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
***

[Head Roller]

Fantastic Mod. THanks.

[cubenz]

Originally Posted by cubenz

Hi,

I am a vBulletin neophyte, and this is the first mod that I've installed, so please be kind to me.

I've read through the first 30% of this thread without finding the answer to my question, but it is obvious that the mod will work if conditions are right. I'll keep reading, but if someone could help me now, I would be very appreciative!

1. Using 'Run Now', the feedback indicates e-mails are being sent, but they are not received at the other end. I can send e-mails from AdminCP/Users/Send Emails without problem (with and without SMTP set!)

2. Information appears in the Scheduled Tasks log only if I use Run Now - there is no evidence that it is running via 'cron'. (How often is the cron list checked by vBulletin when browsing the messages in my Test board?)

3. In the early part of this thread, there is talk of a limit to the number of e-mails sent out in one go - the code doesn't seem to contain a limit, and I can't see one in the configuration. Is it still there? [Update - I see that it isn't - I'm sure why will be revealed soon...]

Thanks

Quentin

OK, I uninstalled, and installed 1.0.9, and the mail is now being sent.

My guess is that I just don't understand the VB Mail Queue (I tried with and without that turned on).

Quentin

[tctransporter]

How do I know if it sent any out? I installed the newest version but I didn't see any option to tell it to run. I just edited the settings and saved it. Is there a way to tell if they was sent?

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by tctransporter

How do I know if it sent any out? I installed the newest version but I didn't see any option to tell it to run. I just edited the settings and saved it. Is there a way to tell if they was sent?

Assuming you are using version 1.09 (highly recommended), the add-on actually runs from a cron job. Go to Admin CP | Scheduled Tasks and try running it manually.

[6piston]

hi C Braithwaite

is there any way that i could check that the mod is working?
like tracking of emails sent and/or report of sent emails etc?

or any alternatives like where to roughly track the effectiveness of the mod?

thanks!
Tom

[Saint_ago]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

It's sent from the email address specified in your Admin CP as the forum email address.

Doesn't work. In my board, the messages arrive with this sender address:

BFCentral: A Maior Comunidade de Battlefield da Am?rica Latina <BFCentral:A.Maior.Comunidade.de.Battlefield.da.Am ?rica.Latina@sharedhosting2.oi.com.br>

Forum name:
BFCentral: A Maior Comunidade de Battlefield da Am?rica Latina

Email Address:
contato@bfcentral.com.br

Board URL:
http://bfcentral.oi.com.br

I'm using 3.6.5, with SMTP send mail set on NO. My PHP.INI:

sendmail_from admin@bfcentral.com.br
sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i

Sometimes (depending on the mail client), the sender is just blank.

Plz help me, how can i change this "BFCentral:A.Maior.Comunidade.de.Battlefield.da.Am ?rica.Latina@sharedhosting2.oi.com.br" to a valid address?

Thanks in advance

[kellogs]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

just change the main email address of your site

The sender email address is wrong. on my forum, i have set the main address as me@abc.com but when it sent out to user it shows the following

"Singapore Motherhood and Parenting Forums" <Singapore Motherhood and Parenting Forums@mail.solone.net>

May i know how to fix it?

Everything else works great!

Thanks,
Edy

[C Braithwaite]

Originally Posted by kellogs

The sender email address is wrong. on my forum, i have set the main address as me@abc.com but when it sent out to user it shows the following

"Singapore Motherhood and Parenting Forums" <Singapore Motherhood and Parenting Forums@mail.solone.net>

May i know how to fix it?

Everything else works great!

Thanks,
Edy

whatever you have set your "Webmaster's Email" address to in your site options.

[fly]

Originally Posted by C Braithwaite

whatever you have set your "Webmaster's Email" address to in your site options.

What he's saying is, that doesn't work. I have mine setup, and yet it sends out the reply address as "UF FORUMS"@SPIVEY.UF.COM

[ElForro]

OK. I really don't understand how this works... again...

I've set 60 days of inactivity... "Inactivity based on last post" set to "NO"

So... I did a User Search for users with last activity after "2007-06-22" AND before "2007-06-23"... The result was 400 users... Let's say, 400 users with last activity 60 days ago...

But when I run the cronjob, it says it found about 4.000 users...

I searched users only with last activity before "2007-06-23" (60 days ago) and it found like 50.000...

So, can anyone please tell me how this product search for the inactive users? Based on what?

Thanks!

Edit: Just made a test with a Test usergroup with TWO (2) users... Run the cron, and it said "Found 4 Inactive Users."... Now that's weird....

Edit 2: Besides all that.. The mails are not being sent... I really don't know what's happening...