Strange link behaviour

nigelbrooks

If you post the words g i f f g a f f h e l p (without the spaces between characters) in a thread they are converted to a link and are hidden.

Like this URL removed to protect members

(edited as I realised quite how bad my speeling and tryping were on this post 😅 )

guy_ow

nigelbrooks - I might be able to answer that one, and it might be smi**ing related.

For a short while we were adding some of the links to the filter, the words you have stated vaguely remind me of a link that was at one point being used, which would explain why its filtered and says 'URL removed to protect members' instead.

I'm going to pop this thread into the Feedback tag under unexpected behaviour just in case it is something else, as that way the platform folks can jump on in with an answer 👍️

alex_w

nigelbrooks

guy_ow it might be smi**ing related.

For a short while we were adding some of the links to the filter

Bingo. I've taken a look at the filters, spotted an error in the formatting of the regex, and corrected it. @nigelbrooks would you mind testing quickly to make sure?

nigelbrooks

guy_ow

Thanks mate, seems strange that you can post giffgaffhelp with no issue but the two words separately trigger the URL block

guy_ow

nigelbrooks Yeah that is rather strange, @ianmorland @alex_w are you able to take a peek at this for us please?

endorphin

Hmm, I wonder if "g g<space>h e l p" gets censored: URL removed to protect members.

ANSWER: yes it does! 😮

thunderdragon

I think this might be to do with auto-nulling links posted here by users which were attached to known scamming operations (Usually by SMS) on the previous version of Community. The problem with people posting bad links - Aside from the fact other users might unwittingly click on it - Is that they also increase a scam sites search rankings in Google, too. 🤯

In fact: On the subject of experiments, I wonder if a reverse fake works?... URL removed to protect members 😇

Oh, not quite... 🙃
+++ 🚄 ThunderDragon 🤘 +++

nigelbrooks

alex_w

giffgaff help will have triggered it or not, let's give it a go........

nigelbrooks

alex_w

Working fine.

I posted this as there was a member asking "how do I get giffgaff help?" and it triggered the issue.

Thanks very much @alex_w

alex_w

Yay, looks like we're resolved then 🙂