The Dell Community has contributed: 9387 ideas | promoted 642639 times | 71698 comments

How IdeaStorm Works:

Post Promote Discuss See
Dell Community Comments | Dell Community Ideas
50

Disable HTML!

50 points posted to Dell Community by philh 03/18/07 **REVIEWED**

This is wide open to abuse. A more simplified system of BBCode or something similar should be used instead.
Right now we only limit certain HTML tags that have potential security implications.





reg
03/18/07		 NO!

HTML is the only thing that makes this site fun!

Besides, any post that is abusive, obscene, or otherwise totally off base is removed by the moderators.
philh
03/19/07		 The point is, that without looking at the source code, abuse could be hidden practically invisibly. My example of the marquee tag was innocent, but there are all kinds of serious security problems that somebody with more ill intentions could cause. Pre-empt the problem and remove HTML before it happens.
irishprince
03/19/07		 Agree. Someone could insert malicious JavaScript to link to an outside server with some nasty scripting.
kyliemanders
03/19/07		 Don't be a kill joy philh
avalonthas
03/25/07		 why not just allow HTML but block all javascript related tags. Can anyone say problem solved
cosh
04/24/07		 Stop scripting, but allow all or most HTML. It's versatile and can improve the quality and conveyance of posts and we haven't seen any abuse of it yet.
reg
05/24/07		 Nice Script.
jorge
05/24/07		 What about disable HTML and activate Active X ?

Surprised the Win-base hasn't added this idea yet, where are they, still waiting for Windows Update to finish checking the system? or recovering from update Tuesday?
philh
05/28/07		 I still hold the opinion that something like BBCode (which is in effect a cut-down version of HTML) would be ideal. It was designed specifically for this purpose, and allows practically all the benefits of HTML formatting, without any risk of abuse.

Just because it hasn't happened yet, there's no reason not to prevent it from happening in the future.
lamar_air
06/18/07		 Couldn't agree more!
reg
06/18/07		 lol
badblood
06/18/07		 This idea is interesting because of the nice mobile heading....
dell_admin1
06/18/07		 Changed status to **IN PROGRESS**.
reg
06/18/07		 But, Can we still use some tags?
badblood
06/18/07		 What about PICTURES. It's the only thing I know how to do...actually I learned how to do it because of ideastorm. Phubert taught me! Will Dell lose this educational opportunity!
dell_admin1
06/18/07		 @reg - Yes - we're starting with a very limited prohibition on certain HTML tags that could have security implications. Likely most of you troopers won't even know the difference. We want to keep the ability to be creative and fun with some style in basic HTML tags. But we'll continue to watch how it's all used, and will up the HTML prohibitions for security if need be. (That's why I called this "In Progress", not "Implemented".) So you can continue to have fun with some tags. :)
dell_admin1
06/18/07		 @badblood - pictures aren't going away right now. Although I can tell you that from a security perspective, there is discussion of that. But for now, we really, really want to keep the pictures. I'll keep you guys posted if anything changes. Security of our community is the most important thing. But fun and creativity are up there too.
badblood
06/18/07		 maybe it's all the same thing - I haven't got a clue what anyone is talking about....tag this, tag that, html, sqml, blah, blah, blah
badblood
06/18/07		 "Security of our community is the most important thing. But fun and creativity are up there too."

Sounds like George Bush....
jorge
06/18/07		 What about the Excel Connector? Will that work?
reg
06/18/07		 I welcome common Horse Sense:




And I'll be smiling for keepin' pictures, font tags, and Links
winoffice
Feb 13		 No way! If HTML were to be disabled, then I could never format my text or even include a link...DEMOTED!
jorge
Feb 13		 Yea, the salad days were trimmed off early on, now all we have are links done through html otherwise the site can't handle links and eats up text.
winoffice
Feb 13		 philh, "A more simplified system of BBCode or something similar should be used instead."

**NOT LIKELY** as all of the Web runs on HTML these days, not BBCode. Even scripting languages like ASP.NET and PHP produce HTML in the end.
badblood
Feb 18		 if this is 'in progress' we will not be able to post pictures anymore. That's not very good. Lots of ideas use pictures to support them. The use of pictures in the truelife idea on the front page is a good example of a use of pictures.
jorge
Feb 18		 They just got rid of the abusive stuff, I don't think they'll remove any more or it will make the posting of ideas and related content pointless.
jervis961
Feb 18		 read all the comments from DA1 she said that they were only removing parts that were being abused but not touching the pictures and vids.
badblood
Feb 18		 oh so you're right, I let myself go for a second there....
kara_k
Mar 5		 Changed status to **REVIEWED**.

Like DA1 (caroline_d) said before, right now we only limit certain HTML tags that have potential security implications. With pictures, keep in mind that if the image is too large (and interferes with the look of the idea page) we will ask you to edit it. Thanks!
Please log in to post a comment
recently promoted by: