Housekeeping

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-14 13:43:42

For SpaceNut ... This is a special request ...

Our new candidate provided a name for his account, and replied to your question.

I need your assistance to complete the set up for his account. You'll find it in the bans table as CaptJTorriani ...

Please note that kbd512 asked CaptJTorriani a question, and I am reasonably confident he will reply as his first post.

Please let us know when the new ID is ready for use!

Thanks!

(th)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-14 18:25:26

Did the unban on accounts including the replacement 1000 as well as 01299 -1320 I think and have set them to newly registered in the user list.

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-14 18:50:57

For SpaceNut re #677

Thank you for taking care of 1000 (replacement) and the new ID's added to the collection.

I'm looking forward to seeing CaptJTorrani moved from the bans table, whenever you get a chance to work on it.

I will not do that again ... I could have used one of the previously completed TestID records, but decided to start with a "new" Not Verified account.

What I forgot was that I cannot complete the process without your assistance.

On the other hand, it is good to have your assistance to bring our new member into the group. I gather he saw an announcement you posted in the Mars Society member forum.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-14 19:52:10

I tried the spelling you had in post 678 but it was actually different CaptJTorriani : was able to remove the ban and move it to the user list with that spelling...the email was a confirmation that this was the same individual that was seen over it the member area of Mars society.
I did drop a note there as well for a welcome.

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-14 19:57:12

For SpaceNut re #679

My apologies! I am having to transcribe manually between two computers.

I'll definitely try to be more careful! I just wrote to CaptJTorriani that there might be a delay because I used the incorrect procedure.

However, I see that the new ID is ready to go, so I'll send a follow up.

In an earlier message, I described the procedure he'll be able to use to get a new password.

Hopefully he'll be connecting some time tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience!

(th)

NewMarsMember · 2021-01-14 20:07:24

An email was sent to CaptJTorriani ... hopefully he'll be successful in completing his part of the registration process.

I'll monitor the NewMarsMember email in case a problem does occur.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-15 08:44:22

For SpaceNut re ID's Recovery ....

While working on today's batch, I found a failed attempt to deposit an advertisement ... this one was from a company in Australia ..

The company itself appears legitimate, and it might be of interest to someone in the Forum readership to follow up to see if they would like to start thinking about architecture for Mars ...

arch.angle.studios@hotmail.com

Google found them using: arch angle studios

The title of the account they chose was Architect

***
ID's 1321-1342 are ready for unbanning in the bans table.

Please note: As an experiment, I converted an ID you had banned to the TestID format. Hopefully you won't encounter a glitch, because I was working in the bans table and ** not ** in the user table, but just in case, the ID would have started with "t" (tee) (as in Test, but more like The)

Count of Registered users is 16,637 as of the time of this posting.

****
I've started working from the beginning of the "a" group again, since you've been adding new banned ID's.

This group starts with 1343 and ends with 1364. These are all in the Users table. None are in the bans table.

Time for this batch was 1.1 hours. Efficiency was increased by NOT spending time visiting former members.
***

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-15 13:32:33)

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-15 12:53:44

For SpaceNut .... special request for Mr. Burk

Since you appear to be in communication with Mr. Burk, could you ask him if he can arrange to change the User List script?

I'd like to have the word "banned" show up in bold.

That is a small change, but it would help me a lot as I try to go through the regular user list.

As things stand, the words "Member" and "Banned" are so similar in physical rendering on my screen, I have difficulty spotting the ones I want to work on.

kbd512 has expressed interest in this situation, so he may already have a solution in the works.

To be specific, kbd512 indicated there may be a "style sheet" that works in conjunction with the User list query, to insure that the Name field shows up in red. I looked at the query in the downloaded copy of FluxBB I have, and did not see anything in the query itself that accounts for the red appearance. That makes the suggestion of kbd512 seem plausible.

It might be possible (assuming kbd512 is correct) to alter the (presumed) style sheet for the User List query, to render the Title field in BOLD if the word appearing there is the word "Banned".

It won't help if the entire column is given a BOLD setting.

There should be a conditional aspect to the display. I don't know anything about style sheets, so I don't know if that degree of granularity is possible.

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-15 12:54:17)

kbd512 · 2021-01-15 14:35:22

tahanson43206,

Yes, there is a CSS script that formats the entire HTML page you see rendered by your web browser of choice AFTER the response from the HTTP server (generated using PHP logic) is sent to your browser in reply to your request (to the server / PHP web application) to view the user list. However, the raw HTML file, sans formatting (both the CSS and HTML files are just text files interpreted by your web browser), is still available in your browser for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure if you don't like reading through HTML). All the font colorization and other page formatting features not part of HTML structure are done through that rather lengthy "fire.css" file.

