Download: Duplicate Members Logger

[Dmacleo]

Reporting a file broken just to draw attention for a problem that you haven't seen others complaining about is a remarkable practice... Well done!!!

Anyway, you can PM some admin login info to your board, and I'll take a look.

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/367036-installing-hooks-and-apps/
he did as instructed.

[Kurt De Pauw]

Hello PrinceOfAbbys,

Sorry but I have to say this
As I have read in your support topic it looks like you are not the most friendly person.

I like the app, it was well spend money ... but please be a little more friendly to customers.

[3DKiwi]

I've found the hook author to be very friendly and helpful. All you had to do was ask for help and let him have a look at your site.

3DKiwi

[PrinceOfAbyss]

I don't want to argue with you Kurt, but what did you read in this topic that made you believe I'm not friendly to customers (or not)? I respect every person, and that's exactly what I expect from others too.

But when I'm on vacation and get a notification email that my app was reported as broken... why didn't you bother to send me a PM? You opened a topic in another area about hooks etc, you reported the app, and didn't bother to do the easiest and most expected thing: Send me a PM...

Anyway, I'm happy you like my app. :)

[Kurt De Pauw]

I appolgies to you my friend, it was me just being frustrated.
Please no hard feelings, your app is awsome

[Tsvi]

I have a good idea about the next release of this modifications.
You can add that it will notify about a new duplicates into the Notification Center, like in MUDD.
It'll be much more attractive as an administrator i can be updated in few moments about a new duplicate user,
because that way I don't need to go into the ACP every time to get updated about new duplicate users.
Because in some cases it may be critical to catch those 'bad' users as fast as possible.

Plus, is there a chance you will make it work by cookie what flash is disabled? if that's even possible. Just an improvement,
and I know that chance is not so high when it comes to users that disabling their flash in their browser.

BTW, when do you think you'll release version 2.1.0?

[PrinceOfAbyss]

What do you mean by Notification Center? The one in the public side? I have never studied how an app can interact with that one. Instead, the new release will implement a setting where an admin will choose to totally disable new registrations from people who already hold an account (they will also be able to exclude specific members from that global rule).

About the new release, I'm not sure about that as I have an idea that I'm doing a research on how I could implement it. If that is implemented, you can expect a new release in September. Otherwise, even sooner than that.

[3DKiwi]

Preventing registrations from people with existing accounts will be a great enhancement. There will need to be some message explaining why. I would want to add a link to my "Contact us" page in this message so people with legitimate reasons for creating 2 accounts from the same computer can get in touch e.g. 2 people sharing the same computer.

3DKiwi

[Tsvi]

What do you mean by Notification Center? The one in the public side? I have never studied how an app can interact with that one. Instead, the new release will implement a setting where an admin will choose to totally disable new registrations from people who already hold an account (they will also be able to exclude specific members from that global rule).

About the new release, I'm not sure about that as I have an idea that I'm doing a research on how I could implement it. If that is implemented, you can expect a new release in September. Otherwise, even sooner than that.

Oh damn, I got you mistaken. I didn't mean the notifications.. I wanted to say the Moderator ACP (index.php?app=core&module=modcp)
In the report center (index.php?app=core&module=reports&do=index). And it's not so hard to implement. I studied a bit the MUDD application which is doing the same as you app doing,
only it's not working on IPB 3.3.x, but I'm not sure the MUDD code that has to do with inserting a new report will work on this version of IPB, but it'll be almost the same i guess:
1. include the class of the reports center.
2. creating new object.
3. placing few lines that inserting our new log.
And all that you do when you create a new log in the ACP.

If you want to take a look of how MUDD does it, just download MUDD2, get into the:
adminapplications_addonothermuddsourcesclassesfunctions.php

search this function: public function doReport( $muddID )
If it's not completely working, i bet there is a need to a little customize it and it should work smoothly. And if it's still won't work, you can search for the updated function
that has to do with creating new reports after pressing the 'report' button on every each post. Should do the magic ;)

BTW, I encountered a little bug when I tested your app. I registered with a new username, and after that i got a duplicate user alert on me, but it told me I'm a duplicate user
of another member in my community which has nothing to do with me of course (has another ISP, mean never had my IP. Plus, he has different computer name if that matters).
So it was kinda strange.
So maybe it'll be a good choice to add an option to ignore a record. Because in those cases I don't want to ban / delete or exclude that case. And of course i don't that record to stay for ever in this page.

You have a very good mod, it'll be very awesome if you'll continue to update it's features so it'll be suitable to all admins.
Good luck ;)

Edited:
By the way, found an API for how to add notifications (if you'll want to include that too, not only the reports)
http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/documentation/index.html/_/developer-resources/api-methods/notifications-r723
Kinda easy.

[PrinceOfAbyss]

@3DKiwi: The error message will be user editable in the ACP, so you will be able to add an email link for users with specific reasons for creating a second account to be able to explain them to you. ;)

@Tsvi: Now that makes a lot more sense, I mean the notification in ModCP. I'll figure out how to implement this. I don't promise this will be in 2.1, but in 2.2 it will be for sure.

BTW, I encountered a little bug when I tested your app. I registered with a new username, and after that i got a duplicate user alert on me, but it told me I'm a duplicate user

of another member in my community which has nothing to do with me of course (has another ISP, mean never had my IP. Plus, he has different computer name if that matters).

Now this is something that I'd like to investigate if you still have the records in your DB. I mean, the way the flash object works is 100% foolproof. There is practically no way it can report you as a dup of another account unless that account was logged in the forum by your computer. BTW, this new feature in ACP that you can temporarily log in as an other user is the only way the app can be "fooled" as it wasn't programmed with that feature in mind. So, if you haven't used that feature for that particular member, do you mind me taking a look in your ACP to investigate this?

