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As of 23 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.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]

You can already automatically change a user to the MU group using the User Infraction Manager.

You can allow members to give infraction points to other members in the Usergroup Manager. But that would quickly turn into a mess, wouldn't it?

[OmarK]

Thanks for the info! Hadn't thought of that way to work with it.

I'm okay with the idea of users giving users infractions provided I can find a way to control how many infractions they're allowed to give out. My hope is to find a way to allow the community to (up to a point) self-moderate.

Not sure how well that's going to work, but I figure it's a consideration worth contemplating.

[Videx]

Maybe in Fantasy Land. But in the Real World it's a horror too scary to contemplate. Maybe you're just young and still haven't had the idealism beaten out of you by petty people.

[OmarK]

Haha, perhaps! Truthfully, it's not idealism that's driving me --- it's laziness.

[DAMINK]

Originally Posted by OmarK

Haha, perhaps! Truthfully, it's not idealism that's driving me --- it's laziness.

Quote of the day EASILY!!!

[Paul M]

I would seriously suggest not giving members the ability to hand out infractions - war would break out very quickly.

[rootsxrocks]

No kidding in a world were you can eliminate hand guns absolutely (neg rep) you sure don't want to hand out cannons to everyone. just look at how youtubes spam report is abused

[lazytown]

Originally Posted by CJD30

Does anyone know a way to allow forum mods the ability to set usergroups, rather than just the admin? I'd love for my mods to be able to use this.

I am having the same problem. There is no way I can see for mods to use this plugin unless they have admin access.. Using infractions doesn't really work because we want to specifically set which users go to MM.. As far as I know, mods cannot changer a user's usergroup.

I though of creating a 'banned' group for Miserable Members. That way mods could 'ban' them to the MM group. However, you have to give a 'reason' for a ban and I think a may display that (or a ban notice) to a miserable member, defeating the purpose.

Any solutions for this issue?

[thecore762]

Nice mod!

[Videx]

Originally Posted by vissa

Any solutions for this issue?

I think you're obsessing for no reason. Assuming your forum is so incredibly busy with griefers that you would even think about using this more than once a month, what's wrong with using the automatic infraction system to engage it?

Maybe you just need to promote more admins - how many do you have now on such a busy site?

Also know that these days this mod is becoming a lot less effective since people have access to a lot of different computers in a way they didn't a few years ago.