Is there a good spam filter available, or does all moderation and filtering have to be human?

[Doctor]

So as I mentioned in a different thread, my initial plan is to probably not go "full forum mode," but to start with a blog that allows comments first.

I'm considering either using Xenforo for that right away (https://xenforo.com/community/threads/blog-question-revisited-xenforo-as-blog.120909/), or starting with WordPress in a subdomain or folder (blog.example.com or example.com/blog) and adding Disqus for the comments. To tell you the truth, I do want to start with WordPress and try that option just to get my feet wet because I don't feel up to starting with Xenforo only now. If I began with WordPress that way, I would still want to install Xenforo later on the main Example.com domain and just have the WordPress content remain where it is in the subdomain or folder. From what I've read, Disqus has great spam filtering that makes human filtering almost unnecessary. Does Xenforo have anything like that or a genuinely effective plugin for that, or do you have to do all moderating and spam filtering manually with Xenforo?

 

[Doctor]

Connor Smith said it there - such a cute dog.

 

[Chris D]

I guess you have a choice whether to allow people to even post any links or videos, or have a signature?

Preventing users from posting links and posting images and videos hosted remotely isn't functionality built into XenForo and would indeed require an add-on.

for signature limited you can use this one https://xenforo.com/community/resources/freddyshouse-signature-once.179/

I just wanted to expand on these points, somewhat, with regards to some default functionality which may help.

Actually you can prevent users posting links, images and media quite easily using the Spam Phrases function. Spam Phrases allow you to specify a list of things that can be checked for when a user makes a post. This can be a simple string search or more advanced regular expressions. Only a user's first X number of posts (it defaults to 5) will be checked for these phrases. If any of the phrases are found, the post is put into moderation and you can use the Spam Cleaner to take care of the user in a couple of clicks. These spam checks also happen in other fields, too, such as signature.

With that in mind, it's fairly trivial to set up for images, links etc.

There is built in user group permissions to manage what a user can do with a signature, or even if they're allowed one. These cover things like the number of images allowed, the number of lines of text allowed, what types of BB code is allowed etc. I don't recommend using an add-on for this. You can also employ User Group Promotions so, for example, your newest users have no signature at all but you could promote older users or users with a certain number of posts to an additional user group which would allow them to have less restrictions on their signature etc.

With regards to adding advertising within the signature area (for example, allowing signatures but advertising in the space if one isn't set) yes, this is possible with a few template changes / conditionals or there may be an existing advertising template that covers this location.

So, all in all, you should be able to do exactly what you want without add-ons and with ultimately fairly little effort.

 

[Doctor]

I just wanted to expand on these points [...]

Thanks, Chris. This is all very interesting and encouraging. I've really been loving how XenForo works after discovering it only very recently. I used to post in VB forums a lot, and then I switched over to blogs for a long time and got almost completely out of touch with forums except occasionally one. Then just recently I learned about XF.

 

[Digital Doctor]

You could use XenPorta as Blog and Not really have much of a Forum.

That being said, Wordpress is a great blog.

 

[Doctor]

You could use XenPorta as Blog and Not really have much of a Forum.

That being said, Wordpress is a great blog.

Thanks, Digital Doctor, it does look interesting (https://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-2-portal-pro.3894/).