Suggestions - Prune guests topics and posts

[3DKiwi]

When a member is deleted any posts by them then have the member name something like "guests_member_name". There's no way to search for these topics and posts. I would like an ACP clean up tool that gives is the ability to remove topics started by guests / deleted members and also a task to delete posts.

Currently you have to manually go through your forums page by page to delete topics started by guests. Deleting posts is out of the question unless you delete them first using the tools in the member section prior to deleting the member. That's fine but if you mass prune inactive members as some of us do you can't delete their topics and posts.

Thanks
3DKiwi

[shaks]

I agree, and this would be a great opportunity to add this feature while revamping the "guest posts" issue:

[BethmooraRaven]

Just searching on google for this very topic, didn't realize there was one here. ;)

I agree, a search for posts by *guests* would be a great thing to have. Sometimes, as you've already said, when a member is deleted it leaves a lot of stuff on the boards that may need to be deleted out, but finding them manually is a real chore, especially on a busy board. :(

If someone could add this search feature you'd be doing a lot of us a huge favour!!!! ;) x

[Rheddy]

This used to be a good idea having guests post on my forums but when my community started getting attacked by spammers and spambots, I quickly put an end to that and simply made my forums "read only" unless you're a registered member. That was about two years ago. And, for pruning, I routinely prune older iniactive topics and members who don't post anything and simply register for an account just to abandon the account.

[Rimi]

There is a tool in IP.Board 3.3 that allows you to prune guest's posts.

EDIT: It's in this blog entry, but I can't seem to find the actual tool..

[3DKiwi]

Thanks Rimi. I'll look out for this in 3.3 when I upgrade.

3DKiwi

[Rimi]

Thanks Rimi. I'll look out for this in 3.3 when I upgrade.

3DKiwi

I actually can't find it...

[3DKiwi]

I actually can't find it...

I meant I'll try to find it when I upgrade.

3DKiwi

[Rimi]

I meant I'll try to find it when I upgrade.

3DKiwi

Ok. Let me know if you can find it.

[shaks]

Found it! It's easy, really.

In ACP > Members TAB > Members > Member Management Tools
You will find it right under Guest Tools which is the last option on that page. :sorcerer:

[Rimi]

Found it! It's easy, really.

In ACP > Members TAB > Members > Member Management Tools

You will find it right under Guest Tools which is the last option on that page. :sorcerer:

Nice job. I didn't even think to look there. Always thought that page would be renamed "IP Management Tools" but I guess not anymore.

[cybernck]

I thought it was better to reply here, rather than start a new topic.

So, is it possible to delete all leftover topics started by Guest_member_name in 3.4.0?

I was going to do it manually, by sorting the topics by topic starter, but unfortunately it still sorts them by member name, not including the Guest prefix :(.

P.S. Any ideas as to how to purge all member titles and statuses, as I've disabled them now but they still show up?

[3DKiwi]

To purge member titles and statuses you would need to run a MySQL query. To clear all titles the query would be (substituting your db prefix):

update ipb_members set title = ''

In the ACP under members there's a tool to remove all posts by a particular guest name. I run this myself every time I come across guests posts where the member has been deleted.

3DKiwi

[cybernck]

Thanks. I thought as much, but member statuses look a bit more complicated with three tables of their own.

Sure, I know about it, it has been mentioned only a few posts above, but I've got about 3000 guest_member topics to remove :o.

Edit: Looking at a clean test board's DB, those member_status tables were empty, so I simply emptied them on the live board and it seems to have done the trick.

[cybernck]

As for removing Guest_member topics, I've just come up with a functional solution, so if anyone's interested, I'll post a short guide.

[3DKiwi]

As for removing Guest_member topics, I've just come up with a functional solution, so if anyone's interested, I'll post a short guide.

I'm interested. Thanks.

[cybernck]

OK. I should have posted the guide right away it seems :lol:.

Anyway, as it's only possible to remove all posts of a single Guest_ member through ACP, I've had to do "open heart surgery" on the DB.

It is easy to find and manipulate with Guest_ members and their topics or posts, but I've done the actual deleting through IPB front end, so I wouldn't end up with any orphaned replies.

I've only wanted to remove the topics/posts from a single forum (with an ID of Y for the purpose of this guide), but the same procedure applies for deleting all Guest_ topics on the board.

Of course, before attempting to do this, backup your database!

1) Create a new temporary "Pruned Topics" forum and get its ID, that we will call X.

2) Go to phpMyAdmin and run this query:

UPDATE `ibf_topics` SET `forum_id` = 'X' WHERE `starter_id` ='0' AND `forum_id` = 'Y';

This will move all the topics (and associated posts) from the forum you want to clean up to the new Pruned Topics forum.

Should you want to move topics started by Guest_ members from ALL your forums, run this query instead:

UPDATE `ibf_topics` SET `forum_id` = 'X' WHERE `starter_id` ='0';

3) Go to ACP and Resynchronize the affected forums (or the whole board in the other case)

4) Empty your Pruned Topics forum either through ACP or by navigating to the forum and using Prune function

5) Enjoy your cleaned-up board :smile:.

That's it, I hope it helps someone out there and that it will become a standard option in IPB or at least that someone will make a hook for it.

Best regards, Nikica.

[AlexWebsites]

Thanks Nikica, this helped me clean up my forum quickly. I was not watching it and it got spammed hard.