Best way to handle imported users

[craigwalsh]

We have just purchased vBulletin for www.whitehousevets.com/forum (http://www.whitehousevets.com/forum) --- to replace a SMF installation. The main reason for this upgrade? The huge number of spam (probably bot) registrations on the SMF forum.

I was able to import the forum postings, etc., from SMF to vBulletin. Surprised myself....

I just didn't have the time to go through 600+ users, of which probably 550 are spammers, so I imported all of the users --- but into an "Imported User" group.

I think the goal is to now identify the real users from the bogus users, and delete the spammers. Is there a preferred way of doing this?

In the SMF installation we had e-mail verificiation set up, but my guess is that the spamers use an e-mail address for a short period of time and then close it (or it's closed). I see that vBulletin can send out messages to all forum users --- or users in a particular group (in this case the "Imported User" group).

Would it be advisable to send all users an e-mail message? If the e-mail bounces, is there a way of deleting users whose e-mail addresses don't work? I guess I am trying to identify the group of users who haven't posted a message AND whose e-mail address doesn't work.

There will be people who have posted a valid message, but who've changed their e-mail address and haven't let us know.

Or is it possible --- and, if so, would it make sense --- to move all "Imported Users" into a group that needs e-mail re-activation?

Any suggestions on how to handle this will be appreciated. We essentially stopped approving new users on the SMF forum because there were so many registrations, and most of them were bogus. So I suspect that in the group of users are some real users, and I would hate to lose them --- or tick them off --- in my quest to get rid of the spammers.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Craig

[Floris]

Well, we do not know who the spammers are.
If it was my forum I'd just throw all imported users into the registered usergroup. And when they start spamming the moderators will just ban them.

[craigwalsh]

Okay, but is there a way to identify imported users who do not have valid e-mail addresses?

I would like to send folks a message telling them about the improvements that are part of the vBulletin forum (vs the SMF forum) and messages will inevitably bounce.

Is there an easy way to find users whose e-mail addresses aren't working/messages bounce?

Or, in the alternative, send out an e-mail asking folks to re-activate?

[craigwalsh]

One other thought on the "if and when they start spamming ban them" approach. The White House Vets forum is a family forum, where people ask for information about their cat, dog, bunny rabbit, etc.

Some of the spam messages in the past have been pretty nasty. And we're not here 24/7, so they can sit there for a few hours before they are zapped.

Naturally those few hours are when Google visits the site, or when someone's young daughter comes calling.

[texterted]

You'll have to set up post moderation then really...

[Wayne Luke]

Moved because this is related more to operational aspects instead of technical.

Here is how you weed out the spammers/non-active users.

1) Create new usergroup called "Trusted Users".

2) Promote Imported Users to Trusted based on time registered and number of posts. If their account is older than 30 days and they have made 5 or more posts.

3) Those that don't get promoted are either spammers or inactive.

There is still some "wiggle room" in this and you can't be 100% sure but it will allow you to grow your forum past the import without worrying too much about old spam accounts.

[craigwalsh]

Thank you for the suggestions. I appreciate them.

A more specific question:

If I send an e-mail message to all users, is there a way to then do a search and find those users who have bounced e-mail?

I really don't want to lose any real members, and some may not have posted many messages or may have done so some time ago.

I have this theory, however, that if I can easily find users who have bounced e-mail, I can put them into a group that can't post messages going forward.

Thanks again for all of the help.

[Floris]

make a new email called bounce@yourdomain
(like a pop3 account)
and use that when you email
Make sure your email include
your account details:
login: $username
registered account: $userid
email: $email

this way when they bounce, the original email discloses which username on the forum they have or their id.

You could perhaps write a php script that checks hourly into this pop3 account and preg_match for these details and move these users into a special usergroup or auto delete them if their postcount is =< 1


Something i hope vb eventually supports as default feature or addon in version 4 or above , in one form or another