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
***

[Smoothie]

Once again I am noticing a slight problem. I added a new usergroup to the settings. The setting is 90 and 30 days. In this usergroup I added, out of the 12 users, 2 should have been sent the email. Based on days of inactivity and "Receive Admin Emails" set to yes. According to the task log, no emails were sent............

[Tom_S]

How did you set it to send notifications for 30 and 90 days both?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by doogie88

That still doesn't make sense.

2. Email Frequency
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive - set this to how many days you want to wait before sending out another reminder to that member.

Set this to how many days you want to wait. So does it only send 2 notices?
That's how many days apart it will send the notice, but not how many total emails will be sent?

There is no setting for "total number of emails". If you want the frequency to be very low, set it to something link 365 days.

Originally Posted by Blackjack

It would also be nice if users could opt out from receiving the emails right from the email.

That's easily done from the options in your ACP. Just add it yourself, as I did:

<p>Hello, $username!</p>
<p>It's been some time since your last visit to $bbtitle.</p>
<p>You might be interested in having another look. We have added several features and enhancements to the forums, as well as many new members and new topics added every day.</p>
<p>If you don't remember your password, you can request it here: <a href="$forumurl/login.php?do=lostpw">$forumurl/login.php?do=lostpw</a></p>
<p>You can now keep up to date with new topics at $bbtitle by subscribing to the Forum Newsletter. Click on your <a href="$forumurl/usercp.php"User CP</a> link in the top navigation bar of any forum page and select < href="$forumurl/profile.php?do=editoptions">Edit Options</a>. Then scroll down to the Messaging & Notification section and check the box next to Subscribe to Forum Newsletter.</p>
<p>We hope to see you back soon.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you do not wish to receive further emails of this nature, please log into your UserCP at <a href="$forumurl/profile.php?do=editoptions">User CP | Options</a> and uncheck the box next to Receive Email from Administrators.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Administrator</p>
$bbtitle
<p><a href="$homeurl">$homeurl</a></

[daddygrim]

Inactive Reminders By Mished.co.uk

i son;t want this sitting at the footer of my page..and why would this be included in the reminder email? how do i remove this?

[Smoothie]

Originally Posted by Tom_S

How did you set it to send notifications for 30 and 90 days both?

90 days of inactivity, send every 30 days.

[Smoothie]

Either the task log is not updating, or this mod isn't sending emails.

[daddygrim]

oh..i fixed it..lol

[Gryphon]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

That's easily done from the options in your ACP.

Yes, however that requires them to login. If they don't remember their password they have to run through a bunch of steps in order to get logged in to disable admin messages.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Blackjack

Yes, however that requires them to login. If they don't remember their password they have to run through a bunch of steps in order to get logged in to disable admin messages.

Or, they can email the admin by clicking reply and request it be done for them - which does happen and which takes only a minute from the ACP.

[Gryphon]

Yeah....or it could be a feature of this mod.