after creating another user group some cron job keeps changing it back n forth see screenshot

[spirogg]

hello so I created and changed the registered user group to only be able to post 3 posts and they will have to be moderated, then after that they become Full Posting group, so I added another user group called Full Posting

since this change was made, I have been making some edits to the site, but NOT to secondary user groups, just editing custom styles or extra less file with color changes font changes div changes and that it.

- so I don't know how i just looked at change log file and saw that every hour or so it keeps changing back n forth my secondary user group settings for my main account ( I am the admin on this account)
see below screenshots and log file screenshot




then changed it




here is the log

• see how many times and the times corresponding to these changes?
• what cron can create this issue and how to fix it?

because it seems when someone signs up I don't have access to see them as pending in the moderator dropdown pending?


anyone else see this on their forum ?


Spiro

 

[ENF]

We need to see the rule setup to understand what exactly is set. You have a conflicting user group promotion somewhere that is reverting the change each time.

 

[spirogg]

 

[spirogg]

@ENF is that a screen shot you needed to see, if not I am not sure where else to screenshot please do let me know ?

and thanks so much for taking the time to help me
I appreciate it

PS that is the only usergroup that is setup the Full Posting one other than the regular ones that come default for xenforo

 

[spirogg]

 

[ENF]

@ENF is that a screen shot you needed to see, if not I am not sure where else to screenshot please do let me know ?

There are no other promotion rules that could be conflicting?

The basic principle is that a promotion is applied until the criteria is no longer met or it's changed. If your account has more than 3 posts it should be promoted until something changes. (either the post count drops on the account or some other factor is applied to cause the promotion to be reverted)

I would consider:

• other promotions with conflicting settings
• addons that touch or impact user group/role settings.

The user group promotions in XF is fairly stable. I have not had any issue using it, but we have run into conflicts before which were by our own fault.

I can't tell much from the screenshots except that the promotion appears to be configured correctly.

 

[spirogg]

I have no other promotions add, I did have users that were signed up prior to me making this rule?

The way I think of it, if I am a registered user and secondary user of admin moderator and full posting, but I already have made lots of posts, when I select this, will it counteract me as an admin?

or another registered user that was able to post, but now I set it for 3 posts to be moderated, will then they all fall into this issue? since I have not approved 3 of their posts?

this is strange -

 

[jeb35]

I think part of the problem is where you checked the box that has the user is not a member of. Uncheck it and save changes.

 

[djbaxter]

There's a much easier way to do this that doesn't require any new usergroups or user promotions.

AdminCP >> Setup >> Options >> Spam Management

Scroll down to Maximum messages to check for spam and set that to 3.

Users will only have their messages checked as spam until they have successfully posted this many messages. Use 0 to disable all spam checks.

Then below that:

Spam phrases = /^http(|s):\/\/\S+/si to disable links (optional).

And below that Action: set to

• Manually approve

I use this to send the first few posts for new users to the moderation queue.

 

[MySiteGuy]

I resolved it. Issue was the admins were set as Registered Primary and Admin secondary, and the promotion rule was doing a catch-all on all Registered users. I added not conditions for Admins and Mods.

 

[Paul B]

Issue was the admins were set as Registered Primary and Admin secondary

That's correct and how all users should be set up - with the Registered group as the primary.

 

[MySiteGuy]

That's correct and how all users should be set up - with the Registered group as the primary.

Yes, I am aware of this, and it's how it sets up the admin when doing a clean install. I was working with someone else's import, asked to do unrelated tasks, and made an assumption about the groups. The overwhelming majority of VB based forums I import the owner used Admin, Super mod and Moderator groups as primary (and far too many other groups this way to). It can create some headaches.

