Optimizations

Today I've optimized various stuff on both the site/shoutbox-code and the server. I hope you'll enjoy the speed increase ;)

As you've probably noticed the latest news post headers can now also be seen at the homepage.

Some security updates

I found a bug in the spambot stopper which did that bots could post without starting a session. This is fixed now so the spambot stopper should be more effective now.

Another improvement is a much more complex session check string to further increase the security.

I've also disabled search engine indexing of all shoutboxes to stop spammers from searching for shoutboxes to spam.

Email and URL linkifier

Now URL:s and Email-addresses are automatically posted as clickable links, it will work in these three cases:

• URLs starting with http:// ftp:// etc.


• URLs starting with www. or ftp.


• Email addresses in the form user@domain.com

Search engines do not follow the posted links, so spammers cannot use the shoutboxes to improve search engine ranking.

Shoutbox.da.ru shutdown remainder

If you're still using the old domain shoutbox.da.ru it's time to change your HTML-code to use freeshoutbox.net instead; From the first of december only freeshoutbox.net will be supported.

If you use the domain freeshoutbox.net (as all HTML-codes the last 10 months or so have shown) you can simply ignore this message.

For any questions please post in the support forum.

New Feature: Disable posting

I added a feature to the admin panel; a disable posting feature.

If this option is on you can only post messages from the admin panel shoutbox, it is useful for announcement/news posting.

Wildcard support for IP-banlist

Today I added wildcard support for the IP-banning feature, 185.32.43.* will ban all IP-adresses that start with 185.32.43. But, for the new ban-system to work you HAVE to add every new IP/IP-group(using wildcards) at a new line. Remember that you can add comments in each line after //

Here's an properly formatted banlist as an example:

167.34.25.64 //Spammer
//53.43.65.23 This one will not be banned because the ip is commented out with "//"
45.64.23.* //All IPs that begin with 45.64.23. will be banned (use with caution)
*.*.34.* //All IPs where the third number is 34 will be banned (use with caution)

Security: Added double-post/spambot checker

I've added a feature to the posting form which checks if the request is actually a new post from the shoutbox or just another post using an old session.

This stops two annoyances:

• People clicking the refresh-button in the browser and therefore post the same message again


• Spambots using an old session to make multiple posts (now you actually have to view the shoutbox before posting)

I specially hope this will keep most spambots away.

Smileys are back =)

Smiley support is back, the following smileys is currently supported:

• :D or :-D


• :) or :-)


• :( or :-(


• :o or :-o


• :? or :-?


• 8) or 8-)


• :x or :-x


• :P or :-P


• ;) or ;-)


• :| or :-|

Support forum online

The freeshoutbox.net support forum is now online.

Feel free to join the forum and start posting at:
http://forum.freeshoutbox.net/

IP banning

I have added IP-banning to all shoutboxes. If a spammer post in your shoutbox, just follow these instructions.

1. Login to your admin-panel at http://www.freeshoutbox.net/
2. Check in the admin shoutbox at the top for the spammer's IP, you can add a comment after the IP if you want.
   
3. Paste the IP to a new line in the textbox under "Banlist"
4. Choose update at the bottom and logout

Welcome to the blog

Welcome to the official Freeshoutbox.net development blog.

I will post about new features, common questions etc. in this blog so to stay updated please check this blog now and then.

And... a support forum is on its way in the very nere future as well.