XF 2.0 Confusion about user group promotions

[Saarbruecken]

Hi guys

I am really confused with XenForo's user group promotions. Apparently it's not possible to promote users by their primary group, e. g. user group X will be moved back to registered after 180 days of inactivity.

Then I tried the following: I did a batch update and moved alle the users to registered and assigned the user group X as secondary group and went back to User group promotions. I deselected all user groups in the Promotion options tab in hope, it would remove all selected secondary groups. But when I try to save, there is an error, that no user group was selected.

It really ain't possible to remove secondary user group memberships or why does XF2 still won't support user group promotions by primary user group? I really miss this feature as I was using this a lot when I was still using vBulletin 3.x. I found countless threads of other XenForo customers suggesting the same, so no point making a post at the suggestion forums.

I'd still appreciate if you could reconsider and adding this functionality in future; as it's a common feature in almost every forum software these days. Thank you.

 

[TPerry]

It really ain't possible to remove secondary user group memberships or why does XF2 still won't support user group promotions by primary user group? I really miss this feature as I was using this a lot when I was still using vBulletin 3.x. I found countless threads of other XenForo customers suggesting the same, so no point making a post at the suggestion forums.

Because that is not the design philosophy behind use of the groups in XenForo. Primary should ALWAYS be registered for all users. Any other permission grants/denies should be done via secondary groups (usually via the promotions).
You can use the user groups like you do with vB, IPS, etc., but not all features will work (like the promotions) due to it being outside the designed parameters for use of groups.

This is probably one of the harder things for new users of XenForo to understand, but once you do you realize how really powerful it is compared to the other scripts.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Yes, I agree with Tracy. You need to un-think the vB way of manipulating user permissions and start over.

ALL (not banned) members - yes, incuding Moderators, Admins, SuperAdmins and everything else - have a primary UserGroup the same (=Registered, but you can rename it) with the starter level of permissions - the set everybody needs.

And then you increment those permissions by adding members to various secondary UserGroups, each of which contains ONLY the EXTRA permissions you want.

 

[Mr Lucky]

It is so true that it's best to get out of the vB mindset in regard to priamry/secondary groups. It really won't work very well as has been mentione above due to the (IMO) better system of permissions.

I think of all secondary group permissions as adding or subtracting individual permissions, instead of the whole set just replacing the default permissions as I had done with vBuletin. Once I got my head round that I was very grateful for an easier and more versatile system.

 

[Saarbruecken]

Because that is not the design philosophy behind use of the groups in XenForo. Primary should ALWAYS be registered for all users. Any other permission grants/denies should be done via secondary groups (usually via the promotions).

[...]

This is probably one of the harder things for new users of XenForo to understand, but once you do you realize how really powerful it is compared to the other scripts.

ALL (not banned) members - yes, incuding Moderators, Admins, SuperAdmins and everything else - have a primary UserGroup the same (=Registered, but you can rename it) with the starter level of permissions - the set everybody needs.

And then you increment those permissions by adding members to various secondary UserGroups, each of which contains ONLY the EXTRA permissions you want.

Hi guys

Thanks for heads-up. It took me a while to understand the recommended usage of the permissions system and I finally managed to get it running at our forums. Access to restricted forums or additional permissions are now granted by secondary groups; everyone is a primary member of Registered except those that are banned.

If someone could explain the user group promotions to me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I am trying to remove access to certain sub forums for inactive users e. g. after 180 days; what is the recommended procedure? And how can I use the user group promotions to achieve this?

What I tried so far:

1. created an user group with identical permissions to the Registered user group.
2. Applying "never" permissions to deny access to protected forums for that user group "inactive".
3. I tested the permissions and they are working perfectly.
4. I created a new user group promotion: add user to group "Inactive" with condition "user is member of any of the selected user groups" set to the user group "access to restricted forums" and condition "user has not visited for at least 180 days".
5. Running user promotions. Result: not working. No one was given the secondary group "inactive", even those being inactive for 2+ years.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

[Paul B]

Result: not working. No one was given the secondary group "inactive", even those being inactive for 2+ years.

Promotions are only (automatically) applied to recently active members.

You can run the task manually in the tools section so it applies to all members.

created an user group with identical permissions to the Registered user group.

This is not necessary - you only need to explicitly set the permissions you don't want them to have.

 

[Mr Lucky]

everyone is a primary member of Registered except those that are banned.

Why "except those that are banned?" It's much simpler to keep the usergroups as is when you ban, so there's less faffing both when you ban and when/if you unban.