vB6 quirk?

[Wayne]

Could white text on white background make it a bit harder for them?

Unfortunately, no. They’d still be able to highlight the text with their mouse to reveal it. As far as I know, vBulletin has never supported that kind of feature. XenForo does offer a “spoiler” function that hides text until it’s clicked, but even that wouldn’t solve what you’re trying to do in this case.

To bad some people just don't follow the rules.

[Gaz]

Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable copy/paste functionality, as that ability lies within the hardware and/or browser.

💡Solution:
Create an entirely new usergroup, allowing only it to access the information. This would keep you from having to tinker with the Registered Users permissions.

💡Alternate Solution:
Share the restricted content within a private group rather than posting it directly on the forums. Setting up permissions for groups is often a bit more straightforward and gives you more control over who sees what.

I pretty much use both options you have suggested.

Just a bit of a background.
The forum is Australian Rules Football focused and in particular one specific team the Western Bulldogs.
There are a couple of members, myself included, who get to watch the players train and we report back to the members with our observations.
It's become exceptionally popular. I could easily have a 1000+ members if I opened the reports for every member but I'd still only have 150 members who participate in conversations.
I set-up a rewards board for members who qualify for access (mainly consistent and fair contributions) to these reports and about half of the forum members have access.
100's of others want access but don't want to work for it. Apparently they don't have the time
What appears to be happening is 2 or 3 members have been encouraged by others to copy the reports and post them elsewhere so they now appear on the likes of Facebook and Discord etc and then get copied from there to other social media sites. Some even try passing off the contributions as their own observations.

I request all members who qualify not to copy the reports and share them elsewhere and they all confirm that they won't but clearly 2 or 3 members are now straying from that.
If I could identify the members concerned I'd adjust their access but they must be using different usernames on the other sites.
I was hoping for a system solution or something that would make it a but harder for them.

If there was a way to watermark specific posts it might help a bit.
One option I seem to recall in older versions of VB was the ability to hide the text. Perhaps something that would make it a bit more difficult for them to take an image for share it elsewhere. Could white text on white background make it a bit harder for them?

[Wayne]

Is there a way to stop content being copied on my site and pasted onto others?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable copy/paste functionality, as that ability lies within the hardware and/or browser.

💡Solution:
Create an entirely new usergroup, allowing only it to access the information. This would keep you from having to tinker with the Registered Users permissions.

💡Alternate Solution:
Share the restricted content within a private group rather than posting it directly on the forums. Setting up permissions for groups is often a bit more straightforward and gives you more control over who sees what.

[Gaz]

What was the fix?

There was just one button for the usergroup I hadn't selected.

I do have another question though.
Is there a way to stop content being copied on my site and pasted onto others?
It's just one thread/topic on it's own channel that's being frequently raided
I've restricted the access to a couple of usergroups but I must have a couple of them who aren't following the rules.
They are copying things onto FB, X and Discord and passing it off as their own.

[Wayne]

Please ignore, I found the answer

What was the fix?

[Gaz]

Please ignore, I found the answer

[Gaz]

I've observed the same issue occurring on other forums that utilize third-party themes. For instance, when you check the Latest Activity section, it often displays posts from weeks ago, rather than showing anything recent. I suspect this might be related to the theme needing an update to remain compatible with the latest version of vBulletin. Interestingly, I haven't seen this problem on either my cloud-based forum or the self-hosted one, as both are running the default vBulletin theme.

Are you using a third-party theme by any chance?

I've got a Unread Button that displays where channels have new content. This was added from https://vbmods.rocks/
Other than that it's was a vanilla upgrade.
It seems more evident that when a thread/topic gets big then it becomes a challenge.

I've closed down the comments feature as well which I think was giving the appearance of new content but not as easy to locate.

[Wayne]

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've observed the same issue occurring on other forums that utilize third-party themes. For instance, when you check the Latest Activity section, it often displays posts from weeks ago, rather than showing anything recent. I suspect this might be related to the theme needing an update to remain compatible with the latest version of vBulletin. Interestingly, I haven't seen this problem on either my cloud-based forum or the self-hosted one, as both are running the default vBulletin theme.

Are you using a third-party theme by any chance?

[Gaz]

This appears to be a bit of a quirk on my site, it's not properly identifying new posts. I assume it's a setting that needs to be adjusted. The last post displayed isn't actually the last post in fact it seems to get stuck until the next day. For example it displays the last post made at 3pm when in fact there are 30 to 100 more posts

I've only had one proper issue so far, in that with the new posts function (which works for the most part), ill often have threads show up as read but there are new posts on them (which it recognises) but the only option i have to view the thread is from the start or by clicking on last post which will take me to the same spot every time (for example in this week's gameday thread it always takes me to page 3 despite there being 15 pages).

It seems to mostly happen on the big threads, like every gameday thread, which is annoying because they are the biggest and hardest to sift through.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Shawn Gossman]

I've seen similar after upgrades and style updates, refreshing your browser with a Shift-F5 so it will reload without using cached data a few times usually clears it up for me. I've had regular users who have logged in just after an update comment after similar experiences but it usually fixes itself within a short time.

Thanks for the tips my friend!

[Cheeto]

In version 6.0.8, has anyone encountered issues logging into forums with custom templates? When I attempt to log in, nothing seems to happen—it still shows me as logged out. However, refreshing the page usually resolves it.

I've seen similar after upgrades and style updates, refreshing your browser with a Shift-F5 so it will reload without using cached data a few times usually clears it up for me. I've had regular users who have logged in just after an update comment after similar experiences but it usually fixes itself within a short time.

[Shawn Gossman]

I'll have to ask mine in a support thread or something and see if they need to update.

I paid for this theme and the one on OTF so I'd hope they'd keep them updated with the versioning.

[Wayne]

I bet that's it. I'm not sure how often creators release updates for themes.

[Shawn Gossman]

It happens on OTF and one of my professional forums. Not a one-off, but consistent on both.

I ask because I wonder if the themes need to be updated for 6.0.8.

I don't think my themes have been updated for it.

My XenForo themes usually get an update after a new version of XF has been released. I didn't know if that's a routine thing with vB as well?

[Wayne]

It happens on OTF and one of my professional forums. Not a one-off, but consistent on both.