Mass-Pming Update:3.0.3 includes all the features speculated

[dsavi]

(tl;dr at the bottom)

 

I notice that normal users don't have the permissions to mass pm. (To send the same PM to more than one person at once.) I don't think that the max number of recipients should be unlimited but something like 3 per pm/per minute would be really useful, while limiting abuse. I have mass pmed once before here, it was really, really tiring. And now there's something I'd like to discuss with the 11 members of my shop on the Art Bazaar, and I don't want to send out that many one by one. Also, it's more like a thread that people can reply to so that everyone else can see than a one-on-one conversation that I have to update everyone else on every single time someone says something of importance or interest.

 

It would be nice to have it even higher (Like 5) but obviously that could be abused.

 

 

 

tl;dr: Only being able to send one pm at a time when you need to mass-pm is annoying.

 

 

 

Opinions?

[Hawks]

I had to do this once too, sent out like twenty though (one to everybody in the Falador Library) It was really annoying... And once you've added one person, it keeps the 'Add' button, so you presume you can add more, but you can't.

 

 

 

So yes a very good suggestion, maybe relate amount you're able to send at a time to your post count?

 

 

 

10-50: 1

 

51-100: 2

 

101-200: 3

 

201-300: 4

 

301-400: 5

 

But no higher than that probably.

 

 

 

Also reducing the flood limit on PMs would be helpful, as you said. 3 per min is a good baseline.

[pryomancer]

The main reason for this is so spambots don't join and send everyone a pm advertising their stuff.

 

 

 

Imagine the server trying to cope with that.

[Hawks]

Wouldn't limiting amount of PMs by post count work though?

[dsavi]

Now that I look it up, not without a mod. I thought you could put users in groups based on post count.

 

 

 

And there doesn't seem to be some way to only let a usergroup send X number of pms at once, it's either 1 at a time or as many as they feel like.

 

I thought I had seen an option for that sometime...

[das1330]

Yep, dasavi is right. Even the moderators (and administrators, as far as I know) are limited to one recipient per PM. I remember setting up some private forums here on tipit, and I had to send out 100+ invites. It was rather annoying. It seems like it would make sense to allow more, but as pryromancer said it would just encourage spambots.

[pryomancer]

If it were set so everyone could only send a maximum of 5 (maybe more) pm's every 5 minutes, that might work. Or do the post limit like hawkxs suggested.

 

 

 

I do agree it should be fixed.

[dsavi]

The problem is, you can't by default (I don't know what the admins have done to the forums) put people in usergroups based on postcount, not only that but by default if you can mass send pms, you can send it to whole usergroups (Like every admin or every mod) and there is no limit to how many people you can send it to.

 

I remember setting up some private forums here on tipit, and I had to send out 100+ invites. It was rather annoying. It seems like it would make sense to allow more, but as pryromancer said it would just encourage spambots.

 

100+... Ok, 10 is bad, but that's crazy...

 

 

 

EDIT: I found 1 mod that would help, I'm off to find the rest of the required mods.

 

Usergroups based on postcount

 

EDIT 2: I found another one that looks like it would work. Edit 3: Crap, it's only for phpbb2. -.-

 

Usergroup based dynamic pm limits

[____]

Give the author of the dynamic pm limits mod enough time and he might rewrite it for phpbb3. A lot of authors will do it with their mods as they're able to.

[D. V. Devnull]

Oh man... This reminds me of when I was asking about this a couple months ago, shortly after the rollback and recovery... :| ... I would greatly look forward to seeing minor 'Mass PM' capability around these rather nice forums. And, we could even have a very nice "Reply to All" button with it, if such can be set up! :thumbsup:

 

 

 

~Mr. D. V. Devnull

[Sam]

I think this would be rather helpful - paticularly for Art Bazaar shop owners that need to tell customers about finished work amongst other things.

[Hawks]

Didn't think about that... I think we really need this. ;) (Plus better smileys... meh)

[RSBDavid]

I wouldn't mine being able to PM 2 or 3 people at a time. Sharing issues with various people sending 1 pm instead of 3 is better, especially with 56k connection.

[Will H]

Of course, Mods and Admins should get an unlimited 'no penalty' version of this ability.

 

 

 

I think that a maximum of 8 is a good limit for this, 3 seems a bit small.

[D. V. Devnull]

I think that a maximum of 8 is a good limit for this, 3 seems a bit small.

Five sounded reasonable as an upper limit... Eight sounds like trying to push the limits, and could lead to spam troubles. :-k ... I know, I'm a regular doomsayer, but this really seems to catch me in an odd manner. :|

 

 

 

~D. V. Devnull

[dsavi]

Of course, Mods and Admins should get an unlimited 'no penalty' version of this ability.

 

They already do, the admins/super mods at least.

 

 

 

And 4 is about the maximum we can have if we want to prevent spammers, which, obviously, we do. Unfortunately there is no known usergroup based dynamic pm permissions for PHPBB3. Maybe if I request one on the PHPBB forums? TIF has quite a bit of leverage there.

[Will H]

I think that a maximum of 8 is a good limit for this, 3 seems a bit small.

