Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31234217-20170606232934/@comment-31372003-20170609092310

Here's a couple of ideas.

Idea #1: A bot that can scan the entries of the last 30 days. If a user tries to enter a friend code that is already on the page and the previous entry is less than the 30 days old, the edit is denied or blocked.

This wouldn't stop vandalism, but would stop the reposting of codes. A user could try to beat the system by adding a space or a. or other character to the code that the bot might not catch, but a bot could be taught to look for such tricks.

However, implimentation of the bot would probably require the friend code page be hosted outside of the wiki where we would have the abilty to host cgi script or other such tools to create the bot and manage the page.

Idea #2: Instead of placing friend codes in the wiki, make a thread in the forum for it. This way each friend code is added as if it was a reply. This means that it would not be possible for a user to edit anyone else's code or to change the order of the codes. This would reduce vandalism. There would be less repairs needed because posting a reply requires no wiki editing skills and even someone who has never done an edit would be able to post without making a mess of things. It would also make it less intimidating to a new user who wants to add their code, but is afraid of making a mistake while editing the page. If someone does something that they shouldn't, it is pretty easy to just delete the comment/reply/posting. However, the standard way the forum handles the order is to put the most recent "reply", which in this case means the most recently added code, at the bottom of the list. I don't know if there is a way to reverse the order of the postings.

In summation, I think that idea #2 is pretty easy to impliment, but it will not have the abilty to check for repeat codes. Idea number #1 stops repeat codes, but does little to stop vandalism or unintentional damage.

I think #2 is the better choice and could be up and running with little effort. #1 is nicely automated and it could be integrated into idea # 2 if the thread like system is hosted on a server that will also allow for the creation of the bot.