Deny domain name in title of image

[lovedigit]

I am facing some spamming issues on my website. Basically the spammer is trying to upload 10-20 images daily with the title as a link to their website. Mostly, it is of a illegal drugs or enlargement pills. I have clean up this mess everyday. Sometimes it gets burried between the genuine images and hard to spot at the first glance as the image itself is not a violation.

I was wondering can we have a regex filter built into the script to remove domain name extension from the title? Maybe strip .com, .net, .org etc while uploading the image.

Or, we can simply ask the user to modify the title?

I will leave the community to decide if we can work out something similar.

 

[SirMoo]

Average user isn't going to need a regex filter, and it's likely just easier for you to edit your theme to filter it out if you're wanting to prevent domains.

 

[lovedigit]

So you're saying none of you are facing similar issue? and there shouldn't be minimal built-in spam filtration in place?
Wait till your website go below 100K global rank. You'll know what I am talking about.

It's ok. I will write my own regex filtration, no big deal. 😉

 

[SirMoo]

So you're saying none of you are facing similar issue? and there shouldn't be minimal built-in spam filtration in place?

You're trying to handle an issue the wrong way. You should take a ban-first approach and start knocking out IP blocks instead of trying to treat the symptoms.

Second, I don't use anonymous uploads. That's just ripe for spam. Nor do I feel a need to block websites. Though, I run WAY lower key websites targeting specific groups... Not 'anyone and everyone' upload sort.

 

[lovedigit]

Yes, I tried banning their IP range and clearing out their content. Banned all their accounts. But, they keep coming back. I don't think banning the IP is really a solution as anyone can use VPN to bypass these bans.

So, just because it isn't something for your niche image host, it shouldn't be included for the majority of a popular website that handles the large traffic who use it as a true public image host, what it is actually meant for? Once again, I am fine with this being not implemented, I can write these codes myself. Just wanted to raise these concerns for others who might face the similar issue and are not comfortable with coding like you and me.

 

[Rodolfo]

System won't convert those URLs into active links so there are no damage there. A regex filter won't get you out of trouble because this person can start to change the title/description in so many ways that you will end up in the same place + blacklisting IPs.

You will need to improve your moderation, disable guest uploads, block IPs, tweak flood protection, etc. If you want to add a filter, the best place to do it is at app/lib/classes/class.upload.php, search for this:

$this->source_name = G\get_filename_without_extension($this->type == "url" ? $this->source : $this->source["name"]);

Below that you can add your filter, just throw an exception if you want to halt all the upload process. You will need to use preg_match to check that source_name with regular expressions (use this website to test your regex rules)