Five sounded reasonable as an upper limit... Eight sounds like trying to push the limits, and could lead to spam troubles. :-k ... I know, I'm a regular doomsayer, but this really seems to catch me in an odd manner. :|

 

 

 

~D. V. Devnull

 

5 it is then. But we could try a higher number and reduce it gradually if spam starts happening.

[D. V. Devnull]

I think that a maximum of 8 is a good limit for this, 3 seems a bit small.

Five sounded reasonable as an upper limit... Eight sounds like trying to push the limits, and could lead to spam troubles. :-k ... I know, I'm a regular doomsayer, but this really seems to catch me in an odd manner. :|

5 it is then. But we could try a higher number and reduce it gradually if spam starts happening.

Now that, yes, we can try. I just hope the spam doesn't come. :ohnoes:

 

 

 

~D. V. Devnull

[dsavi]

Install a report PM feature (There are several mods on Phpbb.com) -> Problem not solved, but at least a big chunk taken out of the spam? I would hope so.

[dsavi]

So, phpBB3.0.3 was released yesterday, with all of the features I suggested adding. :shock:

 

 

 

You should see the amount of bugfixes:

 

[hide=Whoa]* [Fix] Correctly set topic starter if first post in topic removed (Bug #30575 - Patch by blueray2048)

 

* [Fix] Added VST - Venezuela Standard Time (Bug #30545).

 

* [Fix] Close DB connections in file.php.

 

* [Fix] Correctly return results for nested cached queries (Bug #31445 - Patch by faw).

 

* [Fix] Allow export of PM pages greater one. (#33155)

 

* [Fix] Display coloured username of last poster in list of subscribed forums (prosilver).

 

* [Fix] Do not jump back to page 1 when hiding member search in memberlist. (Bug #32515)

 

* [Fix] Correctly limit input of the users location to 100 characters in the UCP and ACP. (Bug #32655)

 

* [Fix] Sync reports when using the move all users posts tool in the ACP. (Bug #31165)

 

* [Fix] Remove reported flag from shadow topics when closing reports. (Bug #19765)

 

* [Fix] Do not show non indexed forums on the search page if they contain no subforums. (Bug #33125)

 

* [Fix] Stop search bots incrementing topic views. (Bug #32675 - Patch by eviL<3)

 

* [Fix] Use correct link for post author search. (Bug #32595)

 

* [Fix] Do not decrease topics counter when deleting shadow topics. (Bug #26495)

 

* [Fix] Send localised disapproval reasons in the recipients local language. (Bug #31645)

 

* [Fix] Do not display reported topic icon for shadow topics. (Bug #13970)

 

* [Fix] Expand shown ban reason in unban screen to fully show long entries. (Bug #16234)

 

* [Fix] Preserve alpha transparency for created thumbnails. (Bug #16575)

 

* [Fix] Use correct port delimiter for MSSQL connections in windows. (Bug #16615)

 

* [Fix] Do not allow setting forums parent to the forum itself. (Bug #18855)

 

* [Fix] Display assigned rank/avatar for guests. (Bug #19155)

 

* [Fix] Set secure cookie for style switcher if required. (Bug #19625)

 

* [Fix] Fix native full text search on postgresql while using excluding keyword matches. (Bug #19195)

 

* [Fix] Pass S_SEARCH_ACTION through append_sid() in search.php. (Bug #21585)

 

* [Fix] Correctly handle unread status of subforums (that are not shown on the index) of forums that are shown on the index. (Bug #14589)

 

* [Fix] Stop users from deleting posts after the edit time has passed or they have been locked. (Bug #19115)

 

* [Fix] Split posts target forum requires 'f_post' now instead of 'm_split'. (Bug #31015)

 

* [Fix] Use a distinct log message for shadow topic deletions to differentiate between normal topic deletions. (Bug #34635)

 

* [Fix] Fix problems with styles using an underscore within the filename. (Bug #34315)

 

* [Fix] Better return links when deleting topics through the MCP. (Bug #34655)

 

* [Fix] Add quoting support to PM history when composing a reply. (Bug #34285)

 

* [Fix] Use phpBB 3.1.x method for storing cached data to prevent PHP bug with our usage of var_export(). (Thanks to Techie-Micheal and HoL for pointing out possible problems)

 

* [Fix] Check users pm preferences for pm's sent to groups. (Bug #33245)

 

* [Fix] Do not allow password reminders if u_passchg permission is not given. (Bug #14806)

 

* [Fix] Implemented strict check for cached user permissions and existing ACL options. This fix makes sure cached permissions are valid, even if they got already cached.

 

* [Fix] Do not show link to user/group profiles if user has no permission to view the linked page and gets a denied message anyway. (Bug #15088)

 

* [Fix] Do not display last post link and sort display options for search engines. (Bug #15088)

 

* [Fix] Make sure users still get notifications if they set to only be notified by Jabber, but Jabber service disabled. (Bug #29715 - Patch by Paul)

 

* [Fix] Don't show forum subscription link on categories. (Bug #34895)

 

* [Fix] Display a message if no topics or forums are selected when unsubscribing. (Bug #34855)

 

* [Fix] Mark/unmark all links in UCP now select/unselect both subscribed topics and forums.