 

[spirogg]

ok well it still seems to be an issue,

so I know we will ge it right somehow, but lets start from the beginning

hypothetically, I have 20 registered members all of them are under: Registered user group, they all can post freely and now I want to setup New users to get their first 3 posts approved before they can post freely.


so here is the beginning of XenForo

When we install XenForo,
we are automatically Admins but our primary is under Registered user group, since the trickle down effect starts from registered user group CORRECT?

and now we either create a user or someone people signed up ( should be the same) they automatically get set under the Registered user group... CORRECT?

so we have setup admin has to approve new users or sign ups

and now we get some signups and we approve them and they are under registered users and in VALID state
CORRECT?

ok they are posting and posting and adding threads for a month ( example)

and I as admin decide I want to set a promotion for New signups to have to moderate their first 3 posts / threads

so I will add a new user group and a promotion

so now we go to: ACP> groups and permissions > user groups
select registred so we are in:

Edit user group: Registered​

Submit content without approval. NO
Add media items without approval NO
Create resources. NO


and we select top right corner (add user group)
and we make a user group and name it:
Full Posting ( example, we can call it whatever we want)
and we only select 3 things to YES

Submit content without approval. YES
Add media items without approval YES
Create resources. YES
then save..

So now we want to create a promotion to upgrade registered user group to Full Posting user group


now we go back to: ACP> groups and permissions >

User group promotions​

we select top right corner: add promotion
then we add a title for the promotion:
TITLE: Promote to Full Posting ( or whatever promotion title we want to call name it)

Next: Add user to user groups: we check mark Full Posting ( or whatever user group you just created)
next select the tab: apply this promotion while ..

and we scroll down to where it says :
User Groups: User is a member of any of the selected user groups: and we select Registered

now we go to:
Content and achievements User has posted at least X messages: we add 3 (example)
so this is stating if a new registered user posts 3 posts/threads they all need approval.
then we save and we are done.

is this above correct settings?

- if so what happens to the other registered users whom were not part of this promotion that were members before I decided to set this up?
( since I edited user group Registered to NO for posting without approval

- will they get stuck and never be promoted cause I have to manually set them to the new user group ( Full Posting) ?

if so How do you add all previous members all at once to Full Posting ?
because when you change the main user group for Registered to NO in those 3 areas above, will that not affect the members already able to post without approval ?


Also, Can you please tell me if my settings are correct above ?

I am hoping for someone to read my full post and give details if I missed something please

thank you so much...

 

[JordanH]

That's correct and how all users should be set up - with the Registered group as the primary.

This has been a thing since the dawn of time for XenForo.
What is the reason why this is even changeable? Would solve a lot of permission headaches if users just couldn't even change the primary.

Is there any reason for this?

 

[djbaxter]

There's a much easier way to do this that doesn't require any new usergroups or user promotions.

AdminCP >> Setup >> Options >> Spam Management

Scroll down to Maximum messages to check for spam and set that to 3.



Then below that:

Spam phrases = /^http(|s):\/\/\S+/si to disable links (optional).

And below that Action: set to

• Manually approve

I use this to send the first few posts for new users to the moderation queue.

@spirogg

You're making this way too complicated.

I told you how to do it about (quoted here).

 

[spirogg]

@spirogg

You're making this way too complicated.

I told you how to do it about (quoted here).

I understand the way you said, but what about other promotions, if I wanted to add different promotions later on, I need to know that the feature is working.. A. B I want to learn to proper way to make this work. if it is a feature there should be better explanation from Xenforo as a company on how their feature works, like giving examples.. if no one shows you how to do it as a new XenForo customer, then how will we ever learn the proper functions of this feature and how will we ever manage our forums down the road? when we have 100000 members ( if that number ever happens I don't know) but do we not have a right to know how to manage our own forums than spend money having someone else manage it?


so I think even if we only spend 160 or whatever it cost for the XenForo program, there should be a better guide on how the feature works and how to make it work.!

so for instance right now I think I have it figured out and checked on my dev site and got it working.,.

but there are 2 ways I got it to work..

