disable revealing users email addresses

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craig.constantine
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disable revealing users email addresses

Post by craig.constantine »

There's a setting in ACP, under Client Comm > Email settings
labeled "Hide email addresses: This function keeps email addresses completely private."
but when I set this to "Yes" (and save of course), registered users can still go to other users' profiles and 'send email' via the link. (It opens their email cient with the registered user's email.)

Can I flip this so that, by default, new users have the "reveal my email" (or something) preference set to no?
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david63
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by david63 »

craig.constantine wrote: Sat May 27, 2017 1:51 am registered users can still go to other users' profiles and 'send email' via the link. (It opens their email cient with the registered user's email.)
Never seen that happen - when I go to a user's profile and click on "send email" then it opens a form within phpBB that sends an email "via" phpBB - unless I use Admin options then there is no way in a standard phpBB installation that you can see a user's email address.
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craig.constantine
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by craig.constantine »

very odd... i'd swear it was always revealed emails... i made even made a generic user to test it as. I will try it again, and report back.
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Scanialady
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Scanialady »

have a look at ACP - GENERAL - CLIENT COMMUNICATION - EMAIL SETTINGS
Users send email via board:
Instead of showing the users email address users are able to send emails via the board.
Here you can switch between activated/deactivated to show users mail addresses
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craig.constantine
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by craig.constantine »

thanks...

I must have been doing something wrong... it all seems to be fine now. "contact by email" is there, but it only opens a form which sends an email via the board.

I must have been asleep and under-caffeinated... :(
TearAByte
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by TearAByte »

When I use this function, the board-member's email address that sent the message is shown in the headers and when the person replies to the email - this is not good!
Is there a setting to prevent this?
mcramer
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by mcramer »

I noticed this same problem.

On Client Communications --> Email Settings I had the box "Hide email addresses" checked. It says, "This function keeps email addresses completely private." Not true, however, because when I log into my phpBB, navigate to a members and hover over the "Send email to {name}" link, the email address was right there.

Following the advice above, I then enabled "Users send email via board." Now when I hover over the "Send email to {name}" link I get a URL on my board. Clicking that link opens up a form on the board and the user's email is not revealed.

I have not yet tried actually sending a message this way, however. Someone else said that doing so will reveal the email address of the sender, but I'm thinking that was their choice. Replying to that email might reveal the recipient's email, but that's also his or her choice. I have less of a problem with that.

That being said, it seems to me that the "Hide email addresses" option is either misleading or not working as intended.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

no, as you discovered , it works exactly as you want. you choose to send email via the board and nobody sees any email addresses other than the board one.

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mcramer
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by mcramer »

The "Hide email addresses" option says, "This function keeps email addresses completely private." It does not.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

yes it does as far as the board is concerned. the board sends out the email. you can not see the email address in the form.
the person that gets the email will see that it came from the board and may be able to see the email of the sender . I don' 't remember for sure about that.

however, if it does it will be a function of the receiver's email program not the phpbb board .


phpbb has no control over this once it leaves the server it is installed on.


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Mick
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Mick »

If there's no senders email address in the received email how do you reply to it?
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Mr Sean
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Mr Sean »

Hello All. I hope this old thread is still relevant when it comes to disabling forum email facilities, because it is the only one I've read through so far.

I would like to just remove the forum email function between users altogether. Email only between admin and users. All other contact across the forum is by PM. By PM, users can exchange email addresses if they trust their fellow correspondent. That's not forum business.

I am sure this was how I set things up on past phpBB3 forums. May I please cause myself some embarrassment on a Friday afternoon down here in Big Grove, Western Australia and ask a silly question, to the tune of, "How can I disable all email functions across the forum, with only admin - user emails and nothing more?"
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by stevemaury »

Disable Boardwide emails in the email settings. Do a SELECT querry on the database to create a member email address directory (SELECT username, user_email from phpbb_users WHERE user_type <> 2) and give it to your admins and they can email whatever users they want using their email client.
I can stop all your spam. I can upgrade or update your Board. PM or email me. (Paid support)
Mr Sean
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Re: disable revealing users email addresses

Post by Mr Sean »

Thanks for your help, Mr Maury. By the complexity of your solution I am not so ashamed of asking a silly question yesterday. I am not familiar with database maintenance, so that might be why your solution seems complex to me.

First of all though, I encountered a warning from phpBB3 when I disabled boardwide emails:
Information

Configuration updated successfully.

Please note that the currently selected activation method requires emails to be enabled, otherwise registration will be disabled. We recommend to either select a different activation method or reenable emails.

« Back to previous page

I presume that would be eliminated after the SELECT operation, although I don't quite understand how the automatic email authentification for new users might work if the list of user email addresses is a static, manually derived list as I suppose you've suggested.

On the understanding that the SELECT part of the solution is an SQL instructon that is performed outside the ACP, I guess on the command line in MYSQL?, or using phpmyadmin, then would it be fair to conclude that there is no known way to disable user-to-user email via the ACP. It can only be done by adjusting the database from outside phpBB3.

I guess we can just permanently suspend anyone who tries to send unsolicited emails to other users. That ought to work, retrospectively anyway. It just seems a little strange and I wonder if my memory is failing me in my old age. I was sure that either I've just always disabled interuser emails or else the default config' was set that way from the beginning. I don't remember any of the phpBB forums I've run in the past decade having emails between users activated. Even if it's through the board, and the email address itself is kept private from the sender, (Users send email via board), there is still a means for one user to in some ways troll another, and that is what I really think is a high cost for a minimal benefit when there is a perfectly functional PM facility available inside the forum.

I don't think I want to start playing around with databases when I really don't know what I am doing in MySQL. I just setup the database with phpmyadmin and let phpBB3 run everything from there. The database is a bit like a black box to me. I just don't have even the basic coding skills in MySQL, so if I can't disable those emails inside the ACP, then I'm going to have to live with them.

Sorry to ask a question that has no answer suitable for a MySQL ignoramus such as I. I hoped it was somewhere in the ACP.
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