Minimising or preventing spam comments

Owned by Karen Shackleford-Cesare (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 11, 2017
2 min read

If you create a Page in MyPortfolio and then share it with the public, you may find that spammers write spam in the comments fields on your Page. Hence, you may wish to dis-allow comments to prevent spam. The instructions for doing this are given below. 

Aside from being an irrelevant contribution, the act of posting a comment results in the author(s)/owner(s) of the Page  typically receiving an email notification. These can get quite onerous and annoying.

Step-by-step guide

  1. Login to MyPortfolio (https://myportfolio.ucl.ac.uk/) 
  2. If the email notifications are coming from one or more Group Pages, then click on your Group's name under My groups: in the first block on the right
    1. In the menu with an About tab, click on Share
    2. Click on the EDIT ACCESS "padlock" icon for the first Page listed
    3. Click on the Advanced options link that now appears under the Share tab
    4. Change the Allow comments setting from Yes to No
    5. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Save
    6. Repeat steps b to f for each page listed.
  3. If the email notifications are coming from one or more of your personal Pages/Collections, then click on the Portfolio > Pages menu option at the top of the screen
    1. Click on the Edit content and layout "pencil" icon for the specific Page 
    2. Click on Share page (to the left under the Edit content heading)
    3. Click on the Advanced options link that now appears under the Search users box
    4. Change the Allow comments setting from Yes to No
    5. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on Save
    6. Repeat steps b to f for each page listed.
    7. Note that when you add a page to your collection, the access permissions attached to the page will be added for the entire collection.

 

Alternatively, you may wish to change the Access level for a Page from 'Public' to one that gives you more control over the audience. See the Mahara User Guide, 5.5. Shared by me section for instructions on how to do this.