[Tsvi]

@3DKiwi: The error message will be user editable in the ACP, so you will be able to add an email link for users with specific reasons for creating a second account to be able to explain them to you. ;)

@Tsvi: Now that makes a lot more sense, I mean the notification in ModCP. I'll figure out how to implement this. I don't promise this will be in 2.1, but in 2.2 it will be for sure.

Now this is something that I'd like to investigate if you still have the records in your DB. I mean, the way the flash object works is 100% foolproof. There is practically no way it can report you as a dup of another account unless that account was logged in the forum by your computer. BTW, this new feature in ACP that you can temporarily log in as an other user is the only way the app can be "fooled" as it wasn't programmed with that feature in mind. So, if you haven't used that feature for that particular member, do you mind me taking a look in your ACP to investigate this?

Well, I don't have the records anymore. I re-installed the app. ;(
Anyway, that is kinda interesting fact about the login to another accounts from the ACP. I don't really remember that i tried doing that, but for sure i can tell you that i didn't do that
after i installed your app.
Anyway, I have a question... this flash cookie.. what does it do? I mean what data it has on it, or collects from the local computer ?


BTW, another good idea for your mod.. which I don't think it's so hard to implement.. is creating a white list by groups?
Which means, you can choose all the moderator groups... and if they'll create a duplicate account it won't be counted and recorded. It's a feature that existed in MUDD. And when i say 'existed' it's because the developer of this app isn't going to continue developing his app for the latest versions of IPB.

[Kurt De Pauw]

I'm actually facing the same problem
is it possible that the flash cookies is cached on a proxy ?

[PrinceOfAbyss]

What same problem are you facing?

[Tsvi]

What same problem are you facing?

I think he meant the problem i faced.

[PrinceOfAbyss]

@Kurt: If that's the problem you face, can you PM me with a temp login to your ACP to have a look at it?

@Tsvi: Your suggestion of exception based on groups won't be implemented I'm afraid mate! :P I don't think it's worth the time spent in it, since you can easily exclude the particular members instead. I mean, how many moderators can a community have, and how many of them HAVE a reason to create multiple accounts for them to justify a per group exception of dup accounts?

[Tsvi]

@Tsvi: Your suggestion of exception based on groups won't be implemented I'm afraid mate! :tongue: I don't think it's worth the time spent in it, since you can easily exclude the particular members instead. I mean, how many moderators can a community have, and how many of them HAVE a reason to create multiple accounts for them to justify a per group exception of dup accounts?

Well, actually you are right. It's not so necessary after all.

[AlexJ]

How can i get DB records for you? I am sure i had seen couple of members like that and i know for sure they are different. If you can investigate and fix the issue, it would be great.

Regards

[Tsvi]

How can i get DB records for you? I am sure i had seen couple of members like that and i know for sure they are different. If you can investigate and fix the issue, it would be great.

Regards

You just log to your phpMyAdmin web interface where you manage your SQL database (it's mostly working on phpMyAdmin, so i'm guessing here)
Anyway, select your database in the menu, and then you press "Export" in the upper menu, choose the table named 'duplicates' and export it to .sql file,
and just send it to PrinceOfAbyss's PM. It would be better if you mention their user IDs so he will be able to look on the right records. ;)

[Kurt De Pauw]

Members being logged as duplicate but actually they are not.
My guess something with proxy caching on the same isp.
They have the same ip addresses but ... They are on a dynamic adsl ip address.

What information do you need ?
Access to the admin panel ?

I can send that with a pm if you like

[PrinceOfAbyss]

Guys guys... There is absolutely NO chance that the app shows accounts as duplicates, unless they were actually logged in on the same computer. The only case this is not *so* true is when the admin uses the feature "Log in as a member" in the ACP, and this just because the current version of the app was not built with this feature in mind.

That's why I got SO surprised when Tsvi told me that it happened to his own computer, where he must have known what accounts were logged in on his computer, but according to him he doesn't remember if he used the "Log in as a member" feature for that particular account.

Otherwise, you can't be certain Kurt that the two accounts the app report as duplicates, weren't actually logged in from the same machine at least once. Can you?

[Kurt De Pauw]

I didn't use the "log in as member feature"
i'm not 100% sure that they are not really the same ... so ... it's a wild guess

[Kurt De Pauw]

Prince,

Is it possible to clear the logs ?
I needed to do some changes and needed to login as a members ( 30 times )
Now this is logged, is there a way to clear the logs instead of the options: exclude ?
Maybe some SQL table to clear ?

[Tsvi]

Prince,

Is it possible to clear the logs ?

I needed to do some changes and needed to login as a members ( 30 times )

Now this is logged, is there a way to clear the logs instead of the options: exclude ?

Maybe some SQL table to clear ?

You can't clear it via ACP except using exclude button, and yes I think it's a very necessary option to let us clear whole table or clear unwanted records (Hope it'll be in the next version).
What you can do, is empty a table named 'duplicates' in your SQL database. It should do the work. ;)

[PrinceOfAbyss]

Guys I was beta testing in my own live forum the new release, when I came up with a totally new approach, much cleaner (behind the scene) and which will be much faster etc etc... I'm currently working on this new approach, but it has one "flaw". It won't be able to utilize the already stored data, not because I can't convert the locally stored in the tables data, but because the actual data is stored in the users' computers (in the Flash cookie).

I'll report back soon about the progress (not much more to do).

[Kurt De Pauw]

Great news !