Authorised posters only

[hazard]

This is an idea to weed out trolls and fakes. The discussion on Skype is to add authorisation of a buddy product key on the forum to allow a user to post. Here is a break down of the idea in bullet points.

• When registering to the forum a basic account will be created.
• A user then will need to unlock the account by entering a valid product key.
• A user can fully browse and view the forum but NOT post without validating their product key.
• A user can only post/reply to a topic if they have a valid product key.
• Users can still post in a support section for payment issues etc (As they will not have a key for validation.)
• A badge system should be used so other users can see what type of products are activated on the account.

There are only positive that can be seen from this type of required verification method.

• None genuine HB users will be unable to request support.
• Fake users that are just on the forum to troll will be unable to post.
• HB Team's time wasted dealing with troll/fake post will be cut significantly.

So what are other peoples views on this modification? Good, bad or just ugly...?

 

[EchoTiger]

Interesting idea but I'd think it would be better as an 'option' while making a thread instead of it being a global thing.
That way the thread creator could choose to allow for outside users or not.
As far as actual threads created purely for 'trolling', taking time to close them hasn't ever really been much of an issue.


With your suggestion being global: If a user is banned, then they'd have to buy a new key or request to have their existing key transferred which could cause complications in the background.

I guess saying "well if they've done something to get banned, then they don't deserve to be here anyways."
Which may be true, but that same user could be posting bug reports for "Generic Community Made Profile.xml"
Given that their only place-to-post would be the Support Section, we'd be getting bug reports for random profiles spammed into there along with other things.


But, this being a thread-'option' would be a really nice feature.

 

[TarasBulba]

I really like Hazard's idea. That would eliminate a lot of unnecessary support requests to the community developers as well as clearing the forums from 'unauthorized" users.

And when a used gets banned from the forums, they should be requesting ban removal instead of creating a new forum account.

As for the general product support forums, I believe it would be better to move them out of forums to a BuddyAuth connected support ticket management system which also should include up to date FAQ's for each product.

Actually, it would be even better to make the forums use BuddyAuth for authentication, but then the existing forum accounts needs to be matched to the BuddyAuth accounts, I'm assuming that won't be that easy.

 

[BotOperator]

Hazard I want this since I started here.
Bossland likes the idea of having a Community while I prefer a more closed customer system.
Your idea is great but also has security risks and handling problems.

1. Keys stored on the board always make it more attractive to hackers
2. What about people "selling" keys to others or "borrow" keys to others (in my opinion this should not be allowed at all but that's only my 2 cent)

I can imagine a solution like this:

Add extra hidden profile field to forum with a unique ID.
The ID reflects an account on another server (auth server containing keys).
Mods and admins get a way to check for valid IDs (active not banned keys).
Only users with active ID get access to specific areas and download section.

This way no keys are stored here and we get rid within one second of all the users having multiple logins to troll. I am pretty sure we also reduce the number of keys being sold privately or on other platforms.
Also users of illegal HB keys cannot see everything anymore or get support without have a valid legal key.

Running a community is fine for people not related to the company. As company I would never ever run an open platform but a more closed system allowing people to buy software and the ones who already did to get good support without
all the trolls, robots and guests passing by and leaving stupid comments.

Ask Bossland to give me free hand and I will change the board within days to reflect this
THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN I bet!

 

[roboto]

link a forum database and a database with sensitive customer information...
dont get me wrong but... /facepalm

just ugly

 

[hazard]

Ask Bossland to give me free hand and I will change the board within days to reflect this

Give the man the power to do the work and lets take a positive stand against trolls and none legit users.

 

[BotOperator]

link a forum database and a database with sensitive customer information...
dont get me wrong but... /facepalm

No there is no link needed. Just a number here which corresponds to a number on another not connected system.
We can check manually then things without the danger that this connection is a security issue

 

[roboto]

No there is no link needed. Just a number here which corresponds to a number on another not connected system.
We can check manually then things without the danger that this connection is a security issue

tbh i'd rather do it the other way around.

a) automated checks of user mails on forum db gainst customer emails on buddyauth with active licenses >0
a.1) autopromote to another group, publicly visible
e.g.: if customer, usergroup = Customer
if !customer, usergroup = New Member
(i'd guess this would match for ~95% of all customers)

 

[hazard]

tbh i'd rather do it the other way around.

a) automated checks of user mails on forum db gainst customer emails on buddyauth with active licenses >0
a.1) autopromote to another group, publicly visible
e.g.: if customer, usergroup = Customer
if !customer, usergroup = New Member
(i'd guess this would match for ~95% of all customers)

I love the way you just summed that up with Honorbuddy C# coding haha
But don't you mean:

if (StyxHBForum.Customer.UserGroup == StyxHBForum.MemberType.NewMember) return new;
return old;

 

[roboto]

I love the way you just summed that up with Honorbuddy C# coding haha

thats pseudo-code

 

[hazard]

There are just far to many trolls on the forum. Something needs to be done about this... PLEASE.

Example: The new official thread about re-enabling Arena, 50%+ is troll and rage posts?

 

[roboto]

interesting, where'd you get those numbers from?

 

[hazard]

interesting, where'd you get those numbers from?

I counted the posts that where trolls/rage, it was not hard