Mass delete bot registrations method or options?

[ForrestBlack]

I have 15,000+ fake registrations from spam bots that match a certain search criteria. I have put various plugins in place to stop new registrations fairly well, for now, but I really would like to clear out the mess. There really are not very many search criteria options in move/prune members, but if I just search on the right fields I can see all 15,000 I'd like to get rid of. Does anyone have any suggestions for how this can be done? Obviously, hitting 'search for users' and clicking delete and then hitting 'search for users' again when the page reloads 15,000+ times isn't ideal.

[borbole]

I have 15,000+ fake registrations from spam bots that match a certain search criteria. I have put various plugins in place to stop new registrations fairly well, for now, but I really would like to clear out the mess. There really are not very many search criteria options in move/prune members, but if I just search on the right fields I can see all 15,000 I'd like to get rid of. Does anyone have any suggestions for how this can be done? Obviously, hitting 'search for users' and clicking delete and then hitting 'search for users' again when the page reloads 15,000+ times isn't ideal.

Do they have the same email provider address like .......@.ru for ex? If they do you can mass delete them with a query at the phpmyadmin.

DELETE FROM user WHERE email LIKE '%.ru';

[Toplink]

I have the same problem, but they are from many different emails.

[kersti]

The obvious thing would be for the search users list to allow an admin to have a select box and then to be able to choose to bulk delete

[Toplink]

The obvious thing would be for the search users list to allow an admin to have a select box and then to be able to choose to bulk delete

I got rid of a lot today. Just used the prune feature. Looked for users that had not been active for 2 years and had 0 posts.

But I still have a lot of users awaiting email cofirmation. I suspect most of those are bots.

[Yosemite]

Do they have the same email provider address like .......@.ru for ex? If they do you can mass delete them with a query at the phpmyadmin.

DELETE FROM user WHERE email LIKE '%.ru';

I have the same exact issue, are you sure deleting just from the member table wont mess up the DB? It is my understanding table user data is disseminated among different tables.

[ghostofkc]

deleting from the member table will be fine, as long as you know what you are doing. Back up your db BEFORE you do this! it has been awhile since I have done this kind of editing, there is more to it than deleting from one table..... - it would be nice if this feature was built into vb though....

[your24hourstore]

well a better option would be delete user's and all posts :)

[ghostofkc]

well a better option would be delete user's and all posts :)

How is deleting our whole forum a better option? worst case, I would roll back to a older db backup. I would rather have a method of doing this in the forum though which was my original question, if it has to come to sql editing I guess that is what I will do. VB guys - why not add more options to the user prune? a "Join date before" option would solve all these problems.

Edit - I got most of them by deleting less than 5 post accounts from the last month BUT there is still a ton that have 20-30 posts so I gotta hunt for those...

[your24hourstore]

How is deleting our whole forum a better option? worst case, I would roll back to a older db backup. I would rather have a method of doing this in the forum though which was my original question, if it has to come to sql editing I guess that is what I will do. VB guys - why not add more options to the user prune? a "Join date before" option would solve all these problems.

Edit - I got most of them by deleting less than 5 post accounts from the last month BUT there is still a ton that have 20-30 posts so I gotta hunt for those...

well if spammers posted the content would you think that content is not spam i don't get what your trying to do just stop unwanted sign ups? or get rid of the link spam and signature spam that they create when they get signed up?