Trusted Commenters (without TypeKey) (MT Hacks)

Trusted Commenters (without TypeKey)

This plugin enables you to trust commenters on you blog -- without requiring them to login via TypeKey or other authentication service.

The plugin enables you to trust commenters based on a combination of three things:

the commenter's name
the commenter's email address
the IP Address(es) used by the commenter

The last item is important, as it vastly reduced the possibility of "spoofing" -- someone lese posing as the trusted commenter. For each Name/Email combination, you can trust multiple IP Addresses.

How it works

You can trust a commenter from a specific IP address with a single click. When viewing the comment in the MT admin interface, click the "Trust this commenter from this IP address" link that appears under "Plugin Actions" below the comment fields.
When you trust a commenter in this manner, the plugin will create a commenter record in your database (similar to the way this happens when someone posts a comment using TypeKey). In addition, the commenter is granted permission to post again from the same IP address.
If the commenter already exists in your database, their permissions are simply updated to include the new IP address, if necessary.
The next time the commenter posts a comment on your blog (from a listed IP address), the plugin will recognize them as trusted. Behind the scenes, a cookie is placed on the commenter's computer (again, very similar to the TypeKey cookie). Furthermore, the comment gets posted in "trusted" status, which means that the junk filters are bypassed for this commenter (for example).
The next time the commenter posts a comment, they will not have to enter their name and email address. Once again this is similar to TypeKey, the commenter will be greeted as if they have signed in via TypeKey. (The cookie is used to identify the commenter).
When recognized trusted commenters post comments, a green "check mark" icon will appear beside their name (same icon as trusted TypeKey commenters).
After a commenter is trusted, he or she will appear in the "Commenters" section of the MT admin interface for that blog, along with the number of comments posted, etc. You can also "untrust" or "ban" these commenters as well.
Commenters can continue to sign-in via TypeKey, if desired. When using this plugin, you can accept trusted comments from both types of trusted commenters.

Benefits

This plugin attempt to provide the benefit of Movable Type's trusted commenters feature, without requiring commenters to register and sign-in via TypeKey. While I think TypeKey authentication is a great idea, I have come to learn (from experience) that many people do not want to use it, for reasons that I don't fully understand. As an example, read the comments on this Pharyngula entry, in which the author announces that TypeKey is no longer required.

Another key benefit is the ability to trust commenters so that they will be able to bypass the junk filters. With spam getting worse, many of use (like me) have very aggressive spam filters False positives do happen, and it can be frustrating for commenters when their legit comments get moderated or junked. In this way, Trusted Commenters can act as part of your anti-spam portfolio (effectively a "whitelist" of commenters).

Instructions:

1. Download the plugin and expand the zip file.

2. Upload the "TrustedCommenters" folder to your "plugins" directory within your MT installation.

3. Start trusting commenters from the view/edit comment screen with MT. Click the "Trust this commenter from this IP address" link that appears under "Plugin Actions".

4. (optional) Go to your settings and enable authentication. (Go to Settings>Feeback>Authentication Status). This is not necessary but it will enable the commenter "greeting" and alleviate the need for commenters to enter their name and email address. Alternatively, this can be enabled manually without enabling authentication, as I have done on this site, by ensuring that the proper javascript and CSS elements are present.

Download Trusted Commenters

Non-commercial use - FREE

Commercial use - $97.00

Download Now

Membership required, please sign-in or register:

I have been using Trusted Commenters on Mars Rover Blog and Seinfeld Blog for about a month, and it is going quite well.

As always feedback is appreciated.

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Comments (18)

Kevin

Great plugin, I have been working on a hack myself for something like this. Finding this made my life a little less busy. Thanks for the great work!

Posted by Kevin | August 3, 2006 9:23 AM

Posted on August 3, 2006 09:23

Doug Berger

I installed the plug-in per the instructions but "Trust this commenter from this IP address" doesn't show up in the drop-down list and I get "One or more comments you selected were submitted by an unauthenticated commenter. These commenters cannot be Banned or Trusted." message.

I have authentication turned on. Any suggestions?

Posted by Doug Berger | August 4, 2006 2:54 AM

Posted on August 4, 2006 02:54

Mark Carey

Doug,

As you noticed, the "Trust this commenter from this IP address" does not appear in a drop down. As mentioned above, this appears as a link in the "Plugin Actions" section below the comment fields. Specifically, you have to open the comment (you can't do this from the comment listing screen) and you will find the link on that page.

Here is a visual example:

Posted by Mark Carey | August 4, 2006 10:15 AM

Posted on August 4, 2006 10:15

Doug Berger

I discovered that after I posted my note. It works fine.

I did have one other question, any suggestions on how to prevent a typekey profile link from appearing with the icon like in my name above?

Posted by Doug Berger | August 8, 2006 1:04 AM

Posted on August 8, 2006 01:04

Mark Carey

Ah, yes, that one is on my "to do" list. It may be a little tricky, but I think I can create a new version of the tag that outputs the icon and link, one that is aware of which commenters used TypeKey, and which didn't.

Posted by Mark Carey | August 8, 2006 2:22 PM

Posted on August 8, 2006 14:22

Josh Hallett

Mastermind!!! I think that was very essential to distinguish between spammers and the other commenters. Since these spammers are really fucking! They act as a poison and/or to confuse the spam filters. I sometimes doubt my commenting ability because of them.

