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
***

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by subnet_rx

Anyone got suggestions on good settings for this mod? I had several users email me that they were getting several messages over the course of a week. I don't want to look like a spammer. Maybe even just email all inactive users once, and that's it. If they don't want to come back after that, I'd rather not remind them again. Should I use 360 in the amount column?

Mine are as follows (using version 1.09):

Days of Inactivity = 90
How many days a user can go without posting before they are considered inactive.

Email Frequency = 30
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive.

Email Quantity = 10
How many emails to send each time cron runs (Lower means faster board, but longer to send all emails. Higher, vice versa.)

[kitsch]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

Not being funny or anything, but try setting your email address to the correct address in your ACP?
The reason that it is putting that email address is because that is what YOU set it to. any emails sent out from vbulletin will use that email address as the return address/contact address.

I'm sorry, but I think I've set the address correctly.
Using vBulletin 3.6.4, btw. Could that be the problem?

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

D'oh!

Sorry. I am using this add-on in combination with the EZ Bounced Emails add-on. My comments are appropriate to the latter, not this one, of course.

I blame it on waking up an hour earlier than normal and lack of coffee...

lol will let you off

Originally Posted by kitsch

I'm sorry, but I think I've set the address correctly.
Using vBulletin 3.6.4, btw. Could that be the problem?

i've only personally tested it on 3.6.5, but i cant see why it would be a problem..

[KURTZ]

installed!

[DarkWolf74]

Oh heck.. I was having the problem of people complaining about getting emails way too frequently too.. Can someone verify what this setting does?

Email Frequency = 30
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive.

Is that frequency in DAYS? How many days apart to send them? If so it needs reworded. I thought it was how many emails to send them before stopping.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by DarkWolf74

Oh heck.. I was having the problem of people complaining about getting emails way too frequently too.. Can someone verify what this setting does?

Email Frequency = 30
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive.

Is that frequency in DAYS? How many days apart to send them? If so it needs reworded. I thought it was how many emails to send them before stopping.

Yes, that's correct. And yes, it does need some rewording - perhaps "Days between reminders" would be better.

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by DarkWolf74

Oh heck.. I was having the problem of people complaining about getting emails way too frequently too.. Can someone verify what this setting does?

Email Frequency = 30
How often to send a reminder email once a member has become inactive.

Is that frequency in DAYS? How many days apart to send them? If so it needs reworded. I thought it was how many emails to send them before stopping.

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Yes, that's correct. And yes, it does need some rewording - perhaps "Days between reminders" would be better.

Well, i beg to differ - "how often", last time I checked the English language, does not mean in any way, shape, or form "how many"

I should have specified that it is measured in days however, I will hold my hands up to that one.

[djbaxter]

I don't think "how often" is the part that's confusing people. I think it's the phrase "email frequency".

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I don't think "how often" is the part that's confusing people. I think it's the phrase "email frequency".

Frequency "The property or condition of occurring at frequent intervals."


Should i dumb it down for people? I thought that "frequency" was a common word, not some fancy tech talk?

[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!