My solution is to stop looking at the web page you see in IE or Chrome or Firefox or Safari, and start looking at the HTML file being generated by the PHP logic. You don't need to waste your time trying to visually hunt through a web page by eyeballing the end result of a CSS-formatted HTML page. Since you have direct access to the HTML file ("userlist.php") after its downloaded by your browser, open that HTML file, search through that HTML file for the word "banned", and locate all of the banned users that way. This would be making use of ye olde CTRL + F or Command + F text search / find feature of any simple text editor. I can do this natively in Safari without ever leaving the browser.

Yes, it's possible to alter the "fire.css" file, but WHY?

If I'm looking for a word in a text file (both CSS and HTML files are text files), I don't spend any time at all obsessing over what color is displayed by my graphical user interface (web browser) of choice.

Please do a simple text search of the HTML file ("userlist.php") and locate the banned users that way. Even if you have to save the HTML file to your desktop from your browser (not necessary in any of the browsers I named off, because they will show you the page source / HTML text, CSS text, JavaScript text, etc), that's the fastest and simplest way to find banned users.

If you need help doing this, please send me a response, I'll send my contact info, you can call me, and then I'll walk you through how you can do this using the web browsers listed above and a Windows or Mac OS. If there's still a problem, then I'll take notes about what I need to do to come up with a workable solution.

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-15 16:07:56

For kbd512 re #684

Thanks for taking the time to show an interesting alternative way to look at the user data! I'll think about it.

***
I logged on just now to post an update about a (supposedly) more efficient way to make methane.

Hopefully it will be interesting to at least a few forum members.

***
On the subject of the ID Recovery .... I'm watching for a suggestion of a query that can update all those ID's automatically. Doing the process by hand is interesting and even sometimes amusing but since I know a script could perform the operation in seconds, I'll keep watching for an automated solution.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-15 19:48:27

In your user Display tab choices to Select your preferred styles from

Air, Cobalt, Earth, Fire, Lithium, Mercury, Oxygen, Radium, Sulfur, Technetium, and Victory for the various coloring as spects.

To change the number of in this case Enter your pagination options Topics or Posts

Enter the number of topics and posts you wish to view on each page. Leave blank to use forum default.

I am not sure what the max number is but thats how the browser is formatted for the things you see by the selected style.

1321 - 1364 group unban done which includes group 1321 - 1342 moved into the user list from the no verified.

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-15 20:39:32

For SpaceNut re #686

Thank you for your explanation of the changes which are possible in the appearance of the forum pages! I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like.

Someone went to a lot of trouble to create all those options, and it will be fun to see them in action.

I also appreciate knowing about the option to change the number of posts/lines that appear in various displays.

As you no doubt noted, kbd512 had an interesting suggestion to simple ignore the GUI environment and fall back to a text based display.

That idea takes me back to the days of IBM 1401's which were still running when I was employed as a computer operator. The IBM 360's were ** just ** coming into service in that time period. Text displays were all we had, along with the very first attempts at video terminals in some of the larger companies.

Again, thanks for the insights!

SearchTerm:FluxBB Display options summarized by SpaceNut
SearchTerm:Style of display in FluxBB forum pages

http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 90#p175890

*** Note for tomorrow's work session ... Missing ID: TestID01121

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-15 20:57:36)

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-16 08:25:59

For kbd512 re improving performance of query ... thanks again for your suggestion that helped to greatly improve the performance of the query SpaceNut provided ... after a bit of investigation, I found that a change to one parameter would deliver just the records I want to work with.

For SpaceNut ... thanks again for the search string you provided to show the Not Verified accounts ... with a little coaching from kbd512, I found out that the query will deliver only Not_Verified accounts with this change: user_group=0

This will definitely save time!

*** This post is reserved for today's batch ... 1365-1386

Please note that I'll include 1121, which appears to be missing from the lineup.
***
For SpaceNut .... here is good news:

Online: CaptJTorriani, SpaceNut, tahanson43206

*** Update at 13:00 local time: Today's batch are all in the bans table, along with 1121.

Today's processing took 1.5 hours for 22 ID's in the new procedure. That time included several coffee breaks!

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-16 12:00:29)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-16 10:44:56

Wow how did I miss that? All fixed and in the table...While exploring I found this ID TestID011234 … We must have been looking into the future....

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-16 11:31:29

For SpaceNut re #689

Thanks for catching the future looking ID !!!

Should we just leave it?

***
Or, if it is ready for use, we could use it to set up our next member?

***
Here is a revision to the new member procedure that we are puzzling out in the absence of the automated Registration...

After setting up the ID for the new member, have NewMarsMember log in and send a test message to the new member.

