Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Miserable Users

As of 23 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.

The ever popular "Miserable Users" modification.

Basically a way to really annoy anyone you don't want visiting your forum. Credit to Zzed for the original idea.

When classed as miserable, a member suffers ;

1. Slow response (time delay) on every page (20 to 60 seconds default).
2. A chance they will get the "server busy" message (50% by default).
3. A chance they will get redirected to another preset page (25% & homepage by default).
4. A chance they will simply get a blank page (25% by default).

If they get past all this okay, then they will be served up their proper page.

Note: All the above are set in vBulletin Options > Miserable Users.

To Install ;

Download the xml file to your pc and import it into vbulletin as a product.
Ceate your 'Miserable Users' usergroup and set the value of this group, and your preferred other settings, in the modifications settings (vBulletin Options > Miserable Users).


To make a member suffer just edit their profile - add them to the Miserable Users group (it will work as either the primary group or as a secondary group). There is also the option to set ip addresses.


History:

v4.0.1 : 24-Dec-2009 : Initial release for vb 4.0.0 Gold.
v4.0.2 : 20-Jan-2010 : Not released.
v4.0.3 : 26-Jan-2010 : Various updates.
v4.0.4 : 16-Feb-2010 : Fix server busy, phrase blank page message.
v4.0.5 : 18-Feb-2010 : Installer update.
v4.0.6 : 07-Mar-2010 : Changed the way the delay works.
v4.0.7 : 29-May-2010 : Fix error in upgrade section of install code.
v4.0.8 : 06-Nov-2010 : Install code updated.

v4.1.0 : 04-Dec-2010 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.

v4.1.7.0 : 16-Oct-2011 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.7.

v4.2.0.0 : 24-May-2012 : Updated for vBulletin 4.2.0.

[Videx]

Originally Posted by RedFoxy

oh! ok now I check, but it's strange...

If you read back a ways you'll see it can be difficult to test this mod. Or at least not as easy as it would seem. I know in one of my posts I had figured it out and posted how.

[Paul M]

Whats difficult ? Its very easy to test it.

[Videx]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Whats difficult ? Its very easy to test it.

Arg. Terribly sorry! I was thinking of the Multiple login detector. So many mods they sometimes blur together.

[RedFoxy]

I'll test it tomorrow because my server goes offline -.-

[Magz]

I get lots of database error message reporting back to me, with the nick of the "miserable user" ive set? is this a real error, or just one that they see from the server busy setting?

[Paul M]

This does not generate database errors, so they must be real.

[Magz]

Thanks Paul, only got them when I enabled this and added a user. Not sure what it could be then, but i was getting loads of error emails, mostly containing different results. I've disabled for now, and the errors have stopped.

Will have a closer look when i get some more time, pity though, i could have found a use for this

[Paul M]

Most likely they are mysql gone away errors, because your server has a very low mysql timeout value - meaning it is lower than the delay setting you have set in the mod.

[Epic Mike]

Originally Posted by RedFoxy

I've a trouble with the users in the miserable usergroup, when they try to read a topic they got:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [path]/includes/class_bootstrap.php(93) : eval()'d code:23) in [path]/includes/functions.php on line 3742

I'm getting the same error but the only plugin I have installed that RedFoxy has other than the stock blog and CMS is the multiple login detector. So I disabled it and the error remains. I then went through the other pulgins that I have and disabling all of those didn't help. I changed the timeout options to 1 and 2 seconds for min and max but that didn't help either.

I also have two other strange issues.

(1) When miserable users get the busy server message other than that message itself the rest of the site is completely blank. There are no words in the tabs, and the login box appears again as if the user isn't logged in. When on the CMS section everything appears normally but when on the forum pages that's when the words disappear.

(2) Instead of a blank page they get a blank page that says "Error - Please try again"

Any advice? I know you said it is working fine on your site but perhaps something I wrote would trigger an idea for me to try?

Thanks,

Mike

[Paul M]

The blank page option does actually put out the message "Error - Please try again", thats by design, the rest of the page is blank. Currently that message is fixed, but it will be optional in the next release.

The server busy message problem is due to the way it currently calls that standard message. vB4 completely changed the way the busy message works and when I ported this, that seemed the best way - however I have since re-designed that way this generates the message, and it should be ok in the next release.