What do you do with inactive users with broken email addresses?

[Stuart Wright]

I want to make it so these people do not get any more emails from our forum at all, and they have to enter a new email address if they ever come back before they can use the forum again.
Is it a simple case of changing their primary user group to the guest one?
Or create a duplicate of the guest user group called, say, 'Inactive Members' and put them in that?
Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[Paul B]

Set the user state to Email Invalid (bounced).

 

[Stuart Wright]

Perfect but the batch update users function doesn't allow me to update their status to Email Invalid (bounced).
What SQL statement would I need to run to achieve it?

 

[Paul B]

What is the criteria for selecting the members?

 

[petertdavis]

Before you do this, realize that the bounced status is virtually identical to banned status. I made the mistake of doing this on a forum and using data that Sendgrid supplied regarding bounced emails it sent 10,000 members to bounced status and I had hundreds of members complaining that they got banned. And that's just the ones that complained. It's a terrible mess, and needs to be done better, hopefully in the next version of XF the developers will rethink how this works.

 

[Stuart Wright]

I've got it Paul, thanks. Update xf_user set user_state = 'email_bounce' where user_id in (comma separated list of several thousands users).
Is that how the enum field type works?

 

[Stuart Wright]

Before you do this, realize that the bounced status is virtually identical to banned status. I made the mistake of doing this on a forum and using data that Sendgrid supplied regarding bounced emails it sent 10,000 members to bounced status and I had hundreds of members complaining that they got banned. And that's just the ones that complained. It's a terrible mess, and needs to be done better, hopefully in the next version of XF the developers will rethink how this works.

I just tested this and when I logged in with an account set to invalid, I saw this notice:

Attempts to send emails to mistergrimsdale@googlemail.com have failed. Please update your email.
Update your contact details

And the rest of the forum behaves normally. Which is perfect. Not at all like being banned.

 

[Alpha1]

Thats useful but not perfect. The user will need to do more than just change their email. For many email providers they will need to add your website email address to their contacts. Its likely that they will use the same email provider and the email provider has already decreased your credibility, so its more likely that your domain is again flagged as spam. So a change of email by the user does not necessarily solve it.

What you are asking for is a complex matter. You will need to send your emails in such a way that bounces can easily & automatically be tied to users. Then have a script analyse the bounces you receive. Email servers send hundreds of different bounce messages. Many types of bounces are not real problems. A mailbox may be full or a server may have a hiccup. Tie actions to each type of bounce.

Your audience will probably be fairly technical. However, we get a lot of support tickets from members who need assistance with their accounts once the are restricted from normal forum operating. Users should have some way to receive assistance.

 

[petertdavis]

I just tested this and when I logged in with an account set to invalid, I saw this notice:

And the rest of the forum behaves normally. Which is perfect. Not at all like being banned.

Did you try posting?

 

[Chris D]

I just have @petertdavis and it works fine.

Are you sure you're not thinking of email_confirm?

email_confirm is the status when you have just registered. That would block you from posting. email_bounce is a verified registered member, but their email has since been bouncing. Its just a marker to indicate their email address needs updating.

 

[petertdavis]

I just have @petertdavis and it works fine.

Are you sure you're not thinking of email_confirm?

email_confirm is the status when you have just registered. That would block you from posting. email_bounce is a verified registered member, but their email has since been bouncing. Its just a marker to indicate their email address needs updating.

No, on my forum if a member gets bounced status it's like they're banned. They can't do anything. Maybe it's just my forum, dunno how mine could have ended up different than anyone elses though cause I have no clue how to change permissions for members in bounced status.

 

[Chris D]

You can't.

Simple as that.

We're talking about user states here. There is no permissions that can override their default behaviour. I can only assume it might be an add-on that may not recognise this relatively new "email_bounced" state and is mistaking it for something invalid.

What exactly is the behaviour when they attempt to post? What other things can they/can't they do?

 

[petertdavis]

You can't.

Simple as that.

We're talking about user states here. There is no permissions that can override their default behaviour. I can only assume it might be an add-on that may not recognise this relatively new "email_bounced" state and is mistaking it for something invalid.

What exactly is the behaviour when they attempt to post? What other things can they/can't they do?

They get the "(You have insufficient privileges to reply here.)" instead of the reply box.

 

[petertdavis]

Hmm, I just went in and disabled all the addons and it still does it.

 

[Chris D]

What XF version? And what does the notice at the top of the page tell the user?

 

[Mike]

Any user state other than valid means the user gets the "unregistered / unconfirmed" permissions.

 

[Chris D]

I'm not getting that...

I must have something wrong with my dev board. Same with add-ons disabled. Weird.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Any user state other than valid means the user gets the "unregistered / unconfirmed" permissions.

So they get the same permissions as the Guest user group? In which case their experience can very from one forum to the next depending on how that user group's permissions have been set up. Or do they get some generic restrictions applied which are not based on any user group?

 

[Mike]

They get whatever permissions are set for the "unregistered / unconfirmed" group, so the former.

 

[Stuart Wright]

They get whatever permissions are set for the "unregistered / unconfirmed" group, so the former.

Right so that would explain why people are having different experiences.