This will confirm that the email address requested by the new member was entered correctly into the system.

At some point it may be possible to cut and paste the requested email address from the NewMarsMember email account, but that day has not yet arrived.

A benefit of adding this step is that the new member is (hopefully) reassured that the requested email address was entered correctly.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-16 22:00:46

Took care of the days business of unbanning and moving the new ids 1365 - 1386 into the user table...

Also looks like the spammers are probing the unlocked accounts as saw alysonzr2 online....

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-17 07:57:05

For SpaceNut re #691

Thank you for completing the recovery of 1365-1386!

I see that alysonzr2 shows as online yesterday (at 15:54 local time). The account is banned now. I'm assuming you banned the account after the visit?

Or was the account banned already, so the user could not log in?

***
This post is reserved for today's batch 1387-1408. The modified fetch query is ** so ** much easier to work with. I figure I'll have all the Not Verified accounts processed by the first of June.

It is possible a tool exists to ban ID's that have not posted in a year. I'll ask at FluxBB.org, later today, now that it is back online.

The better way of phrasing that is: to ban ID's that have never posted and which are at least a year old.

***
Here's a wrinkle in processing you may find interesting ... in working with the new query, which is set to pull accounts from Group Zero, I found a set of banned accounts ahead of the Not Verified ones. The banned accounts behave differently than the ones I have processed up to now.

When I change the email address in the first step, the new email address does not show up when I pull up the "banned" table to finish the process.

I have to add the email address a second time. Apparently the bans table includes a duplicate of the email address, instead of a pointer to the original user record. As I have pointed out before, this is not optimum database design, but since I don't know the history, there may have been a reason for what is otherwise poor practice.

***
The Registered Users count is up to 16,659. It should increase again in the near future. I'm estimating it will exceed 19,000 as the Not Verified accounts are brought in from the cold where they languish today.

***
For SpaceNut (surely the only person in the entire World would be interested) ...

The ID Recovery project hit a mini-milestone today ... The new query is delivering ONLY accounts which are Not Verified.

However, a number of those accounts had been banned, so they were sorted to front of the Query results.

The mini-milestone is that those previously banned Not Verified accounts are now processed.

The query is now serving unbanned Not Verified accounts.

This is helpful, because I am no longer having to deal with the email addresses stored in the bans table.

***

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-17 13:45:30)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-17 09:35:22

The visit prompted the ban as soon as I saw it....
The duplicate emails may have occurred from the multiple forum software conversions as it may not have been a deterrent for spamming accounts at one point.
In any case lots of work to bring the forum back to glory..

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-17 11:11:35

For SpaceNut re #693

Thanks for your follow up on my question about the spammer!

I've added a Todo item to my list for today, to see if there is a tool available in the FluxBB forum, to set accounts as banned if they meet certain criteria.

The challenge is to find search terms that will discover if someone has already contributed such a tool.

It may already exist inside the FluxBB catalog of tools, but (of course) if it's there we don't know about it.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-17 11:27:30

For SpaceNut (primarily but for all who are interested) ...

I posted the following in the FluxBB.org web site forum General Questions topic:

Before posting this question, I searched the forum for posts with words like tool and ban. Only a couple came up, and they were about different problems.
In the forum where I'm trying to assist, we have thousands of ID's created by spammers. The Admin closed off registration, and we have instituted a "manual" registration procedure that seems to be working.
However, we have thousands of ID's left over from all the spamming, and we have chosen to convert them to useful ID's which we can then use for the manual registration process.
Is there a query somewhere in the forum archive that we can run to convert thousands of ID's from Registered Member to banned?
The criteria I have in mind are:
1) ID is Registered member
2) ID has NO posts (post count = 0)
3) Age of ID is greater than an amount specified at run time
The query would be run by an Administrator due to it's power.
Thanks!
(th)
Online

****
For SpaceNut ... today's batch is ready for review in the bans table: 1387-1408.

As reported earlier, the banned ID's which were present in the Not Verified table are cleared, and now the work should go even faster.

Time for the 22 ID's is dropping from 1.9 hours to today's 1.1

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-17 14:13:41)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-17 22:17:52

Unban done and moved to user list updated to reflect new accounts from 1387 to 1408

Have completed ban spammer name accounts in alphabetical order through page 4 of ids...with zero posts.

Edit today
started converting the a group spammers with ids 2000 up leaving them in a banned state for now.

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-18 07:06:38

For SpaceNut re ID Recovery ... thanks for taking care of 1387-1408

Congratulations on progress in banning spammers in "a" group .... I'm concentrating on the Not Verified until June, so the new bans will be there then.

