Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

partikule · 2012-08-23 02:16:50

After few month, you will certainly notice that some registered users never post anything or simply never logged in.
Many reasons to that :
1. These users can be humans, but generally, if one human register to your forum, he will at least post one time.
2. These users can be fake users generated by spam bots (If you activated "Verify registrations", the user has to use the password he got from the forum. Most of the lazy spammers will use a fake email address and never receive the password, so never be able to post anything)

Anyway, lets say you have dozen of inactive users and you want to "clean" your users table :

1. Make a backup of your users table,
2. If you don't do the point 1, do not go further,
3. Have a look at the number of iinactive users :

select id, username, DATEDIFF(now(), from_unixtime(last_visit)) as days 
from users
where num_posts = 0
 -- exclude the "Guest" user
and id != 1
 -- Inactive since more than 90 days
and DATEDIFF(now(), from_unixtime(last_visit)) > 90
order by days ASC;

4. Delete the inactive users

delete from users 
where num_posts = 0
and id != 1 -- exclude the "Guest" user
and DATEDIFF(now(), from_unixtime(last_visit)) > 90;

5. To see the new number of users on the bottom of your board index, delete the file /cache/cache_users_info.php

Tested and validated on 1.5.0.

Last edited by partikule (2012-08-23 02:25:18)

Franz · 2012-08-23 08:31:50

Thank you. Stickied.

Studio384 · 2012-08-24 22:21:11

Great help for my forum! Thanks!

partikule · 2012-09-09 13:20:58

@Studio384 : Thanks !
The next post will be on how detect and delete spam users and their linked post...
Like "cs55slb55i" and his post ....

Jack · 2012-09-12 07:23:50

Very useful, has it the same behaviour with older version (such as 1.4.2)?

[I reply by myself: yes]

Last edited by Jack (2013-11-19 22:31:10)

Mo · 2017-01-25 22:22:55

Pretty cool you can do actions like this. Now I just have to figure out what that code is and how to actually use it. I'm guessing its php but I have no idea right now. I have 90 days to figure it out I guess. Right now I just keep a list of who is who in my forum and I'm always checking the profiles of new users to see if its a spam bot or other nasty.

m88web · 2018-03-28 14:44:38

How to enable capcha for register new account to protect machine spam?

Bryan256 · 2018-03-28 15:14:23

You need to install some kind of captcha mod or plugin, there seem to be many:
Topics with posts containing 'captcha'
=========================================

https://fluxbb.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7995
===================================
https://fluxbb.org/resources/mods/real-register-captcha

I don't use a captcha myself, so am not sure which ones works best.

Forums

#1 2012-08-23 02:16:50

Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#2 2012-08-23 08:31:50

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#3 2012-08-24 22:21:11

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#4 2012-09-09 13:20:58

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#5 2012-09-12 07:23:50

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#6 2017-01-25 22:22:55

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#7 2018-03-28 14:44:38

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

#8 2018-03-28 15:14:23

Re: Maintenance : Clean and delete inactive / spam users

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