Private Messages Enhancements - Force Users to Read PMs by BOP5 (VB4/VB3)

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5
www.Qapla.com

This is a fairly simple mod to allow Admins to force users (by usergroup) to make sure they have read all their PMs before they are allowed to use/browse the forums.

Version 1.1

1.0 - Initial Release (on Qapla.com)
1.1 - Added username to the error message

Note: In the VB4 Publishing Suite there is no way to prevent users from browsing or using the CMS system due to the lack of the required hook in these areas.

Demo: You must register at www.Qapla.com/mods/

Then go to Permission Groups in Settings.

Join the "Force Reading PMs Demo" Group.

Now either send yourself a PM, or if you already have an unread PM try to access a forum or a thread or blog or profile- you will be blocked by the mod. You can also try to "Mark as Read" some PMs via the checkboxes without opening them- you will see that has been blocked too.

You can leave the group again by going to the same page when you're done testing.

You can customize the message by editing the Error Message Phrase: bop5_force_read_pm_message

Thinking about this further, this could be a great way of fighting spam. I'm sure none of the current spam bots out there bother reading any PMs, and if you set your forum to send a welcome PM, every new user will get at least 1 PM. If the spam bot doesn't check them they will never be allowed to post anything. Talk about unintended consequences.

Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations Always Appreciated. :up:

[BirdOPrey5]

Reserved.

[ForceHSS]

Has it been tested on the latest vb version?

[CharlieDelta]

Having the ability to force specific users would make this perfect.
Any possibility?

Works great on 4.2.

[Mikelito]

why in forumhome not work?

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by ForceHSS

Has it been tested on the latest vb version?

Yes, my demo site is 4.2.0 and it works fine on it.

Originally Posted by Mikelito

why in forumhome not work?

Because the "THIS_SCRIPT" name of forumhome is: index

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by CharlieDelta

Having the ability to force specific users would make this perfect.
Any possibility?

Works great on 4.2.

The best way to do this would be to create a new usergroup "Force Read PMs" and then add it to specific users as an "additional" (secondary) usergroup and it will force those users to read their PMs.

[ForceHSS]

Cool installed

[Trek]

Sounds cool.

One suggestion for a feature:

Set a userID (such as user 1) that any PMs from that user are forced to be read. That way, they are only forced to read PMs from specific users, not all users.

[BirdOPrey5]

That would need a lot of custom coding Trek. We'll see...