1 was

scroll down to where it says :
User Groups: User is a member of any of the selected user groups: and we select Registered

now we go to:
Content and achievements User has posted at least X messages:
we add 3
so this is stating if a new registered user posts 3 posts/threads they all need approval.
then we save and we are done.

this seems to work..

but also if we select:

User is NOT a member of any of the selected user groups:
Administrator
Moderator

but which one is the correct way to do it? the proper way?
if there is no proper way then why have both options?
is there a reason for the second option can we use both options

so if I use
User Groups: User is a member of any of the selected user groups: and we select Registered
and also check mark
User is NOT a member of any of the selected user groups:
Administrator
Moderator

it still works ? is this wrong way right way? come on now guys someone here or XenForo themselves needs to provide some sort of support..
tell new users what the right way is,.. if it were detailed some where with examples then the guys who are pros would not have the newbies like me here asking what they might seem is a stupid question, or not say OH MAN not this guy again with his dumb question ...

that's all I am trying to relate.
There has to be a right way and a wrong way, so they don't conflict with each other.


thank you for your suggestion @djbaxter but there has to be a correct way for all promotions to be set.. I just need to know if this above in my long winded post is the correct way

 

[spirogg]

here is the example from XenForo

An example promotion​

For the purposes of this example, all members will have their first five posts pre-moderated. After that they will be promoted into a new user group which will allow them to post freely. This is a typical use for user group promotions, to allow moderators to vet all initial posts by new members and catch any potential spammers.

The first step is to configure the Registered user group with the base permissions all members will have. As we want all members to be pre-moderated initially, then the permission Submit content without approval must be set to No.

The next step is to create a new user group, which we will call Verified Member, and in that group we set the Submit content without approval permission to Yes, while all other permissions stay at No.

Now create the promotion, giving it a title of Promoted Member and check the Verified Member user group. For the criteria, select User has posted at least X messages and enter a value of 5.

Once saved, the first 5 posts of all members will be pre-moderated. Once they have made 5 posts they will be automatically promoted and added to the Verified Member user group, allowing them to post normally. Note that their posts will only go through normally after the promotion has run. It is not instantaneous.


so there are no options selected in this example just adding 5 for the posts to be moderated and then approved..

User has posted at least X messages and enter a value of 5.

and I see this possibly works as well, except the secondary user group gets added to moderators and administrators. is this ok will it ever conflict with something else ?

Also none of the previous members that are still registered users are promoted?

they have more than 20 post and each time they post I have to approve them to show?

so it doesn't work for already registered members? so how do we get already registered members to be able to be in the promotion status, cause if not if you had 1,000 already active registered members and started a new promotion for the above scenario
all those 1,000 members would be stuck in the need to be approved ? even if they reposted 20 times after the promotion, it does not promote them.
another reason I am having a hard time.. is there a way to add them all to the new promotion? not one by one either.
so that's why this long post.

and thank you to everyone whom will ever read this post and give their guidance to me and other whom may read this.
really I appreciate anyones help for a right way to handle this

regards,
Spiro

 

[jeb35]

and also check mark
User is NOT a member of any of the selected user groups:
Administrator
Moderator

You don't need this criteria setup.

 

[Paul B]

The issue was quite simply due to conflicting criteria.

A flip flop of constant promotion/demotion is always the result of that.

The set up should just have been:

• set the Registered user group posting permission to moderated
• create a new user group with the permissions set to allow posts without being moderated
• create a promotion for 3 posts or more to the new user group

That's it - everything else should have been left as default.

However, in this case, as has been stated, the built in spam functions would do it without the need for an additional user group and promotion.

The example in the manual was written before that feature was introduced.

 

[spirogg]

The set up should just have been:

• set the Registered user group posting permission to moderated
• create a new user group with the permissions set to allow posts without being moderated
• create a promotion for 3 posts or more to the new user group

That's it - everything else should have been left as default.

ok si at least now I know how this functions - as above set reg user group modertated
new group not mderated
promotion 3 posts and nothing else to select..

thanks after a few trial an error there are a few ways I found to do it, but this was most simple.

my last question on this:

So how do you add all prior registered members to the new promotion?

- what about the members whom signed up prior to this rule?
this does not upgrade them even if they post again 3 posts.

- it just keeps putting them in moderated statues. So I have to moderate and approve each post.

if you can please help me with this - then im good

thank you all so much!!!!