How to identify new members, and how to delete members

[clinxx]

v5 is a big problem for me.  I have written a website & forum for a club with elderly members, many of whom struggle with computers.  I wrote out instructions for the previous version, with screen prints and now they're different.  Many members are saying that the forum is more trouble than it's worth. Great, just what I need. 

My current issues:

• The forum is only open to our club members and joining requests only give me (as admin) their username - which is usually meaningless to me.  For instance I don't know who
  roo1549 is!  I don't even see their email address. Am I missing
  something?

• If I want to email a member I need to know his username.  But I only know his real name.  Surely I don't have to go through every profile until I find the name I know. Ideas please.
• Some of my members have trouble remembering their own name so usernames and passwords are a nightmare. If they can't get in they just re-register so I now have several multiple registrations (which I approved) for the same person.  The previous Proboards version allowed me to simply delete a member. Now I can't find that.  Banning a member seems too drastic. 
  

 

[drsylvia]

We need help with this, too.  We vet new members.  We restrict membership until we have sent them a vetting letter and heard from them.  Then, we approve their account.  We would like to know how the restriction and approval of new members works on V5.

[RedBassett]

Greetings,

Deleting an account: Go to the profile for the account, click the gear icon on the right side of the profile, click "Delete Member".

Emails: Emails are going to be visible to admins again soon. What method are you using to email a member? If you are using the email form in the admin panel, typing a member's display name should show them in the search.

Remembering Usernames: If members forget their login details, they can use the "forgot password" feature using their email address.

[Former Member]

Apr 8, 2013 3:37:06 GMT -8 clinxx said:

v5 is a big problem for me.  I have written a website & forum for a club with elderly members, many of whom struggle with computers.  I wrote out instructions for the previous version, with screen prints and now they're different.  Many members are saying that the forum is more trouble than it's worth. Great, just what I need. 

My current issues:

• The forum is only open to our club members and joining requests only give me (as admin) their username - which is usually meaningless to me.  For instance I don't know who
  roo1549 is!  I don't even see their email address. Am I missing
  something?

• If I want to email a member I need to know his username.  But I only know his real name.  Surely I don't have to go through every profile until I find the name I know. Ideas please.
• Some of my members have trouble remembering their own name so usernames and passwords are a nightmare. If they can't get in they just re-register so I now have several multiple registrations (which I approved) for the same person.  The previous Proboards version allowed me to simply delete a member. Now I can't find that.  Banning a member seems too drastic. 
  

 

Hi Clinxx,
on V5 you go on the user profile as admin and delete the account, straightforward like V4. If you want to email somebody, go on the security log, click members, then go to email members you can either email the lot or email a specific username. The system sends it for you, I believe Proboards are bringing back see emails for  admins but that is in the future. You do need to know the username which is on their profile.

[Former Member]

Apr 8, 2013 6:26:17 GMT -8 drsylvia said:

We need help with this, too.  We vet new members.  We restrict membership until we have sent them a vetting letter and heard from them.  Then, we approve their account.  We would like to know how the restriction and approval of new members works on V5.

You only know by their IP which is in the security log. You can still have your forum on restricted membership via the settings. Send them an email via the system. Gone are the days when you see if they are activated or not. Some things are a lot easier for Admins now.

[drsylvia]

Apr 8, 2013 7:11:04 GMT -8 @jenant said:

Apr 8, 2013 6:26:17 GMT -8 drsylvia said:

We need help with this, too.  We vet new members.  We restrict membership until we have sent them a vetting letter and heard from them.  Then, we approve their account.  We would like to know how the restriction and approval of new members works on V5.

You only know by their IP which is in the security log. You can still have your forum on restricted membership via the settings. Send them an email via the system. Gone are the days when you see if they are activated or not. Some things are a lot easier for Admins now.

Thank you! Jenant ! Actually, it is to go to Members/Email Members and the form opens. I think this will work. I would still like to see the email address. Viewing it in the past has helped weed out spammers.

