PHPBB3: Ban and delete inactive users (spammers waiting for admin accept) with a single action

0
votes

PHPBB3 with double opt-in plus individual verification of registration by admin.

Each day, a number of forum spammers register on the site, and we get the list of new users waiting for the admin to accept. We are able to see directly from the user name + email address whether it is a wanted user or not, and in uncertain cases we check with other tools.

We want to ban and never hear again. Doing this in phpbb3 is a multi-step process, it seems:

(Press Users and groups in ACP)

  1. Select the user with a mouse click
  2. Select IP Ban from the dropdown combo
  3. Press Submit
  4. Press Back to previous page
  5. Select Email ban from the dropdown combo
  6. Press Submit
  7. Press Users and groups tab again, repeat on next inactive user

Finally, after (7*n) mouse clicks:

  1. Press Users and groups
  2. Press Mark all (and maybe unmark wanted users)
  3. Select Delete in the dropdown combo
  4. Press Submit

Total mouse clicks: 4+7*[number of users]. What we would WANT to do:

  1. Select Mark all (or alternatively, check-mark a number of user names).
  2. Press [Ban by IP, by email, delete and Goodbye forever] -button.

Is there a way in PHPBB3 to achieve this? We cannot let the list grow, for example in order to wait for an auto-expire, that would make it too hard to manage.

1
phpbb3

1 Answers

1
votes

Mass delete is only possible for inactive users. But mass banning is possible by using the "Users and groups/Ban emails" form.

But why you want to ban them? They are probably bots so banning them may not help at all.

I suggest you to consider the following counter measures.

Set "User registration settings/Account activation" to "by user (e-mail verification)". That way, spamming is much harder because then, a spammer has to have a working e-mail address.

Install a CAPTCHA script that prevents most spambot registrations. A simple extra question on the registration form will prevent 99.9% of the spambots.

Limit user rights of new users and set "User registration settings/New member post limit" to 1 or 2, so that new spammers can't disturb real users so easily. This makes your forum less attractive target to human spammers.

What comes through after these counter measures can be handled manually like you have done so far.