1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

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abrogard
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Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 8:32 am
Location: australia
Name: arthur brogard

1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

Post by abrogard »

I want prospective new user to email me personally and state why they want to be a user.
I turn now to an old board been sitting there for yonks and it has thousands of 'inactive' 'new registered'. I didn't know. got no messages.
I suppose their registration was automatic on returning the 'signup' email, would that be how it is?
None of them have made any posts.
That would be because they are 'inactive' I suppose.
It would be up to me to activate them.
As admin in acp or as moderator?
and how to know which are genuine and which just bots or spammers or whatever?
I think there is no way.
So can I arrange an email to new prospective users that directs them to write an email to 'admin@theboard' (or some address that is not a 'reply') and state why they should be allowed onboard?
I think my troubles will very swiftly shrink to nothing if I can do that. :)
SQLnovice
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Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2019 5:03 am

Re: 1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

Post by SQLnovice »

Enable your boards SPAM Countermeasures in ACP, under the General Tab; enable, 3, 4, enable, enable.
For Available Plug-Ins, consider the Q&A question and answer, where you can make up your own set of questions. If your forum was about tennis, you could ask the question 'What do tennis players hit the ball with? A what? Your custom answer would be "racket.' Or you could try variations of the same question, 'What do tennis players hit the ball with? A what? But spell it backwards _ _ _ _ _ or say spell it just using the consonants, no vowels. This way the person would need to know your language, alphabet and something about tennis, in order to submit their registration request.

Assuming the 1,000+ registrations are all bots, you could dump them quite easily in one swoop, using the ACP' Prune Users option (Users and Groups tab). You know they all have zero posts and you know they all joined in the last few days. Set the Joined After date as 2025-02-01 and for posts equal to, put 0. Under Options set Deactivate/Delete to Delete, and hit Submit.

All of them should show in the results. If you're unsure about any of them, select Administer User to confirm to yourself you want to delete them. Once you're satisfied, hit yes at the bottom and they're gone.

The good part is, if you end up deleting some legitimate new registered members, they'll probably contact you via the admin contact or just sign back up a second time.
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Mick
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Re: 1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

Post by Mick »

abrogard wrote: Wed Feb 05, 2025 5:04 amhow to know which are genuine and which just bots or spammers or whatever?
There are a few topics on similar subjects including this one which may help.
  • "The more connected we get the more alone we become” - Kyle Broflovski© 🇬🇧
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KevC
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Re: 1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

Post by KevC »

-:|:- Support Request Template -:|:-
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"Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb"
abrogard
Registered User
Posts: 354
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 8:32 am
Location: australia
Name: arthur brogard

Re: 1000's new registered inactive... what to do?

Post by abrogard »

thanks for those, guys. I'll have to take some time out and read 'em.

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