This post is reserved for today's batch: 1409-1430
***
The count of Registered Members now stands at 16,681, up from 16497 when we started. I expect this number to reach 19,000 by June.
This estimate is based upon the number of pages delivered by the Not Verified query.
***
I just found your new TestID's in the 2000 and up range ... it is good to have another goal to reach! I should be there just when Perseverance lands!
***
ID's 2000-2010 are ready for unbanning. Added new email addresses and removed IP addresses.
***
ID's 1409-1430 are ready for unbanning.
***
Count of Registered Users is up to 16,702 ... target is 19,000+ by June

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-18 11:10:50)

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-18 09:40:13

For SpaceNut ...

Visman is a member of the FluxBB forum who lives in Siberia. He has been contributing helpful advice to the FluxBB.org forum for as long as I've been a member, and probably long before that.

tahanson43206 wrote:

For Visman re #2
Thank you for your helpful reply. We have thousands if ID's to process. Is the procedure you described a manual one? The Administrator is currently visiting each ID in turn, and individually banning that ID. We estimate this will take about three years to complete.
What I was hoping for is a Query that will perform the banning of all thousands of ID's in a few seconds.
In the mean time, I will forward your reply in hopes it will be helpful!
Thanks again!
(th)

Reply from Visman:

Visman wrote:

let admin open the link

your.forum/admin_users.php?form%5Busername%5D=&form%5Bemail%5D=&form%5Btitle%5D=&form%5Brealname%5D=&form%5Burl%5D=&form%5Bjabber%5D=&form%5Bicq%5D=&form%5Bmsn%5D=&form%5Baim%5D=&form%5Byahoo%5D=&form%5Blocation%5D=&form%5Bsignature%5D=&form%5Badmin_note%5D=&posts_greater=&posts_less=1&last_post_after=&last_post_before=&last_visit_after=&last_visit_before=&registered_after=&registered_before=2021-01-01&order_by=registered&direction=DESC&user_group=-1&find_user=Submit+search

or go to the admin panel - users and set their search criteria.
There you can also go to the profiles of found users and change the data for issuing these profiles to real users.

***
Edit #1: as a follow up to discussion of the discovery of unmatched email in the bans table, here is the name of the field in the bans table: ban_email

I'm still looking for a database layout, so cannot confirm that this is a character/text field, as I expect.

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-01-18 13:18:32)

SpaceNut · 2021-01-18 15:40:52

The php is all intended to be a text based use.

Search strings areform based and here is the banned email

http://newmars.com/forums/admin_bans.ph … mit+search

right at the top there are 5 with no user data which seems odd but could be broad address banning for registering

did unban and move to user list for 1409 - 1430 and did unban on 2000 - 2010 as well

tahanson43206 · 2021-01-18 18:29:12

For SpaceNut re #699

First, thank you for running the suggested query from Visman. I am looking forward to reporting back to him the surprising results you found.

Second, it appears I can process those ID's (without names) in the regular recovery procedure tomorrow. Unless you prefer otherwise, I'm planning to do that.

Third, thank you for completing the Recovery process for all 32 of those ID's

(th)

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#676 2021-01-14 13:43:42

Re: Housekeeping

#677 2021-01-14 18:25:26

Re: Housekeeping

#678 2021-01-14 18:50:57

Re: Housekeeping

#679 2021-01-14 19:52:10

Re: Housekeeping

#680 2021-01-14 19:57:12

Re: Housekeeping

#681 2021-01-14 20:07:24

Re: Housekeeping

#682 2021-01-15 08:44:22

Re: Housekeeping

#683 2021-01-15 12:53:44

Re: Housekeeping

#684 2021-01-15 14:35:22

Re: Housekeeping

#685 2021-01-15 16:07:56

Re: Housekeeping

#686 2021-01-15 19:48:27

Re: Housekeeping

#687 2021-01-15 20:39:32

Re: Housekeeping

#688 2021-01-16 08:25:59

Re: Housekeeping

#689 2021-01-16 10:44:56

Re: Housekeeping

#690 2021-01-16 11:31:29

Re: Housekeeping

#691 2021-01-16 22:00:46

Re: Housekeeping

#692 2021-01-17 07:57:05

Re: Housekeeping

#693 2021-01-17 09:35:22

Re: Housekeeping

#694 2021-01-17 11:11:35

Re: Housekeeping

#695 2021-01-17 11:27:30

Re: Housekeeping

#696 2021-01-17 22:17:52

Re: Housekeeping

#697 2021-01-18 07:06:38

Re: Housekeeping

#698 2021-01-18 09:40:13

Re: Housekeeping

#699 2021-01-18 15:40:52

Re: Housekeeping

#700 2021-01-18 18:29:12

Re: Housekeeping

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