Deleting spam profiles

[Washerhelp]

Hello there. I've been extremely lax regarding my forum members. For years, I didn't pay any attention to new members. But recently I have started paying more attention, and realised I have hundreds of spam profiles, 99% of them from India.

I'd been puzzled for ages about why so many people from India signed up but never posted anything. But because anything they posted would have to be moderated by me, I wasn't concerned. Foolishly I'd never noticed all these accounts had blatant spam links and adverts for all sorts of rubbish including massage parlours in Vietnam in the About Me section.

So now I'm manually going through each of my 6,500 members and flagging them all as spam. I have a few questions, please, that I would appreciate an answer to -

1: Could there be any issue with me flagging so many users as spammers in such rapid succession? I must have flagged 50 yesterday in 4 hours, with some of the accounts having been created 2 to 3 years ago. This is just a slight concern, I'm just wondering if ironically Invisions' antispam system could think I am spamming them 🙂

2: Am I correct in thinking that these accounts should definitely be disabled and deleted in the sense that they are potentially doing my forum some SEO harm? I presume at least that thinning out hundreds of spam profiles would relieve some resources or database space?

3: Is there a more efficient method of routing out all of these profiles other than literally going through every single one of them? I spent about 4 hours doing it yesterday, and expect to be doing it all day today, and possibly tomorrow as well. Is there a way for example to pull out only profiles that have filled in their about me section, or all members that have never posted anything?

And finally, once I have flagged them all as spam, and their accounts have been locked, am I correct in thinking that the best thing is to completely delete all of the accounts to alleviate any space they are taking up in the database, and if so, I can only see how I can delete them all one at a time, which unless there is a better way is another laborious task.

Many thanks, and I apologise for asking multiple questions

Andy

[Marc Stridgen]

41 minutes ago, Washerhelp said:

1: Could there be any issue with me flagging so many users as spammers in such rapid succession? I must have flagged 50 yesterday in 4 hours, with some of the accounts having been created 2 to 3 years ago. This is just a slight concern, I'm just wondering if ironically Invisions' antispam system could think I am spamming them 🙂

There would be no problem with flagging multiple spammers on the system it a small space of time

42 minutes ago, Washerhelp said:

2: Am I correct in thinking that these accounts should definitely be disabled and deleted in the sense that they are potentially doing my forum some SEO harm? I presume at least that thinning out hundreds of spam profiles would relieve some resources or database space?

They should be removed on the basis they are spam accounts. Whether or not they would affect SEO would depend on what has been being posted on your site. If you have hundreds that have all been posting, then it would of course be taking space.

45 minutes ago, Washerhelp said:

3: Is there a more efficient method of routing out all of these profiles other than literally going through every single one of them? I spent about 4 hours doing it yesterday, and expect to be doing it all day today, and possibly tomorrow as well. Is there a way for example to pull out only profiles that have filled in their about me section, or all members that have never posted anything?

You can use search on the members section of the admin CP to search for members which fit your criteria and then use the prune link provided as needed.

[Washerhelp]

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Whether or not they would affect SEO would depend on what has been being posted on your site.

Many thanks Marc, there's no spam posted as every single post has to be moderated by me, which is easy because I only get a dozen or so a week. All their spam was in their "About me?" section.

[Washerhelp]

Thank you for your help, apologies but I forgot to ask one final question on this topic. Once you have permanently banned a member, but then you delete their profile and account, does their name, address and IP address remain in the database to prevent them reregistering in future?

[CheersnGears]

32 minutes ago, Washerhelp said:

Thank you for your help, apologies but I forgot to ask one final question on this topic. Once you have permanently banned a member, but then you delete their profile and account, does their name, address and IP address remain in the database to prevent them reregistering in future?

I'd like to know this too

[Adriano Faria]

It probably does if you check the BAN MEMBER option:

Edited August 26, 2022 by Adriano Faria

[Jim M]

3 hours ago, Washerhelp said:

Many thanks Marc, there's no spam posted as every single post has to be moderated by me, which is easy because I only get a dozen or so a week. All their spam was in their "About me?" section.

If you simply ban the member but do not outright ban these details, it will not stay in the database. You would need to leave the account.

[CheersnGears]

1 hour ago, Washerhelp said:

Thank you for your help, apologies but I forgot to ask one final question on this topic. Once you have permanently banned a member, but then you delete their profile and account, does their name, address and IP address remain in the database to prevent them reregistering in future?

If the IP address is from a non English-speaking country, I generally put that into my CleanTalk firewall ban list.  I no longer rely solely on the SpamDefense to protect my site and CleanTalk is the best $8 a year you can spend.