[Forum] Ban and Delete Posts

[vBBurger]

When you ban a user in PHPBB, it gives you the option right then and there to "Delete all user posts".

Is this option available somewhere in vBulletin?

I would hate to have to manually look for everything they've posted and one-by-one delete everything.

You'll end up missing something.

Banning and deleting posts all at once makes much more sense.

How do we do this?

[Indyaboard]

Give "Delete User" in admin cp.. In next confirmation window that appears.. click delete posts.. I've shown an image below for your easy understanding

[Andy]

Banning and deleting posts all at once makes much more sense.

Perhaps PHPBB has a different purpose for banning. Here's what banning does in vbulletin:

https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/users_ban

[vBBurger]

Hi Andy -

Not clear what you mean. Why would there be a different purpose? The link you gave doesn't clarify anything for me along those lines. Right now I am dealing with spam. At least 30 new accounts which have posted 15+ messages across various forums. I would like to be able to ban the user and delete their posts all in one or two clicks. The only thing I can think regarding your statement is that banning is for punishment of legitimate users who have participated helpfully in the past. Therefore no need to delete their posts. But I think people also ban spam bots as well. To stop them from re-registering under a new name. I am assuming of course that banning is not just username based with vBulletin but also captures their IP and blocks them that way.

Thanks Indya!

[Andy]

Hi Andy -

Not clear what you mean. Why would there be a different purpose? The link you gave doesn't clarify anything for me along those lines. Right now I am dealing with spam. At least 30 new accounts which have posted 15+ messages across various forums. I would like to be able to ban the user and delete their posts all in one or two clicks. The only thing I can think regarding your statement is that banning is for punishment of legitimate users who have participated helpfully in the past. Therefore no need to delete their posts. But I think people also ban spam bots as well. To stop them from re-registering under a new name. I am assuming of course that banning is not just username based with vBulletin but also captures their IP and blocks them that way.

Thanks Indya!

Yes banning on vbulletin is intended as time-out, it restricts a member for a certain period of time from logging in using their account.

You mentioned you are having issues with spammers. Well first thing to note is that it's not possible to use an IP address to prevent spammers from registering. There are several ways to prevent spammers from registering. Here's what I suggest.

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/377906-How-to-prevent-spammers-from-registering-on-your-forum

another popular add-on is this one:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248042

[vBBurger]

Okay so vBulletin doesn't support banning IP's or hostnames? That's disappointing. Its a very common and necessary tool to stop people and spammers from re-registering.

There is no such functionality in vBulletin?

I should point out - we have had to use it constantly. We once had a flood of manually registering spammers all coming from china. Endless influx and they all got past our "smart" registration settings. Ultimately the only solution was to ban the IP range and hostname for china.

As for time outs: There is a "Never" option for lifting the ban.

Thank you for the tips on blocking spammers. That was my next task tonight. To try and figure out what the best registration settings are to block them.

[Andy]

Once you implement Q&A you will knock out 95% of of the spammers.

[beishe8]

There is no such functionality in vBulletin?
...
...try and figure out what the best registration settings are to block them.

There is that function in vB.
Not worth to use it because spammers are use a wide range of IP addresses, would you like to ban the whole World?

Use Questions and Answers it will stop the bots from registering.

[vBBurger]

This mod reflects the need for vBulletin to support IP banning and logging of previous violators.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248042

But for now I guess we will use the mod.

[Andy]

This mod reflects the need for vBulletin to support IP banning and logging of previous violators.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248042

But for now I guess we will use the mod.

Banning anyone by IP produces false positives. It's one of the problems with this add-on IMHO.

[Eve_Ra]

Banning on ip is a very bad idea: the lambda user has a different ip each time he connects to the net, and this banned ip can be given back to another user who is not at fault. By other side, you can banned a hostname.

For remove all posts of a spammer user, there is a simple function: clic the case of one message of this user and choose in the Moderation Tools Delete posts as spam. This allows to remove all posts and all threads started by this user and ban him in only one step. You can do this for more than one user at the same time: select one post by user and go on.

[John Lester]

The spam-o-matic mod does what you want. In the settings you can set it to completely erase (delete user and posts) the user you are banning.

[vBBurger]

Thanks everyone! Very helpful group here. Quite a relief from the PHPBB support forums

[Matthew Gordon]

IP Banning is in vBulletin and has been for as long as I can remember (Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> User Banning Options -> Banned IP Addresses). As others have said, though, it's not really a reliable method of banning people.

[vBBurger]

Getting Back to the original question:

How do you Ban Users and Delete all their posts?

SPAMMERS and SPAM BOTS who post several messages across many forums need their posts deleted. That's a given. But we also don't want them to return and set up a new username.

1) If we choose "Delete User" we are given the option to delete all their posts. But no "Ban Cookie" is placed on their local machine. They can come right back and do it all over again.

2) If we choose "Ban User" we get the benefit of the ban cookie to stop them from returning. But no option to "Delete all Posts" is given. We have to manually delete everything by hand.

We need to be able to Ban the individual, and delete all their posts if necessary.

Am I missing the logic of vBulletin regarding this?

Please advise.