Import from vBulletin, work around for unique email requirement?

[Monica Hyatt]

Hi,

I am considering transferring my vBulletin 4.2.x forum to XenForo. However, looking at the importing information, I found this:

XenForo does not permit the same name or email address to be used for more than one user, so you will be required to confirm what to do in the case of any affected users. The options available are to merge them or rename and change the email address.

Is there a work around for this? I run a role play forum, so many of my members have multiple accounts for each of their characters, accumulated over 10 years.

Forum statistics, if it matters:
Threads 22,109
Posts 381,462
Members 4,857
Active Members 58

 

[Paul B]

There are no workarounds - email addresses must be unique.

 

[Slavik]

Your best bet is to run a count of the duplicate emails and work out just how many need changing.

Depending on how many there are, then you could either manually change them, or potentially edit the xenforo merging feature on import to add a random number to the email.

 

[AndyB]

Your best bet is to run a count of the duplicate emails and work out just how many need changing.

Here's a query you can run in phpMyAdmin

SELECT username, email
FROM user
WHERE email IN (SELECT email FROM user GROUP BY email HAVING ( COUNT( email ) > 1 ))
ORDER BY username ASC

 

[Monica Hyatt]

Yeah, I was afraid of that, it's kind of a show stopper for me. The only alternative I can think of is if there is a mod/addon that allows members to create and choose between different display names. The World of Warcraft forum allows players to do what I'm talking about, but I suspect there isn't much interest in that type of functionality in general.

Thank you for the query, btw, AndyB. I appreciate it