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Purge Users with 0 Posts (Spammers)

I have a couple of thousand spammers to remove from my forum

Most of them are ghost accounts with zero posts

1/ How do I purge them from the forum?

2/ How do I disable new registrations and add new users on a manual basis?

For (1) I can see there is a MySQL table called User and another called UserRole ... I can't just empty the tables because that would remove bona fide users.

Any suggestions?

Comments

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    Use cleanser plugin to get rid of the non confirmed applicants and use bot stop plugin to stop them from doing it again

  • thank you

    is cleanser patched and ready to use or is that comment about editing the php after download still applicable?

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    these are the best plugins for this purpose go to addons section search cleanser and botstop . Download install and enable in the dashboard. Make sure you follow the directions for cleanser to the letter. Or you might wipe out your set up...... It is easy, make back up of the list generated and then purge. make sure that only those you want to delete are selected. For example all of those who have not confirmed their email. So you choose that list.

  • is cleanser patched and ready to use or is that comment about editing the php after download still applicable?

    what specifically are you referring to?

    People haven't reported any problems that I know of (except for the ones who didn't read the readme file).

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/22286/make-sure-you-change-this-in-cleanser-plugin-v-1-0#latest

    "after the first line in the program, please add: if (!Gdn::Session()->CheckPermission('Gard..."

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    No he updated it since then. peregrine's plugins are the best and never break even if you try :)

  • @vrijvlinder said:
    No he updated it since then. peregrine's plugins are the best and never break even if you try :)

    never say never. :)

    Although this plugin seems to function properly as far as I know and hear.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder Papillon-Sauvage MVP

    400 downloads and counting ! all satisfied customers :)

  • thank you

    I can see these plugins require v2, so I have to upgrade my forum first, then I will let you know how I get on

  • Okay, I have botspot installed but the spammers still keep coming with new registrations.

    Is there a way that I can disable the Activity page? spam gets posted as activities rather than discussions

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited June 2013

    questions, first.

    do you have registration approval, if not - that would be your best choice. then make an applicant role with restricted permissions.

    answer to disabling activity - search the forum. you can do it a couple of ways (kind of).

    http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/168644/#Comment_168644

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • I unticked the activity view options in guest/applicant roles - this should stop search engines from seeing the spam

    I changed the registration method to "invitation" and restricted it to just admins that can send them (me)

    I posted a message as an announcement, asking new members to email me to request an invite

    I backed up my database and then used cpanel and phypMyAdmin to empty the GDN_Activity table (truncate)

    I have therefore removed the incentive to post (activity is hidden to guests and search engines), and the automated means to register, as well as purged the forum of activity message spam. The only thing I have to do is see whether spammers are prepared to make cheeky requests for new accounts, or if they use any of their previously registered accounts that are still present.

    I will report back with details of how this goes for me

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited June 2013

    just an option - that is not intuitive via permissions.

    you could have also unticked profile edit from the dashboard for the role, and it will not allow users to share or make comments on the activity page but they can still view it.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • Thank you - there isn't an explicit "profile edit" checkbox but I have now unticked the member options for view activity. I tested unticking view profile but this prevented access to password management.

  • there isn't an explicit "profile edit" checkbox but

    not sure what you mean.

    http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/183317/#Comment_183317

    6th row down in this image

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • That checkbox isn't present on my forum.

    For the "member" role the only checkbox on the Profiles line is for "view"

    Just as a quick update (+24hrs since making changes) I had just one instance of activity spam, and I haven't had any new signups, or requests for new accounts, or any other activity spam posted.

  • (+2 weeks) I had a few more spammers making use of their accounts to post spam on the activity page. But only a handful. And when they did their accounts were easily removed. There are still 1000+ spam accounts registered on my forum but they appear to have been abandoned.

    If anyone else has problems with activity spam a simple starting point is to follow the steps I outlined on this topic on 2 June.

    I hope to find a suitable way of purging accounts with 0 posts - I couldn't get cleanser to work but this was probably because I needed a newer version of Vanilla. I will try again after the next upgrade.

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