Mini Mods - Email reminder for inactive users

Inactive reminder emails. This mod was designed to send out a reminder to inactive members to try and win them back.

***1.2.7 Update***
This update includes built in support for bouncing emails. The script will automatically detect the bounced mail, mark it as bounced so the user is not to be contacted again so as to avoid spam, and then move that user into a seperate usergroup. This plugin is still in it's testing stages, but I have addressed the bugs mentioned previously regarding the emailing side of things.

This is important so keep reading
To install this plugin and take advantage of the bounced email features you are going to need to follow these instructions very carefully. I can not gaurentee that they will work to the letter as this will be based on each persons individual hosting settings.

Step 1: Pre Install
Before you touch this product you need to do the following

• Create an "inactive" usergroup
• Set up a "bounce to" email address
  Pick an email address that you want to use as your bounced email address. Im using "bounce@icora.co.uk". feel free to use whatever you wish.
• Add a email message filter
  This is the hard part. You need to set up a filter that will 'pipe' an email sent to the above email address.
  I am using Cpanel 11 and this is how i have mine set up:
  Rules: 'To' 'Equals' 'bounce@icora.co.uk'
  Actions: 'Pipe to program' with the setting: |/usr/local/bin/php /home/icora/public_html/forum/bounce.php
  This will depend entirely on your settings and structure so you may have to do a little research. It would be very helfull if people who have to use diferent configurations would post them on here.
• Go into vBulletin options, and find the options for 'Emails'. there is a setting asking you if you want to use '-f'. set this to yes.
• While still inn the email options set the 'Bounce Email Address' to your above address.

Step 2: Install
Remove all previous trace of this modification, and upload all the files in the "upload" folder to your base directory of the server.
Go into your product management section and add a new product. upload the XML file with overwrite selected.
Refresh your admin CP to load the new menu items. Just under the "users" group you will find an "Inactive Reminders" group. open that up and click on settings.
Play with these settings and options to suit for the most part. when you come down to the bounce settings you MUST use the same email address as the one you created above.
Set to active and save.

I must re-iterate that this version has not been widely tested, but the simulations i have ran have worked. I look forward to your feedback!

Features:

• Select the period of time before a user is considered inactive.
• Select how many emails to send to each inactive user per inactivity period
• Choose weather inactivity is based on members "Last Post" or their "Last Visit"
• Specify how often followup emails are sent
• Specify alternative emails to send to reduce repetition
• Keep a log of all inactive users contacted

Planned Updates:

• More detail in reports
• ...such as
• Which useres returned
• Effectivness stats
• Email validity

**1.2.1 Update***
Added more detail to the reports section. You can now see the email address, and quickly indicate which emails were invalid. You can link directly to that user to edit as you wish.
I have fixed some errors which have been crashing people's database. Please post any problems if you can.

**1.2.3 Update***
Fixed several problems with escaping strings
Stopped database errors locking up site
***

**1.2.4 Update***
Added a "From Email" so you can specify your own email address to send the reminders from.
Fixed potential bug for people who do not use the mail queue.

Anyone having problems with sending emails out too fast, and multiple emails being sent need to consider changing their email settings in vbulletin options.
People with emails going out too fast - edit Number of Emails to Send Per Batch to a lower amount
People with multiple emails sending - edit Use Mailqueue System to "Yes, with locking"
***

**1.2.5 Update***
Added more stats in the reports page, also added a "Send test email" option so users can test the functionality of the mod
***

[YLP1]

I installed the 1.09 version on a vb3.6.5 board. No installation errors but I created a test user group and placed an member with old activity (a test one that I created a few years ago) that has one of my domain valid email addys.

I activated the product and indicated the correct usergroup in the ACP.

I ran the cron almost an hour ago and I have not received the email yet.

Forum is sending all other emails as designed but not this one.

When I ran the cron, the result page only stated this:

Inactive User Reminder Emails
Done

Any ideas on where I screwed this up?

Thanks in advance.

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I think a different phrase would likely remove the confusion which seems to have affected numerous people who've installed the add-on. As I said above, perhaps using "Days between reminders" would eliminate most of the confusion (reading the thread would eliminate all of it but you know that's not going to happen for many people).

By the way, congratulations on Mod of the Month for April!

ill get onto it, and cheers - im well happy about motm!

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I think it's your choice.

If 1.11 is working for you and you're happy with it, then format the message for plain text.

Some people have found 1.10 and 1.11 to be buggy. To be honest, I've forgotten what didn't work well for me - I reverted to 1.09 which for me has always worked well.

I believfe Chris is still working on an update intended to address the issues with 1.11.

i've not had the fre time to work on it. but im keeping up to date with this thread.

[BadgerDog]

Ok, for whatever reason..... cron started working and has been sending out batches of 10 emails an hour for the last several hours, all on it's own... (Note: v1.09) :up:

I've already seen a huge spike in members who haven't been on for 60 days coming back and checking out things. I haven't had one complaint about the emails, but rather three so far saying thanks for reminding them, they had forgotten how much they enjoyed the forum.

Thanks for the development work....

Regards,
Badger

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

Hmmmm.. the first automatic cron time came and went, nothing happened....

When I pushed the "do it now" button, 10 emails went out as planned....

Is there something wrong with v1.09 cron job?

I assume I can't out v1.11 cron (PHP) with v1.09?

Thanks

Regards,
Badger

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

Ok, for whatever reason..... cron started working and has been sending out batches of 10 emails an hour for the last several hours, all on it's own... (Note: v1.09) :up:

I've already seen a huge spike in members who haven't been on for 60 days coming back and checking out things. I haven't had one complaint about the emails, but rather three so far saying thanks for reminding them, they had forgotten how much they enjoyed the forum.

Thanks for the development work....

Regards,
Badger

I am so glad you like
..but i dont do this for thanks.. i do it for cash..

lol im kidding .. it's all free

[djbaxter]

Chris is right. He doesn't need the cash. Send it to me

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Chris is right. He doesn't need the cash. Send it to me

Well, it appears to me that in many ways, the two of you seem to be developing this together ...

Since you're just up the road from me, the next time you come to the big city let me know and I'll buy you lunch to say thanks... :up:

BTW, overnight... membership log-ins have gone up up almost 40% using this mod ...

Regards,
Badger

[cassis2k]

Good job. Thanks

Clicks Install

[YLP1]

Originally Posted by YLP1

I installed the 1.09 version on a vb3.6.5 board. No installation errors but I created a test user group and placed an member with old activity (a test one that I created a few years ago) that has one of my domain valid email addys.

I activated the product and indicated the correct usergroup in the ACP.

I ran the cron almost an hour ago and I have not received the email yet.

Forum is sending all other emails as designed but not this one.

When I ran the cron, the result page only stated this:



Any ideas on where I screwed this up?

Thanks in advance.

I am still stuck - see above. Any thoughts?

[kkeezer]

Congrats on winning MOTM! :up:

Any ways is there a way to test this mod? I would like to see what they see as a test.

Thanks,
Kyle

[YLP1]

I ended up installed the ver 1.11 and it sent out over 400 emails. Is there a way to control the amount of emails that are sent out each time? Sending out so many emails at once could cause a domain to be blacklisted. OR does this product use what we choose in the ACP->>Email Options:
options['emailsendnum']" colSpan=2>Number of Emails to Send Per Batch
vBulletin includes a mail queuing system to prevent bottlenecks when sending lots of email. Use this option to specify how many emails will be sent per batch.

.


If it doesn't I can see this being a problem maybe not right away but it will be a problem as far as blacklistings.

Your thoughts?