Delete users that registered after x date

[John Diver]

Hey,

I have a major problem with spam - Actually gave up on the forum for a long time because of it.

Is there a way to delete users that registered after a certain date?
Im sure I will be deleting some legit users but theres thousands of spam accounts and I want to delete them and all their posts.

The prune function doesnt have the option.

Hopefully someone can help so I can get my forum going again and get something to stop so much spam in the future

Thanks

[pet0etie]

in sql that must be something like :

delete from prefix_user
where date(from_unixtime(joindate)) >= '2016-01-01' 

more safer option would be to transfer those users to a particular usergroup with

update prefix_user
set usergroupid = ...
where date(from_unixtime(joindate)) >= '2016-01-01' 

[Paul M]

To be clear, you should not delete users with SQL like above, there will still be entries for them in other tables, which could cause you problems.

The second option would be better - create a new usergroup for them, and use the query to move them all into it. That also means you could move any real users back into your active usergroup if necessary.

[John Diver]

Hey, thank you both for replying

One thing though, if I changed people to a usergroup - How would that differentiate the legit users from the spammers?

I'm talking thousands of signups, Id say maybe 5% are legit.. Theres no way I can weed out all the spam accounts from legit..

If I moved the users how would I know the legit from the real if I still let them post? Id say it would be better to delete all from the main / rough date that they registered and allow the legit members to re-register. Im sure I will lose members but I cant run the forum with the huge amount of spam thats going on.

Anyone anyone recommend a good mod from vb.org to stop spam registrations please? The default vb options arent working now, it was fine before but spam accounts are getting past it

Thanks again

[Trevor Hannant]

As Paul says, don't delete via a query, especially when there's the Prune Users function in AdminCP!:

AdminCP > Users > Prune/Move Users

Do it in batches rather than try doing all at once...

[John Diver]

Hey Trevor,

The prune option doesnt give the option to delete registered users after a certain date, I was looking at that before so I thought an SQL query was the only option