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
***

[Orcun]

Originally Posted by Orcun

I have a problem with this addon.

When I try to send a test email; It takes my frame back to login screen with this.

"To continue this action, login using the admin account that intiated the action."

What could cause the problem ? I searched this thread but didnt come with anything useful.
Btw I'm using vB3.6.4

Any updates on this ?

[XXP]

Originally Posted by Orcun

When I try to [do an adm; It takes my frame back to login screen with this.

"To continue this action, login using the admin account that intiated the action."

What could cause the problem ?

From what you describe, there is something in your vB setup that is causing vB to be confused into thinking that the 'user' that clicked the submit button is different from the 'user' to which vB is being instructed to send the results. That's a no-no and a no-go.

vB thinks that it is being told to send the results of your action to a different user than the one that initiated the action.

That could be:

Because you're logged on in another browser (window) as a different user and vB is getting confused,

OR: you have cookies turned off or blocked by a firewall somewhere in your network,

OR: maybe you have cookies disabled and you have a multi-homed IP configuration so that vB sees two or more different IP addresses for your session[s],

OR: some other bit of unusual configuration in your setup -- repeat emphatically, your particular setup.

The content of the error message you are receiving combined with the fact that [apparently] no one else is getting this problem seems to point to it being a configuration &/or routing issue someplace inside your system.

Good luck! Please post if you figure it out so that others who run into it will be helped.

[iogames]

almost?

[Prince]

if a user selects in their usercp to not receive emails from admins will they still get this recurring inactive email? or is there a way for them to "unsubscribe" and not receive it any more? if not this turns into spam and the only way to stop it is delete their account, not good.

[bigcurt]

So, are people having problems with the new versions? I am confused lol. I am still on version 1.1.1 lol - a little scared to update considering people are saying they are having problems. Thanks for the help.

Curt

[lafsunlmtd]

anyone have this working in 3.8?

[piraterevival]

Originally Posted by lafsunlmtd

anyone have this working in 3.8?

I'd also like to see if this is working in 3.8

[kevcj]

This is working in VB 3.8. I had it installed on 3.7 and updated my forum to 3.8. But it will not install on a 3.8 forum.

But, the script sends out a random number of emails instead of just one a day. One day a dozen reminder emails might get sent out, the next day 5, the next day 1.

What is causing the script to send out more then one reminder email daily? The script is set to run once a day at noon. It runs, but sends out a random number of email reminders. Some of my members have sent me messages asking why they got 6 emails of the exact same thing within seconds of each other.

[Jheroen]

Originally Posted by kevcj

This is working in VB 3.8. I had it installed on 3.7 and updated my forum to 3.8. But it will not install on a 3.8 forum.

But, the script sends out a random number of emails instead of just one a day. One day a dozen reminder emails might get sent out, the next day 5, the next day 1.

What is causing the script to send out more then one reminder email daily? The script is set to run once a day at noon. It runs, but sends out a random number of email reminders. Some of my members have sent me messages asking why they got 6 emails of the exact same thing within seconds of each other.

yeah that's my problem too, members are sending me mails that they get tired from the mass mails of reminders that they receive form the board. it is set to sent out 1 mail and then another one after that but sometimes people got 15 mails a day...........

[Leo Brazil]

I have this working on 3.8.0 and seems to be OK, I mean it's not sending out several reminders to the same person everyday. I set up a few test users just to monitor this issue reported here and seems to be OK.

Anyway, I've been using this since 3.7.1 and after upgraded to 3.8.0 still works the same way. I honestly don't know how would be its behavior in a fresh start on 3.8

Just one thing about, I've never set up anything about bounced e-mails, gave up on this since the beginning.