The “Textarea Field” options in the Maspik plugin allow you to protect large text input fields (such as comment boxes or message fields) from spam by implementing various filters and limits. These options include blacklisting specific words or phrases, setting character limits, and restricting the number of links.
Textarea Blacklist
Description: This option allows you to set a forbidden list of words or phrases. If any of these appear in the textarea field, the message will be marked as spam.
How to Use:
- Open the plugin settings.
- Navigate to the Textarea Fields section.
- Add each word or phrase you want to block, on separate lines.
Example:
If you add the following to the blacklist:
submit your website
seo
ranking
currency
click here
crypto
Any message containing any of these words or phrases will be marked as spam, even if the word exist in other words, like, “seo” will block also “seoul”.
Risk: Blocking words or phrases may result in false positives. For instance, legitimate messages that contain these words might also get blocked. Regularly review the spam log to ensure no legitimate messages are being mistakenly blocked.
Contain Links
Description: This option allows you to set the maximum number of links that can appear in the textarea field. Messages containing more than the specified number of links will be marked as spam.
How to Use:
- Open the plugin settings.
- Open the Textarea Fields accordion, and turn on the Contain links toggle.
- Enter the maximum number of allowed links.
Example:
If you set the value to 2, any message with 3 or more links will be marked as spam.
If you don’t want to receive any links, so set value to 0
Limit Characters
Description: This option allows you to set minimum and maximum character limits for the textarea field. Messages that are too short or too long will be marked as spam.
How to Use:
- Open the plugin settings.
- Navigate to the Textarea Fields accordion, and turn on the Limit characters toggle.
- Enter the minimum and maximum number of allowed characters.
Example:
- If you set the minimum value to 5 and the maximum value to 1000, any message with fewer than 5 characters or more than 1000 characters will be marked as spam.
Risk: Setting the character limits too restrictively may block legitimate messages. Ensure to set reasonable limits and periodically check the spam log for false positives. For example, setting a minimum of 5 characters and a maximum of 1000 characters can usually balance spam prevention and legitimate user submissions.
Risk: Setting the maximum number of links too low may block legitimate messages that contain multiple links. Regularly review the spam log to ensure no valid messages are being mistakenly blocked.
Custom Error Message for Character Limit
Description: This option allows you to set a custom error message that will be displayed when the user exceeds the minimum or maximum number of characters.
How to Use:
- Open the plugin settings.
- Navigate to the Textarea Fields section, and turn on the Custom error message toggle.
- Enter your custom error message.
Example:
Enter a message like:
Your message must be between 5 and 1000 characters long.to inform the user exactly what the issue is and how to fix it.