Status changed from Reporter Feedback to Resolved

Closing this one as it's tied to #11313, which I've also just closed.

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