Links in forum posts

[440bx]

Hello,

It is somewhat common to refer to another post in a post by using a link.

I just noticed that links have ht tps: replaced with **s: which effectively disables the link (going directly to the address by clicking on it.)  Had to put a space between ht and tps for it to show! (otherwise it would have shown **s for it.)

I'm wondering if the replacement of ht tps: with **s: is a new forum policy or is it caused by something else ?

Has anyone else noticed this ?

[TRon]

Noticed it as well. Seems to have started from yesterday (or perhaps day before)

It is very noticeable on the signatures that some people use as some refer to their github/gitlab/project page (eg. dbannon, KodeZwerg to name a few easy examples).

Must have been done on purpose although I do not know the reason (e.g. not an automatic update).

[Thaddy]

ping the sysop. It may be a case of a software update that needs fixing. Something like this has happened before.

[marcov]

It is known and only a temporary measure for a couple of days while we fend off a spam attack.

[440bx]

It is known and only a temporary measure for a couple of days while we fend off a spam attack.

good to know.

Will the links that have been modified to **s be changed back to what they were ? (once the current situation is taken care of, of course)

[marcov]

It is known and only a temporary measure for a couple of days while we fend off a spam attack.

good to know.

Will the links that have been modified to **s be changed back to what they were ? (once the current situation is taken care of, of course)

I assume not.

[440bx]

I assume not.

That's too bad.  That's going to be a lot of links ruined to take care of a spam attack.

However, if a forum user who has posted links in his/her posts chooses to go through his/her posts and correct the links, will the corrections stay ? (currently they don't.)

[Martin_fr]

It is very noticeable on the signatures that some people use as some refer to their github/gitlab/project page (eg. dbannon, KodeZwerg to name a few easy examples).

Signatures will probably restore automatically... (unless people edit them in their profile during those days).
Otherwise, the amount of links posted is usually not that big.

I hope the block can be undone at latest tomorrow.

[440bx]

Otherwise, the amount of links posted is usually not that big.

This may come as a surprise but, the number of links affected is in the thousands.

[TRon]

Please forgive me if i sound rude but I think I see some miscommunication in the making (please correct me when wrong).

Due to spam the admin has /temporary/ blocked all links from displaying correctly. Ergo these links currently can not be used.

If I understood correctly then this 'blocking' will be lifted as soon as possible. After the lift the links that are left untouched will be displayed correctly again.

During the 'block' all posted links during that blockage will not display correctly but will act normally as soon as the block is lifted.

Is that correct ? (especially the latter last part of my statement (*))

(*) it sounds more plausible (e.g. easier to maintain) during spam flood to 'block' posting valid links, and links posted in that blockage period stays invalid

[440bx]

Is that correct ? (especially the latter last part of my statement (*))

I cannot give you a definitive answer but, I can state a fact that does make a difference.

The "current fix" actually changes the link text itself in the post.  IOW, the post has _changed_.

if you try to change "**s:" back to ht tp etc, it doesn't work, the "current fix" sets it back to "**s:".  After the "current fix" is disabled then hopefully setting it back (to ht tp etc) will work.

Based on what @marcov posted above, I am under the impression that the links will not be restored to what they were after the "current fix" is no longer needed.


On a separate note, I did a search for posts that contain "forum.lazarus.freepascal.org" to get an idea of how many links were affected.  Since the search returns a limited number of hits (apparently max 500), this turned out to fall short of producing a usable estimate.

However, for the database administrator, it would seem possible to restore the links to what they where before the "current fix" by updating '**s:forum.lazarus.freepascal.org' to be prefixed with the proper ht tpetc.

IOW, it seems the change can be undone after the current spam problem is appropriately dealt with.

[Martin_fr]

Otherwise, the amount of links posted is usually not that big.

This may come as a surprise but, the number of links affected is in the thousands.

I doubt we had thousand new links posted in the past days....

I did a test, I was mistaken...
It does affect old posts too. But old posts will be restored, when the setting is undone.

I do not know if new posts (made while the setting was in place) will be restored...

[440bx]

It does affect old posts too. But old posts will be restored, when the setting is undone.

In that case, it's pretty much a non-issue.

It's nice to know the change is only temporary.

[440bx]

I just wanted to mention that now the old posts have the h t t p s  : / / restored BUT, for some reason, the first occurrence of the link is inactive (clicking on it does nothing) whereas subsequent occurrences are active.

It would be nice if the first occurrence could be made active again.

for an example of this problem see forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=46617.0

(of course prefix the incomplete link above with h t t p : / /)   Notice that the first link is inactive whereas the subsequent links are active.

[Martin_fr]

It's still temporary....