 

* [Fix] Increase board topic counter when splitting topics. (Bug #32125)

 

* [Fix] Display profile icons when viewing a topic, or PM when only the jabber icon is to be visible. (Bug #34755)

 

* [Fix] Do not send PMs with warnings if the user cannot read PMs or they are disabled. (Bug #30815)

 

* [Fix] Correctly convert Niels' Birthday MOD to the date format used in phpBB3. (Bug #32895)

 

* [Fix] Parse BBCode lists of type square, circle and disc. (Bug #35295)

 

* [Fix] Round the displayed percentages in polls. (Bug #32375)

 

* [Fix] Disable mass e-mail when e-mail is disabled. (Bug #27385)

 

* [Fix] Display coloured poster username of queued posts displayed on the front of the MCP.

 

* [Fix] Moderators can only see reports/queue/logs from forums they can actually read. (Bug #31085)

 

* [Fix] Correctly display topic when start parameter is equal to the number of posts.

 

* [Fix] Correctly display topic in MCP when start parameter is equal to or greater than the number of posts. (Bug #30525)

 

* [Change] No longer allow the direct use of MULTI_INSERT in sql_build_array. sql_multi_insert() must be used.

 

* [Change] Display warning in ACP if config.php file is left writable.

 

* [Change] More restrictive chmod to new files being created. (phpbb_chmod() function mostly by faw)

 

* [Change] Set headers to allow browsers to better cache attachments (Mylek pointed this out)

 

* [Change] Hide parameters if they equal the default in viewforum/viewtopic (Bug #31185)

 

* [Change] Various improvements to group listings (Bugs #32155, #32145, #32085, #26675, #26265)

 

* [Change] Set headers for IE 8 in file.php

 

* [Change] Do not count queued posts to user_posts.

 

* [Change] Allow setting birth year to current year.

 

* [Change] Do not use the topics posted table when performing an egosearch.

 

* [Change] Log the forum name that topics are moved into.

 

* [Change] Automatically add users/groups to the PM recipient list, if entered or selected.

 

* [Change] Reply to PM now includes all previous recipients and not only the original sender.

 

* [Change] Make topic selection for merge less confusing by removing unneeded controls. (Bug #21925)

 

* [Change] MCP topic view checkboxes now default to unchecked.

 

* [Change] Adjust language key "SPLIT_AFTER" to make the action clearer.

 

* [Change] Add links to the post and forum when viewing a report from the MCP. (Bugs #33795, #33805)

 

* [Change] Remove NUL-Bytes directly in request_var() for strings and within the custom DBAL sql_escape() functions (MSSQL, Firebird, Oracle) (reported by AdhostMikeSw)

 

* [Feature] Allow limited inheritance for template sets.

 

* [Feature] Allow hard disabling of the template editor.

 

* [Feature] Allow setting custom language path through $user->set_custom_lang_path(). $user->lang_path now also do not include the user language, but only the path.

 

* [Feature] Ability to define nullar/singular/plural language entries

 

* [Feature] Ability to mimic sprintf() calls with $user->lang() with the ability to correctly assign nullar/singular/plural language entries.

 

* [Feature] Added the possibility to force user posts put in queue if post count is lower than an admin defined value. Guest posting is not affected by this setting.

 

* [Feature] Added 'max_recipients' setting for private messages. This setting allows admins to define the maximum number of recipients per private message with a board-wide setting and a group-specific setting.

 

* [Feature] Added new permission setting for sending private messages to groups. Now there are two permissions to define sending private messages to multiple recipients and private messages to groups.

 

* [Feature] Allow specific connection to different server for jabber functionality by providing a valid JID as username. This also allows the use of talk.google.com as jabber server with gmail.com JIDs. (Bug #14989)

 

* [sec Precaution] Stricter validation of the HTTP_HOST header (Thanks to Techie-Micheal et al for pointing out possible issues in derived code)[/hide]

[Sam]

:shock: Nice. I would definetly limit it to 5 - anything higher is pushing the limits IMO.

[Ginger_Warrior]

To be perfectly blunt, wikis or webpages with comment boxes/sticky pads are must better for organising mass-participation than emails (PMs), since everyone can see all the information being transferred.

 

 

 

You can read that as this: I see no need for mass-PMing.

[dsavi]

The point with the pming is the private part. You can communicate in a forum format privately. Sometimes a chat just doesn't work.

[D. V. Devnull]

On that note, dsavi_x4, if a person is trying to organize their small "lead team", then Mass PM'ing is more appropriate as it allows communication between that small niche. Trying to do that in places that Ginger_Warrior mentioned is just downright unwieldy, because there are things that have to be talked over that the public should not see. :geek:

 

 

 

~Mr. "There is a reason for private multi-person stuff." Devnull

[Sam]

It's a good idea, but if it's only going to be used for The Gallery then there wouldn't be much point. It needs to have more uses than for Art.