I appreciate the help!

[drsylvia]

Here is some more information that may be helpful from the Help File.

Pending Forum Accounts
With the Limited Registration feature enabled in General Settings, the
View Pending Accounts link will display in the Manage Members section of
the admin panel when there are new member accounts awaiting approval by
discussion forum staff.

Once approved, new members can login and begin posting on the message
board. If no members are awaiting approval, the link will not display.
Clicking the link will take you to a page with the 5 columns listed
below:

Member Name: Here lists all pending usernames newly registered on the
discussion forum. To the left of each member username is a check-box to
select the account(s) you want to approve or deny.

Email Address: Displayed here will be the email address used when the
member account was created.

Age: Displayed here will be the members age based on the birth date
provided upon forum registration.

IP Address: This is the IP address used by the prospective member when
they created the account.

Register Date: The date and time provided is when the account was
created, letting you know how long the prospective member has been
waiting for approval.

When you deny an account, an email is sent notifying the prospective
member of the denial. If you choose, you can explain why the account was
denied by typing a message in the provided box. The alternative is to
leave the box blank and the prospective member will receive a standard
email letting them know their forum account was not approved.

Accounts that are denied are deleted automatically from the discussion
forum. To deny an account, select the appropriate box(es) and click Deny
Accounts.

To approve pending accounts, simply check the boxes to the left of
member usernames and click Approve Accounts. When done, an email will be
sent notifying new members of their status.

[lomac]

I run a members only
forum for my club and the no visible emails is a real pain, I have no
idea who anyone is that registers and because I can't see their email
address I can't even email them to ask!!!

It's no good saying
put in their user-name and you can then email them through the
system, because until you make them a member they are not on the user
name list.

I am sure this system works well for an open forum
where it does not matter who joins, but on a members only forum this
is silly, this wasn't checked well was it...

At the very least
give us some way of emailing a person that registers so that we can
find out who they are before we allow them to join.

Mac

[Former Member]

Don't worry, Proboards are bringing back viewable email addresses. Members can have hundreds of these though and not a fool proof way of keeping folk out unfortunatly

[lomac]

This is now a real pain, after our show we have a few people join as members to our club and then obviously they want to join our forum, but as stated previously it is a members only forum... I know have a person who has registered to the forum and because I have no way of emailing them to check to see if they are a member of the club I am completely screwed!!!

The only choices I have available are to make them a member or deny them as a member or ban them, can some one help?

People have said previously that ProBoards are going to return the visible emails for Admin, but my question is when? because I am seriously considering taking my money else where, I can not run a closed forum like this.

Mac

[David Clark]

lomac, as of last week we've added email addresses back in. If you navigate to the profile of one of your registered members, I think you'll see it there. 

[lomac]

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply, but everyone seems to be missing the problem here...   yes I have seen the email addresses of the members of the forum which is good but when I go to the registration page on my forum ( I have a new registered person there now )  I have no idea who it is that has just registered, and there is no way to email them to find out, in v4 you could see their email address so I could contact them to find out if they are a current member of our club before I made them a member.
All I see now is their IP address which is of no use to me what so ever.

So again please help! please give me a way of contacting people before I make them a member of my forum.

Cheers
Mac

[David Clark]

My apologies for misunderstanding, lomac - I think you're saying that the pending account registration screen doesn't provide you with the email address, and you'd like to be able to email them before approving their account.

If this is the case, I believe we intend to add in this functionality to the admin control panel soon - I know it's already come up at the office meeting. I'll ask about this at the one tomorrow morning and let you know what I get.

[lomac]

Hi David,

That would great, thank you.

Mac

[lomac]

Any news?

I have two people now on the accounts pending page and I have no idea who they are

Why on earth did ProBoards try to improve a very good system?

If it's not broke don't try to fix it.


I also now have people having issues with missing "smileys" and missing "options cogs" and a few other bits and pieces...

And this is going live on the 29th, good luck!!



Mac