error when trying to access profile of pending member

[moonbeam]

Forum URL: ymam.proboards.com


Hi all.

We have a new member pending - username santana89. Part of our approval process is checking to see if it's a duplicate account. However, when I went to my notifications tab and clicked on the username, it returned an error saying the account was not found. Sugilite gets the same message.

The account is still pending, and there is nothing in the logs other than for the account creation.

[Michael]

Hi,

This was a recent change. Pending accounts were not acting in a predictable manner and it appeared that there was a lot of inconsistency across the board. Some appeared on member lists, some didn't, some had profiles, others didn't.

Pending members are no longer considered members. They do not count towards your total members, they do not appear on the member list. The only data you have available relating to that new member is the data provided during registration.

[moonbeam]

That is not good from our perspective. We have a plugin to check the IP on stopforumspam and whatismyipaddress. That can be done manually, of course, though it's not as efficient as clicking the buttons in the profile.

But now I have no means to check that IP against existing accounts. We ony allow one per person. So I'm now forced into accepting an account that I might not otherwise, just because I can't get an answer to a question ahead of time.

[Michael]

Jul 14, 2016 11:05:43 GMT -8 moonbeam said:

That is not good from our perspective. We have a plugin to check the IP on stopforumspam and whatismyipaddress. That can be done manually, of course, though it's not as efficient as clicking the buttons in the profile.

But now I have no means to check that IP against existing accounts. We ony allow one per person. So I'm now forced into accepting an account that I might not otherwise, just because I can't get an answer to a question ahead of time.

While I understand the annoyance of the extra step, it doesn't make any sense to have a profile for a member who isn't on the members list and does not count as a member. Members who are pending should not at all be a part of the forum. We discussed many scenarios before coming to this decision and this is simply the one that made the most sense across the board. 

[moonbeam]

Lovely. Sorry, but this does not make me happy. This is going to jack things up for us.

It's going to (in some cases) cause me to accept, then perhaps immediately delete, a new account. Much of the time, when someone forgets their account info, they just create a new account instead of either trying a password reset or emailing me at my publicly visible address to ask for help. So, I see that I will have to accept someone, then check, and if it's a duplicate, DELETE THEM right away. How is that going to feel for that person? Who are they going to be mad at? Yes, us.

I would, of course, attempt to email them. I do that anyway if I see it's a dupe so we can try to get them back in on their other account. But not everyone checks their email so all they're going to know is that we said yes, then no and keep trying. I am very unhappy. Not that it matters, of course.

[Scott]

moonbeam

May I point out that your plugin still seems to work. On the admin page that lists the pending users, if you click on their IP address that is listed, it does the check at stopforumspam. Their email address does the same thing.

[moonbeam]

The plugin was minor. As I said, I can manually copy the IP and go to those sites. But I have no workaround for checking for duplicate accounts because PB got rid of the ability to search the member list via IP or email. If someone can give me a workaround for finding duplicate accounts prior to accepting a pending member, then I'll do that and shut up.

[moonbeam]

Actually, I'll just shut up anyway.

[Michael]

Jul 14, 2016 11:38:50 GMT -8 moonbeam said:

The plugin was minor. As I said, I can manually copy the IP and go to those sites. But I have no workaround for checking for duplicate accounts because PB got rid of the ability to search the member list via IP or email. If someone can give me a workaround for finding duplicate accounts prior to accepting a pending member, then I'll do that and shut up.

I'll bring this up with the rest of the team and see what I can do. Trust me, I totally understand your frustration. This change just makes it more obvious how difficult administrating IPs can be with the current toolset. This is a symptom of the original problem, the complete removal of IPs in v5. Since then we've added them back in a variety of different locations, but the base software was obviously never designed with that information in mind. 

[VS Admin]

Hi moonbeam, I think it would be a pretty simple change for us to make to have the profiles viewable while still pending. Sorry for the oversight on our part, we're discussing this internally and should have a fix soon.

[mmhmm]

Jul 14, 2016 15:53:55 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

Hi moonbeam , I think it would be a pretty simple change for us to make to have the profiles viewable while still pending. Sorry for the oversight on our part, we're discussing this internally and should have a fix soon.

Thank you, VS Admin! Such a change would really help us to maintain our forums and keep our members happy. Your consideration is very much appreciated!

[Jaguar]

Yes thank you so much, VS Admin !

[moonbeam]

Thank you, Michael and VS Admin. I really appreciate the consideration and effort. It really helps us more than you might think.

[BossLady]

Instead of being answered in my thread when I lodged my own complain about this topic, I was directed to come here to this thread, so I assume it's ok to reply in kind on this thread as well.

I too would like to see some sort of work around for duplicate IP's. Some members who have had their account disabled, or who are already on the forum, attempt to create another account. That's not ok and is against the guidelines at my forum. So as the OP stated, it is necessary to have these tools available in some essence of the way.

[Coy Edwards]

Jul 18, 2016 18:46:05 GMT -8 BossLady said:

Instead of being answered in my thread when I lodged my own complain about this topic, I was directed to come here to this thread, so I assume it's ok to reply in kind on this thread as well.

I too would like to see some sort of work around for duplicate IP's. Some members who have had their account disabled, or who are already on the forum, attempt to create another account. That's not ok and is against the guidelines at my forum. So as the OP stated, it is necessary to have these tools available in some essence of the way.

Hi,bosslady .

As stated above, the proboards admins will fix this issue soon.