XF 2.1 Prevent Guests from posting links?

[RallyFan]

Hi there,

With a strong focus on mental health (as it's a battle I've faced myself), I want to open up a subforum on my forum where anyone can anoymously create threads as a guest (and without approval required), if they ever feel the need to talk to someone. Sometimes we don't want to seek help, we just want to speak to a stranger.

The concern I have however is I don't want to be blasted by spam bots, SEO clowns trying to score a free ride, malicious trolls, or banned users blasting porn links as a guest. As such I'd like to be able to block links from being posted by Guests.

IMAGES: I've already figured out I can block images being dropped via permissions.
VIDEOS: I'm not too worried as they can only embed from Youtube, etc.

But links has me scratching my head.

I found this add-on: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xtr-hide-links-and-codes.7070/ but I'm trying to keep add-ons to a minimum by only using what I need.

Is there a way to do this natively in Xenforo?

 

[ehd]

XF 2.1 - Moderate member links

Is it possible to hold posts or threads by new members in moderation if they contain one or more links? If so, how would I set this up? Basically, I'd like to prevent people from signing up to spam our site.

xenforo.com

 

[RallyFan]

XF 2.1 - Moderate member links

Is it possible to hold posts or threads by new members in moderation if they contain one or more links? If so, how would I set this up? Basically, I'd like to prevent people from signing up to spam our site.

xenforo.com

Thanks but correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that apply to all users, or recently registered users? I'm looking to have it only work for guests.

Once users are logged in with an account they'll need to be able to post links without restrictions.

 

[djbaxter]

Thanks but correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that apply to all users, or recently registered users? I'm looking to have it only work for guests.

Once users are logged in with an account they'll need to be able to post links without restrictions.

Actually that for that addon to kick in the individual would have to be logged in as a member so it's kind of the opposite of what you want.

Without an addon specifically to do what you ask, the only thing I can think of would be to

• Set Submit content without approval = No for Guests and moderate all posts in that forum/node; and/or
• For that forum/node, under Navigation section, set both of these to Yes / Checked
  • Moderate new threads posted in this forum
  • Moderate replies posted in this forum

 

[RallyFan]

Thanks DJBaxter.

Sounds like my best option may be that addon I found. At least that will make it pointless for spammers and those causing trouble via links (just need to test if they appear for regular users on the backend).

Ideally I want to keep that subforum as "an open door", so not have to rely on approving replies and posts.

That way if people just need someone to talk to (and they dont want to hit social media, or a help line forum), they can just drop a line there and anyone online can interact with them.

 

[djbaxter]

Thanks DJBaxter.

Sounds like my best option may be that addon I found. At least that will make it pointless for spammers and those causing trouble via links (just need to test if they appear for regular users on the backend).

But that won't work unless the poster is a logged in member, correct? So it won't apply to guests or anonymous posters in your "guest open" forum/node.