Posted by Josh Hallett | August 12, 2006 8:09 AM

Posted on August 12, 2006 08:09

stan

Mark,

Great plugin! Something like this was long overdue!

I noticed something and I'm not sure if it's something I did (or failed to do) on my end or if you're aware of this scenario:

When I "trust" commenters, they remain trusted when I view the List of Comments page in the admin panel (set to "Showing: 1-20 of xx pages).

Now, when a commenter gets bumped off the main comment page, they are no longer trusted even though their IP hasn't changed, and requires their comment to be moderated and trusted again.

As long as they are shown as trusted on the main List of Comments page, they can comment all day long. It's when they go to Page 2 that they have to be moderated again.

Odd thing is, I can see them all listed as "trusted" on the Commenters page.

I'm stumped.

Any insight? I hope I explained the issue without making it confusing.

Thanks again!

Posted by stan | October 4, 2006 5:57 AM

Posted on October 4, 2006 05:57

Mark Carey

stan,

I'm glad you like the plugin.

What you are seeing must be a coincidence. I can assure you that it does not matter if a trusted comment goes onto page 2 in the listings. I get several hundred comments per day, many of them from trusted commenters. They can continue to post even after the trusted comments scroll down the list.

Here are a few reason why a "trusted" commenter might post a comment that is "untrusted"

- IP address change - if they are on a web host that changes their IP frequently, the subsequent post may come from an IP address that is not yet trusted. In this case, trust the new comment and the new IP address will be added to their list. Also, some people may post from home and from work and from friends houses, etc. (Compare the IP addresses of the comments on your list to see if this may be the cause).

-slight variations in spelling of name or email address. Soemtimes commenters enter a slightly different name, or use a different email address. In such case, the system would not recognize them as a trusted commenter.

Let me know if either of these applicable in your case.

Posted by Mark Carey | October 6, 2006 8:38 AM

Posted on October 6, 2006 08:38

M1EK

Every time I trust a commenter (myself, in this case), the one comment I performed the action from does show up with the trusted icon next to the commenter name, but subsequent comments with the same name, email, web page, and from the same IP are never automatically trusted. Any hints?

Posted by M1EK | December 6, 2006 4:00 PM

Posted on December 6, 2006 16:00

Mark Carey:

M1EK,

That should not happen (obviously). What version of MT are you using? Are the subsequent comments posted to the same blog, or to a different blog on the system?

Have you ever posted to the blog using TypeKey authentication in the past? If the answer is yes, then it could be a strange bug I discovered just yesterday. I just released an update (v1.1) that addresses this. Click here to download it. Let me know if this helps.

Posted by Mark Carey | December 6, 2006 7:18 PM

Posted on December 6, 2006 19:18

M1EK

MT 3.2, and I've never used TypeKey. It's definitely the same blog. I'll try the update just in case.

Posted by M1EK | December 7, 2006 9:58 AM

Posted on December 7, 2006 09:58

M1EK

Let's see if I can post an image as well:

The first two comments are from the same IP address; same name; same email; same web link; etc. The second one is one on which I marked "Trust this commenter" from the plugin actions; the top one was sent after that to see if it worked. (Obviously not).

Posted by M1EK | December 7, 2006 10:07 AM

Posted on December 7, 2006 10:07

Anonymous:

Hi M1EK, thanks for the details. Have you tried v1.1 yet? If that doesn't work, I am not sure what the problem could be. Without getting into your MT and peeking into your MT database tables, I am not sure if I can isolate the problem.

Another thing to test: post a comment with a differen name and email address, then trust that commenter. Then try to post a comment again. Does it work?

Posted by Anonymous | December 7, 2006 8:23 PM

Posted on December 7, 2006 20:23

M1EK

I tried 1.1; no luck. Tried with new persona, no luck (see picture below).

I know enough mysql to get by - what table should I be looking around in for this stuff?

Thanks.

Posted by M1EK | December 10, 2006 7:37 PM

Posted on December 10, 2006 19:37

Anonymous:

There are a few things to look for. When you trust a commenter it creates an author record in the "author" table. Look up Trusty in that table and make note of the fields. Also, look in the permission table for a record with Trusty's author_id and the blog_id for "Bake-Sale of Bile". Make note of the fields. In the "blog_prefs" field you should see one or more IP addresses -- these are the IP addresses that are trusted for Trusty. The key to make sure that these things all match, the name/nickname, email and IP address -- match the ones being used in the subsequent post. The plugin will check to see if the incoming name, email and IP match -- and should assign the comment to the trusted commenter. Let me know if anything doesn't seem quite right here.

Posted by Anonymous | December 12, 2006 7:30 AM

Posted on December 12, 2006 07:30

Stan

Mark,

Thanks for your response! Sorry I haven't gotten back to you on this issue I'm having.

I'll install v1.1 and let you know if it's still acting goofy.

Posted by Stan | December 13, 2006 12:06 AM

Posted on December 13, 2006 00:06

ella s:

Hi Mark,

I just installed the plugin on Movable Type 3.2 and have the same problem, exactly, as M1EK above: I mark a specific commenter and IP as trusted, and the next comment does not get approved.

Have you heard this from anyone else?

Best,
Ella

Posted by ella s | July 15, 2007 10:27 PM

Posted on July 15, 2007 22:27

JPeter

Hi Mark,

I used version 1.2 and get the same results like M1EK.

IP address, name and email are the same.
What can I do?

Posted by JPeter | April 7, 2008 10:36 AM

Posted on April 7, 2008 10:36