Mini Mods - [OzzModz] Welcome Thread / Post For New Users

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This is a simple mod, that will post a new thread or post, when a new user joins your site.

It can be set to post as soon as the member completes the registration process, or when they confirm their email, should you have that option set in your vBulletin settings.

It is a simple installation, upload the files in the UPLOAD folder, then import the product XML, product-ozzmodz_welcome_thread

You can edit the options under the settings, [OzzModz] Welcome Thread / Post For New Users Settings and change the thread post titles and messages in the options, [OzzModz] Welcome Thread / Post For New Users Titles And Messages

Complete Feature List

• Ability to enable/disable the thread/post system.
• Option to create thread before or after Email activation
• Option to choose to post as a new thread or a reply to a post.
• Option to enter the ID of the person making the post.
• Option for the thread/post to count towards the posters postcount or not.
• Ability to select which forum the new thread should be posted in.
• Option to set the thread id if you choose to post as a reply to a post.
• Option to set the post id if you choose to post as a reply to a post.
• Option to set the thread as open or closed if you choose to post as a new thread.
• Option to enter which post icons to use.
• Option to set as sticky if you choose to post as a new thread.
• Ten different options to enter the thread/post title for the system to randomly use.
• Ten different options to enter the thread/post content for the system to randomly use.

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If you like this mod please hit the button to the right ---->

Please remember to click the, button to the right if you installed the mod ---->

What does 'Marking As Installed' do ?

* It helps you to stay on top of updates - members who have installed modifications will be notified whenever new updates are available.

* For security issues - vbulletin.org will contact all members who have installed a modification whenever a security issue is brought to their attention.

* Marking a modification as installed also helps me know how many people are using my work, giving me extra incentive to provide more features and new modifications.

I appreciate the support!
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* History (Changelog) *
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v1.0.0 (December 15, 2013)
- Initial public release.
v1.1.0 (July 26, 2014)
- Added ability to link username to users profile.
v1.2.0 (September 13, 2014)
- Existing users that change their email, and confirm the new email, will no longer trigger the mod to post a thread.
- Users that sign up with names that have special characters, like this, pandora& will now show up correctly, instead of showing like this, pandora&

[Alan_SP]

Originally Posted by ozzy47

Yep, so I have found a way to get it in there with a big hammer and a crowbar.

This is excellent news. :up:

Just to mention (), it didn't worked even when I used @$username in message. Then you could see @test10 (user's correct name), but mentioning didn't worked. Even if it was quoted, it didn't worked.

But, glad that you figured out what's the problem. :up:

[ozzy47]

The way it will work when I release it is in the Message, not the title, you will be able to use,

[*MENTION=$mentionuserid]$username[*/MENTION]

(without the * of course) instead of @$username

There may be a bit of a delay, I got tied up yesterday debugging some stuff on my site.

[Alan_SP]

This is excellent news.

But there's something funny that just happened. The mod created three welcome threads without user actually being registered.

Time stamps of threads are:

18.12.2013, 16:21:24
18.12.2013, 16:21:33
18.12.2013, 16:21:34

In place of user name, there's nothing, as no user actually registered. I'm using option that they have to confirm email address.

At that time one user probably tried to confirm email address, or did something, I have for that user this info in ACP:

Time of last activity 18:21 (no seconds in ACP).

So, there's something that this user did what triggered creation of thread although there were not actual successful email activation.

I need to mention, on my site there are sometimes situations when users post double posts when they try to post single. This is vB bug, or something, as this should be prevented if they try to post same post too soon. I use vB 4.1.12.

So, this three threads could be result of this, or something related.

Anyway, part of checking if user actually confirmed email address has an error, or at least it didn't worked on my site for some reason.

[ozzy47]

I would be willing to bet it was a bot trying to register, bypassing the actuall register page and doing the registration auto.

[ozzy47]

Got delayed again, I hope to have it out before weeks end.

[Alan_SP]

Originally Posted by ozzy47

I would be willing to bet it was a bot trying to register, bypassing the actuall register page and doing the registration auto.

I made one mistake when I wrote my previous message, user actually had activity at the same time threads were made (16:21, not 18:21). I suspect these threads were made by activity from this user.

Also, today after I left mod running, I have more similar threads without name of user (so email confirmation process didn't worked through).

In one instance, there are two threads created one after another, and in other there are three threads created in array.

I'm not convinced it's the bots, there would be much more threads, I think that actual people probably try to confirm link, doing something wrong, not sure what as I always was able to confirm link without any problems when I registered test users.

This is really something hard to pinpoint, because sometimes mod works fine, no multiple threads, and sometimes there are multiple threads without users name.

Bots hardly ever successfully register on my site, if they do, I think that they are actual people, who manually do registration process and are able to bypass registration checks.

EDIT: I just noticed one more "empty" thread, but it looks paired with actual registration.

Time stamps of threads:

Empty: 19.12.2013, 8:28:35
With user name: 19.12.2013, 8:29:15

So, after 40 seconds, there's thread created with user name. I assume, user tried to confirm email, didn't succeeded and 40s after that was successful and thread was created with his name.

All these multiple threads are seconds apart, I really doubt that this is bot activity. Anyway, I added to my "arsenal" this mod: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=294633 so I now have two of three mods that you suggested for bot stopping from registering on my site (don't use at the moment Hostname or Useragent Registration Ban).

EDIT2: I tried to find if there's last activity for certain users who still need to confirm email address that corresponds with multiple thread creation and I found for triple threads user that probably triggered creation of threads, for double I didn't find, but it could be for more than one reason, e.g. user maybe later successfully confirmed email address (more than a few seconds later, so it doesn't "link" created empty threads, and when I say empty, I mean threads without username), or it could be attempt from "older" user and I didn't manually checked enough users.

So at the moment I have only one multiple threads created that maybe is from bot's activity, but it's not certain. It also could be legitimate user doing something that triggered threads creation.

[ozzy47]

That's really strange. I wish there was a way to replicate it on demand. I will try to see if I can replicate it and figure out what is going on before the next release.

[Alan_SP]

Yes, this looks like something hard to replicate.

Probably you could try to register, but before actual successful email confirmation, try to "play" with test user, for example, surf site, maybe even go to link for manual email confirmation, or use invalid confirmation link...

Anyway, try to create these multiple threads without username. This happens, but what users actually do, I can't tell.

Problem also is, I could try to ask users (I have one user who probably triggered thread creation without name), but I'm not sure they would be able to describe meaningfully what they did. They usually not very tech savvy and they certainly didn't pay attention to what they are doing.

Also, if you find out what's actual users' behavior who trigger thread creation, I could try to explain to my users who have problems confirming email address what (not) to do. I have relatively lot of people who fail to confirm email address, but I think they just have problems with computers and internet in general, not that something is really wrong with my setup, as there are many (including myself) who manage to register without any problems.

[dizzynation]

Any chance to add the registration details in the thread content?

[ozzy47]

What details?