XF 1.5 User group promotion question

[bryanb]

I've recently converted a vB forum into Xenforo, and have set up the user group promotions. Everyone is a member of the same primary group - registered users, and I have a number of user groups that people are promoted to due to number of posts and time registered. It's pretty straight forward.

Here is an example of the user groups that people are promoted
Newbie>Full Member
Full Member>Veteran Member
Veteran member>Senior Member

What I have noticed that in the "Search Promotion History" people are being promoted repeatedly to their user groups, sometimes several times a day. I'm figuring this is being applied when they log in. Is there any way to have it set so that they are only promoted when they meet their promotion criteria? It's confusing some members seeing their accounts being promoted more than once.

 

[Martok]

When you say they are repeatedly promoted to their user groups, do you mean that a user is repeatedly promoted to the same user group? If so then there's something not right with your user criteria (as they must have been removed from the user group after being added to it). If this is the case, a screenshot of your criteria would help in troubleshooting.

 

[S Thomas]

If they get downgraded as often as often as they get upgraded, then that's simply because they lost their criteria for the upper group (e.g. 10 posts / 20 posts / etc.). So, if you delete posts, this will also trigger group promotions at given times.

 

[bryanb]

When you say they are repeatedly promoted to their user groups, do you mean that a user is repeatedly promoted to the same user group? If so then there's something not right with your user criteria (as they must have been removed from the user group after being added to it). If this is the case, a screenshot of your criteria would help in troubleshooting.

This is correct. They are being repeatedly promoted to the same user group.

I have attached a screenshot showing the criteria going from one user group to the other (Experienced to Senior). Hopefully this might help.

As for deleting posts - that shouldn't be the case - we really only delete spam if and when that shows up.

 

[Martok]

I suspect it's something related to the groups you have got selected in the "is not a member of" box as I've seen this sort of thing before. In that box, would you have selected "Experienced" along with the other groups that are selected?

A loop happens where the member is promoted to a user group based on the criteria which is correct at the time and then immediately it no longer matches (as they are now a member of that group) and so they are removed from the group. Rinse and repeat.

You should also check the user change log, which will show what is happening with a particular member who is repeatedly promoted to a user group - it'll show the promotion and demotion and hopefully will help in identifying what is happening along with the criteria (post a screenshot if it helps).

 

[bryanb]

OK, thanks! So what you are saying is I should have "experienced" selected with the other "Not a member" user groups that are selected. I'll try that.

But if this is so, wouldn't this disallow members who are in the "Experienced" group to be promoted to the "Senior" user group?

 

[Martok]

OK, thanks! So what you are saying is I should have "experienced" selected with the other "Not a member" user groups that are selected.

No, I'm saying the opposite - it should not be in the Not a Member of list.

You'll need to look at the user change logs as I suggested and post screenshots with more details to determine what is happening.

 

[bryanb]

Ok - gotcha

 

[bryanb]

I think one thing that is making this complex is that I have a load of secondary user groups than members from each level have joined. So this is something that I'll be needing to troubleshoot.

 

[Martok]

I think one thing that is making this complex is that I have a load of secondary user groups than members from each level have joined. So this is something that I'll be needing to troubleshoot.

Indeed. It's likely that in one (or more) groups you have groups listed in the "Is not a member of" list which cause this loop. Make sure that you only list groups in "Is not a member of" that really need to be there and look at the logic for all of your user group promotions to see that you don't have any clashes (and as I said, the user change log will help you identify issues).

 

[bryanb]

Yes, I have been studying the log. It seems that members are being demoted to their previous user group, and then promoted once the cron job runs. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this since it seems not to be all members, but about 30 of them or so.

 

[Martok]

Yes, I have been studying the log. It seems that members are being demoted to their previous user group, and then promoted once the cron job runs. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this since it seems not to be all members, but about 30 of them or so.

Looking at your previous screenshot (the promotion of someone in Experienced to Senior), it doesn't show all of the options but if correctly set up, it should be:

Promotion Options - Add to "Senior Member"
Apply This Promotion While... User is a member of - "Experienced"
User is not a member of - do not have "Senior Member" selected (or this will cause the downgrade)

If this doesn't help, post a screenshot of the user change log showing someone who is affected by this, along with screenshots of the criteria for the user groups that this is happening to - others can then take a look to see if they can spot the issue.

You will also need to explain how the user group progression is desired on your site - do members remain part of the previous user group when they are promoted eg they remain in Experienced when they become Senior Member) or do you want them removed from that group. This will affect how you set up the user group promotions (and if incorrectly done can also lead to unexpected promotion-demotion loops).

 

[bryanb]

Thanks! The way the site is set up is that they progress from one user group to the next higher one. They do not need to retain the previous user group - except of course their primary user group "registered". I noticed that a few members that had been promoted had retained their previous user group, others had not. So I am looking into this.

 

[bryanb]

I've deseleted "User is NOT a member of any of the selected user groups:" to see if this has an effect.