Disable Chat Function Option

The traditional way to deal with this is to preserve existing users’ rights while forcing new members to follow the new rules. I.e. no chat ever without email or whatever tightening up is useful to the community as a whole. Generally objection is then limited as current members are not losing anything and future members are not able to object…

You would think so.

Last time this came up, existing members were objecting in principle to the site requiring email to participate.

:man_shrugging:

However, that’s only relevant here in as much as if we required email for chat permanently, then the OP could not-supply it for the students and thereby not have them able to chat. Which is not the case :slight_smile:

GaJ

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This is what I had assumed was the case and hence have not supplied email for a couple of my juniors’ accounts. But thanks to this thread I learn that my attempts at safeguarding have been thwarted!

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I came to suggest a few more ideas today on how you might accomplish dealing with the text. Like @flovo suggested, you could mess with the CSS directly, making the text invisible, but allowing the Variations to be seen and utilized. I’m not sure how you could accomplish that, but I know it can be done with extensions. I’d just have to ask in the uBlock reddit group. There is a group community there and people are happy to help you figure out custom filters to achieve exactly what you need.

  1. Yes. (link)

  2. This is a darn good question for every browser. I did research on Microsoft Edge and I couldn’t find anything. There doesn’t appear to be a way to create any sort of user profile within the program. All you can do through Windows is to restrict access to Microsoft Edge altogether. Are you in charge of these PC’s or is there a separate tech guy who configures and maintains them?

  3. Yes. uBlock is useless until you tell it which blocking lists you would like to follow. This is available through the settings for the extension itself. You can simply not use any lists and so it won’t be blocking anything. There is a separate tab within the extension settings that allows you to define our own filters, like the one I’m suggesting for OGS.

All of this is a moot point if you are worried about your students wreaking havoc on Windows 10. It isn’t hard to search up information on the web on how to mess with the operating system. Unless the OS is locked down, they can get around all sorts of barriers you might set up for them. Sadly, all browsers are going to be a problem when it comes to the kids messing with browser settings. This is a hard nut to crack. Can you share more about the PC situation they will have access to?

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Hopefully a temporary fix. Anyway, you can use it to block specific elements in a website. For example, I added the two lines below to My filters:

online-go.com##.main.chat-input
online-go.com##.main.chat-line

And this was the result:

screenshot

As for keeping your students from changing the settings, take a look at this. I don’t know if there’s a simple way to accomplish the same in Chrome or IE, though.

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On the off chance someone else was seeking similar knowledge the best of my knowledge with uBlock:

To block general site chat
online-go.com##.chat-log

To block personal messages
online-go.com##.open.private-chat-window

To block game chat
online-go.com##.chat-container

And while there are some ways to try and force admin settings for uBlock as long as the user has basically any level of access into the PC it will be easy (and based on my experience of being one, students WILL learn quickly) to break it. Just downloading or connecting a “clean” portable browser will do the trick for example.

The only way I can imagine to make this even remotely “safe” would be to lock the computer into “kiosk” mode - which will run selected app in fullscreen and nothing else will be accessible and is quite easy to do for computers running win > 8.

and then lock settings (link in post above) and also restrict accessible domains:

NOTE that I have NOT actually tested this (not so bored just yet), but with a bit of tweaking it should be “safe enough” I think. And is not super hard to do if you have a bit of computer skill. (And if your school is not running XP anymore :smiley: )

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@AdamR speaks the truth. Students can easily find ways around your measures. The internet makes it so darn easy, and of course what they don’t know can easily be fielded from experts online for free in forums like this. I too believe that running the computer in Kiosk mode is your best bet for delivering a tailored experience to them that they are unlikely to be able to break through. Of course, you should lock down those USB ports.

Approaches To USB Security

And then what you could do is the following:

Write a 5 minute honest monologue about this issue. Be upfront with the kids about why things are as they are and why they’re gonna get worse if someone messes around.

  • Look, I lobbied for you to be able to use the school’s computers to play Go online.
  • These are the rules:…
  • If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to, but if you decide to be here, please respect the rules.
  • (Optional, if true) The school rootkitted the machines so they track everything you do. If there’s anything they don’t like, our computer rights will be revoked and we go back to the physical boards.
  • (Optional, signals distrust) I’m going to sit all the way in the back (where I can see your screens), nevermind me…
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Oooh, here is a fun one. Why not just disable the keyboards with a simple script while they are playing Go online. If they aren’t supposed to chat, then what do they need the keyboard for =D. If that seemed viable to you, I could help you make it if you need help. Using a freeware program called AutoHotKey you could make a script that:

  1. Disables keyboard input (keyboard still works, just doesn’t allow keypresses through to applications.

  2. Locks the user into the web browser

  3. Is impossible to terminate with mouse click behavior

  4. Prevents the running of or hides the windows of applications you specify (Windows Run dialog box, Command Promp, Task Manager, etc…)

  5. Script can only be disabled when you use the mouse to activate a password window on it and input the correct password (keyboard keystrokes would work just fine in the password window).

Further security measures and computer controlling behavior could be implemented. It could be a very nice solution to your particular problem. There is extensive documentation available for it and a user community that is usually pretty helpful with scripting questions.

It requires no programming knowledge in the traditional sense (you don’t need to learn a language). But it does require that you be willing to learn by reading the documentation provided for it. I would be willing to help as I think what you are doing for the kids is wonderful. I appreciate the difficulty of your situation and would love to help if I can :wink:.

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