User Manager - Manipulating User Accounts

The following documentation applies to the options that are present in Discus Pro. In the freeware version, not all of these options will be present, but the options that are present should function as documented herein.

Managing user accounts typically is comprised of 3 general steps:

1. Find the user account(s) in the list of users that you wish to manipulate.

2. Click on the appropriate option (e.g., delete, copy, edit, and so on).

3. Provide any required parameters for your option, or confirm your choice.

Finding User Accounts

Discus Pro provides "filters" to allow you to locate one or more user accounts meeting certain criteria. The available criteria that can be searched are:

• Username: The username of the user. You can use the filter to find usernames that contain a certain pattern ("contains" option), that do not contain a certain pattern ("does not contain" option), or that are exactly the same as what you enter ("equals" option).

• E-mail: The e-mail address of the user. You can use the filter to find e-mail addresses that contain a certain pattern ("contains" option), that do not contain a certain pattern ("does not contain" option), or that are exactly the same as what you enter ("equals" option).

• Full Name: The full name of the user. You can use the filter to find full names that contain a certain pattern ("contains" option), that do not contain a certain pattern ("does not contain" option), or that are exactly the same as what you enter ("equals" option).

• Created: The account creation date of the user, relative to the current date. This filter allows you to specify a time threshold, in days, and then to select accounts that were created before or after that threshold.

• Last Accessed: The last access date (when the user was last logged in to the board for any reason), relative to the current date. This filter allows you to specify a time threshold, in days, and then to select accounts that were created before or after that threshold.

• E-mail Notification: Whether the user has e-mail notification turned on for any topics ("On"), or does not receive any e-mail notification ("Off").

• Suspension Status: Whether the account is suspended in any way. See the section below on suspensions for an explanation of the possible statuses.

• Queued Status: Whether the account is queued, pending moderator approval. When a user applies for an account in the user self-registration system and the account is queued for approval, it is possible to view the account through the User Manager by changing this option to "Queued." While this is possible, DiscusWare recommends that the provided functionality for dealing with queued user accounts be used instead of manually manipulating queued accounts through this interface.

When you have selected a set of applicable criteria for filtering, click the "Filter" button. If you wish to clear your query (show all non-queued accounts), click the "Clear Query" button.

All users who match your query will be displayed on the user list. If there are more than 25 users that match the query, they will be divided into separate pages, and the selection box and navigation arrows can be used to switch to another page of selected users.

To act on multiple users with a single action, you can mark multiple accounts at once. Do this by checking the box in the "Mark" column next to each account you wish to mark. You can use the up and down arrows in the "Mark" column to toggle checked status of all boxes above or below the current one. If you wish to manipulate all user accounts that matched your query, even if they are not displayed, check the "Check to mark ALL users in this group (whether shown or not)" box in the bottom row.

To act upon an individual user account, click the icon next to the account you wish to manipulate. To act upon all marked accounts, you MUST click the icon from the bottom row of the table, to the right of "(Marked)".

Acting Upon User Accounts

The following features can be invoked to manipulate user accounts.

• Delete account (Del): This deletes the user account from the board. The user is deleted from all groups that you are permitted to edit, if the user belongs to multiple groups. The user is permanently deleted from the system, freeing up the username to be re-used by someone else.

• Remove account from group (Rem): This removes the user account from the group you are editing, but leaves the user account in any other groups to which the user may belong. If the user account belongs only in the group you are editing and not to any other groups, the account is then permanently deleted from the system.

• Copy account to another group (Cpy): This copies the user account to another group. After the copy, the user account is in both the group you are currently editing, and in the group to which you copied it.

• Move account to another group (Mov): This moves the user account to another group. After the move, the user account exists in the group to which you moved it, but the user account does not any longer exist in the group you are editing.

• Suspend account (Sus): Brings up various options for suspending user accounts. See the section below on suspensions for details on the available options.

• Generate Mailing List (Mail): Brings up a list of the e-mail addresses for any selected user accounts. This e-mail list can then be copied from the web browser and put into a mail client or other distribution system. Generating such an e-mail list allows a moderator to get all e-mail addresses of registered users, but actually sending out a message is an operation performed outside of the Discus program.

• Promote to Moderator (Pro): Allows the promotion of one or more user accounts to moderator status. This option can be invoked only by the board administrator. On the resulting screen, confirm that the correct users have been selected, and click the "Promote Selected Users" button. The accounts will be removed from User Manager and will then be available under Moderator Manager.

• Edit Profile (Edit): Brings up the profile editor screen, where the moderator can edit any of the user's profile settings, change the user's password, or manipulate editing settings. Depending on the situation, the moderator may also be able to change the user's post count, status, or creation date manually through this interface.

Suspension Features

Discus Pro has the ability to suspend a user's access to the board, and providing manual or automatic reinstating at the option of the moderator. The suspension dialog is accessed for one or more users by click the Suspend account (Sus) icon from the list. The following options are then enabled:

• Not suspended (fully enabled): There are no suspensions on the account.

• Disable access indefinitely: The account will not be able to log in to the board. The only way the account can be reinstated is for the moderator to return to the board and enable the account. This option is typically used for troublemakers.

• Disable access and ban any IPs used: The account will not be able to log in to the board. In addition, any time a person tries to access the board with the account, the IP address from which they accessed the board will be automatically banned. Also, the board attempts to set a cookie on the person's machine so that it recognizes them as a bad person even when they aren't trying to log in. This option should be reserved for only the very worst troublemakers, who are so persistent that simply disabling their access with the previous option is still not sufficient.

• Force password change upon next login: The next time the user logs in, they will be prompted to change their password. After they change their password, their account will be fully enabled.

• Agree/Disagree with statement: The next time the user logs in, they will be presented with the statement that you type into the box, and a yes/agree or no/disagree button. Their account will be fully enabled upon clicking the yes/agree button. Their account will remain disabled if they click on no/disagree or if they do not click a button.

• E-mail verification: The next time the user logs in, they will be presented with the statement that you type into the box. To enable their account, they will be required to click a button to have the board send them an activation key by e-mail, and they will then need to type in this activation key to enable their account.

When a user's account is suspended, they cannot log in to the board. They will also not receive any e-mail notification messages from the board.

Copying all users to another group

To copy all users to another group, select the "Copy User" tab. In the ensuing dialog box, choose a destination group, and click the "Copy Users" button to confirm your action. This is functionally equivalent, although much quicker, than copying the users one-by-one as described above.