Enable/Disable - signatures shown to guests

[mrgtb]

How about adding the option in admin cp to either show members signatures to guest, or not. And it covering both signature shown in profile and in posts. I was going to suggest just having it for posts, but if it also works hiding it in profiles as well from guests, then that would help avoid spammers being less inclined to join the forum knowing guests cannot see any signature link they use if (enabled to be hidden from guests) in both areas.

A simple "Enable/Disable" guests being able to view signatures option. So at least those who prefer to still show signature links to guests have that option.

[Dragosvr92]

I agree with your suggestion.

The option should be a group permission.
Add a "Can see signatures" group permission under the "Can use signatures" permission. and that should be enough imo.
Guests cannot view member profiles by default, unless you allow them to. As long as they can see the signature in the viewtopic page, it wont matter if we can see it on their profile and it will just get messy to add both options.

[Pony99CA]

Or you could just prevent users from seeing any details about the poster (other than user name, avatar and maybe rank) if the Can view profiles, memberlist and online list permission isn't Yes. You might also change the name to Can view profile information, memberlist and online list.

Steve

[Senky]

+1 Really good idea.

[nickvergessen]

make it an extension?

[DavidIQ]

I'm not against the idea but if the point is to somehow deter SPAM then, based on the SPAM we get here on Area 51, this won't do anything in that regard. Signature spammers don't seem to be very commonplace.

[mrgtb]

Well it can also help with SEO in topics, as it reduces noise level if guests cannot see signatures (which would also cover search engines). So even if not used as an extra anti-spam measure "against signature spammers", it can still be used to try and improve forum seo by reducing nose level in topics and in profiles. I'm not sure if phpBB 3.1 uses "no follow" on signature links? If it doesn't then this can help with SEO to avoid losing page rank.

But more to the point, it doesn't change anything for those people not wanting to do this, if a switch is there to enable/disable. It's suits all users.

[Pony99CA]

First, forget about SEO. Who cares? And if you want to prevent search bots from seeing signatures, you'll need to set that for the Bots group, too (unless you deleted all of the pre-installed bots).

Second, if you want to prevent signature spam, you don't allow newly registered users to use signatures (using the Can use signature permission). But, as David said, spammers don't really care -- they're using shotguns, not scalpels.

Steve

[mrgtb]

First, forget about SEO. Who cares? And if you want to prevent search bots from seeing signatures, you'll need to set that for the Bots group, too (unless you deleted all of the pre-installed bots).

Second, if you want to prevent signature spam, you don't allow newly registered users to use signatures (using the Can use signature permission). But, as David said, spammers don't really care -- they're using shotguns, not scalpels.

Steve

Actually, I don't care about SEO. It overrated.