Topic: User Kill Files

I would love to see a feature included which allowed users to automatically ignore all postings from other users....basically the equivalent of a 'Kill File' found in USENET newsreaders.

Re: User Kill Files

Nope, PunBB does not have such a feature.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Re: User Kill Files

Any chance you would include such a feature in a future version?

Re: User Kill Files

Now that I read your first post again, I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean ignore posts from a specific user? You said "other users".

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

5

Re: User Kill Files

Like in vBulletin (sorry i keep refering to this Rick) theres a feature like if i got annoyed with my sisters posts i can add here to my ignore list then when i read a thread that has here post(s) in, it changes the text to something like

This author of this post is on your Ignore List. Click Here to view post.

---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------
---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------

Re: User Kill Files

Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm not sure. This is the first time the feature has been requested.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Re: User Kill Files

That's kind of... extreme, isn't it?

Re: User Kill Files

Yes, Dale has the right idea for the feature I am requesting. It is a very useful feature because I would rather have users deal with the problem of troublesome users who are only interested in fighting rather then participating then be forced to remove the account of the troublesome user.

I might go a step further then vBulletin and simply not present the posting at all...not even allow a person to view a post from some they ignored until that person had been removed from their ignore list. Basically, the only way to then see comments from a person on your ignore list would be if someone not on your ignore list quoted them.

This kind of feature has been in every good USENET newsreaders since, well, near the beginning of time and I, quite simply, believe it is a required one.

9

Re: User Kill Files

I agree with tekenen about this:

tekenen wrote:

This kind of feature has been in every good USENET newsreaders since, well, near the beginning of time and I, quite simply, believe it is a required one.

... it is required as i know many people would like it.

---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------
---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------

10

Re: User Kill Files

First, if you have killed somebody's posts but you can still see the replies to those posts won't if get a little confusing.

Second, if somebody replies quoting the post you have killed do you still see the quote or does the quote get killed as well.

Third, if you have a long list of killed posters won't the resulting db query get rather long and, consequently, slow.

Not saying it's not a good idea but it does need some thinking about.

Re: User Kill Files

I'm not saying PunBB won't have this feature, I just want you to see it from my point of view. Whenever someone requests a feature, that particular feature is something they really want PunBB to have. Some will even go to such lengths as to call it a "required" feature. My job in this is to try to determine what features I should implement and what features I should leave out. That task is turning out to be much more difficult than what I had expected. I don't want to let you guys down by not fulfulling your requests, but I must also prevent PunBB from becoming the next vBulletin. Some might say: - But it's just one simple feature? Yes, but what happens when I implement 100 simple features?

This feature for instance. When I first saw the topic, I ran a query (SELECT COUNT(userid) FROM user WHERE ignorelist != '') against the forum database at http://forum.sweclockers.com/ where I "work", and it turns out only 25 users out of 34079 has someone on their ignore list. What this tells me is that the feature is hardly ever used and a feature that is hardly ever used and is nothing more than a "comfort feature" shouldn't be in PunBB.

If anyone can show me a forum where it is frequently used, I might change my mind.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Re: User Kill Files

Paul wrote:

First, if you have killed somebody's posts but you can still see the replies to those posts won't if get a little confusing.

Again, I can only mention that this feature has been a part of every good USENET newsreader since people first started writing them. It has worked extremely well and is widely used. Basically, I believe the reason why it works well is that one is unlikely to be interested in every sub-thread that a person on the ignore list is posting to.

Paul wrote:

Second, if somebody replies quoting the post you have killed do you still see the quote or does the quote get killed as well.

No, like with USENET, the quote remains.

Paul wrote:

Third, if you have a long list of killed posters won't the resulting db query get rather long and, consequently, slow.

Always possible, but in my 15+ years of using USENET, I have only ever 'kill filed' a small number of people. I would guess that my experience is not an uncommon one.

13

Re: User Kill Files

I would have thought that a post vetting/approval system which has been requested particularly by people wanting to use PunBB in a business invironment would be higher up the list of priorities. Particularly as such a system eliminates spam problems and also some of the problems that would be addressed by a kill list.

14

Re: User Kill Files

Most forums allow only 15 people or soemthing like that maximum on the Ignore List.

---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------
---------> PLEASE REMEMBER I GOT THE FIRST EVER POST OF PUNBB 1.1! <---------

Re: User Kill Files

Rickard wrote:

If anyone can show me a forum where it is frequently used, I might change my mind.

USENET would be such a forum. I cannot imagine any USENET reader that would become popular which didn't have it. You could probably post a message to one of the USENET newuser groups and get more opinions on how popular a feature it is.

Unforunately, I am not aware of any other web-based forum that has such a feature. However, I do know that phpBB2 is planning to add it in their next release and I cannot recall which one it is at the moment, but there is another one as well who is planning to add the feature in its next release.

Re: User Kill Files

Paul wrote:

I would have thought that a post vetting/approval system which has been requested particularly by people wanting to use PunBB in a business invironment would be higher up the list of priorities.

Yes, but I would like to use it in HOA community where anyone living in that community could have an account. You get all types in such a situation and I would imagine that eventually one or two people would be in most everyone's kill file as there can be very little incentive to remain friendly.

Looking at the usage in a work related environment, where there is a strong incentive to remain friendly, would not, in my opinion, constitute a valid statistical sample.

Re: User Kill Files

Paul wrote:

Third, if you have a long list of killed posters won't the resulting db query get rather long and, consequently, slow.

I don't think the lenght of the queries will be an issue. The implementation itself is much more problematic. The way it's done in vBulletin is very ugly.

tekenen wrote:

USENET would be such a forum. I cannot imagine any USENET reader that would become popular which didn't have it. You could probably post a message to one of the USENET newuser groups and get more opinions on how popular a feature it is.

Yes, I'm sure it's widely used on USENET. However, we're talking about web-based discussion boards here. I was asking if someone know of a vBulletin forum in which the feature was used frequently.

tekenen wrote:

Unforunately, I am not aware of any other web-based forum that has such a feature. However, I do know that phpBB2 is planning to add it in their next release and I cannot recall which one it is at the moment, but there is another one as well who is planning to add the feature in its next release.

vBulletin has had the feature for quite some time. However, it appears the feature is rarely used if one of Swedens largest forums can be used as a benchmark.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

18

Re: User Kill Files

I don't think this feature should be in - it's not really in the spirit of PunBB.

I can see why some people wouldn't want it, but I can't see it being essential. If you don't want to read someone's post, just ignore it.

I know lots of you are asking for vBulletin features, which begs the question, why not use vBulletin? It's just that Pun is fast and clean for precisely the reason that it isn't feature rich. You can't have it all :(

Re: User Kill Files

Rickard wrote:

vBulletin has had the feature for quite some time. However, it appears the feature is rarely used if one of Swedens largest forums can be used as a benchmark.

I don't think forum.sweclockers.com can be used as a benchmark, Sweclockers has an extremely effective group of moderators who takes care of most troublemakers.
This feature is useful for forums where moderation is low or non-existent (like most usenet groups).

The question is: Is PunBB intented for unmoderated forums and if it is, is kill-files essential in unmoderated web-based forums?