Hi,
We’ve recently run into a problem with somebody creating a lot of new accounts with racist/heterosexist names, and although they can’t post they can go around and like a bunch of posts to get their names to show up in everyone’s inboxes.
Any idea what the best way to handle this would be?
notably they’ve been making a new account roughly every 5 minutes for the last half hour or so
so quick help would be appreciated
In particular we seem to be unable to set the number of likes for TL0 users to 0, and are forced to keep it at at least 1.
If we could set it to 0 that seems like it would solve our issue?
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by that.
Hello,
The plugin suggested is a good idea. If you don’t want their usernames visible and want to get them off the forum you can anonymize them also.
My best idea would be to use css to hide the usernames of tl0 users in likes. The more painful solution is to turn on approve all users.
I don’t suppose there’s any way we could just set the like limit for TL0 to 0 instead of 1?
Isn’t liking required to move to trust level 1?
Not really sure. My guess is that it would take a plugin. There is an example plugin that changes the range of possible system settings.
I’m sorry you are having to deal with this issue 
I cooked up a little component that might help:
Ideally you would spot the troll before they advance to TL1 and lock them at TL0 or delete the account.
Is the person creating new accounts every 5 minutes using the same IP address? If so, you can block that IP. One Spam control is admin/site_settings/category/spam Maximum new accounts per IP registration
The default setting is 3 accounts from a single IP. Change it to 1.
Not helpful in this case, but potentially good advice if anyone in future has a similar issue.
@orangeandblack5, it might be helpful here on meta if you could post a brief list of what strategies you have already implemented/vetted and determined to be inadequate, so that users have a better idea of where to brainstorm.
Once we have solved the issue I will be sure to let you know how
In the meantime we’ve installed the fingerprinting thing and limited new users to one like, however the troll has been able to get around this and has started targeting specific LGBT members with his account names to maximize the damage done by a single like.
IP banning is not something we feel will be effective in this case due to the ease of changing IPs and the risk of hitting others in the crossfire.
We have been as of yet unable to get the above plugin working to hide the like button, but hope it will be effective once our admin is able to get it up and running.
@orangeandblack5, This may be a way of preventing them from creating new accounts - at least for a while - if they are using certain words or phrases in their usernames.
Change your settings in /admin/site_settings/category/login must approve users (Staff must approve all new user accounts before they can access the site).
Based upon their past usernames, you could route out many before they get a chance to start. Eventually, they may be “creative” enough to find a workaround. A possible solution to them opening an account with a “valid” username, getting approved, and then changing their username before they go on their liking spree would be to prevent users from changing their usernames as well. How many people actually go about changing their usernames anyway? Those that do can ask staff to do it if they are not allowed to do it themselves. Hope this can help a little - at least temporarily.
We already do not have this enabled.