gordon77 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 30, 2025 5:41 pm

If you click on their name it will go to their profile and show location if they have entered it...

That's effort which wouldn't be needed if Location were shown, and wasted effort if they haven't set it.

The root problem here isn't showing the Location but the failure to prevent spam links being entered in that field or being shown when they have been

hippy wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 29, 2025 12:33 pm

A database dump and scan will identify those. That could also detect post-edited hidden links which also aren't easy to spot and can go under the radar.

Should be no need to even dump the database; just do a "lazy" scan of it from a small bit of Python or similar. Last time I looked (admittedly 25 years or so ago) PHPBB used mySQL, and I see no reason for it to have changed (except possibly to some other similarly popular database).

It may well be possible to trigger a vetting routine within the database when the location field is changed.

So potentially no need to involve the forum software at all - although would be most efficient to do the vetting there if its a configurable option.

I'm sure if there were an easy quick fix we would have implemented it.

Software guy, working in the applications team.

jamesh wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 30, 2025 9:43 pm

I'm sure if there were an easy quick fix we would have implemented it.

To be honest, I doubt it. This is your flagship support forum but it's clear no money is actually invested here.

Oh no, not again.

ame wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 30, 2025 9:55 pm

jamesh wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 30, 2025 9:43 pm

I'm sure if there were an easy quick fix we would have implemented it.

To be honest, I doubt it. This is your flagship support forum but it's clear no money is actually invested here.

Engineering time is invested; quite a few people from Pi comment in here everyday. As for the forum itself, we have a web team who keep an eye on it, but tbh, it mostly 'just works'. And a missing location field isn't the end of the world.

Software guy, working in the applications team.