• Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 6

Topic: Admin approval of all new registrations

Using version 1.3.

We need to do this ...

1. New users registers, with confirmation link by email as usual.
2. New user confirms by clicking link.
3. New user then sees a message stating that registration is not complete until an administrator has approved it.
4. Admin (or moderator) gets an email containing an approval link.
5. If the admin person approves, he/she clicks on the approval link.
6. New user gets an email saying the registration has been approved, followed by welcome message.

I imagine this is possible. But I can't find an extension for it.
Are we being too optimistic?    smile

stapleton's Website

  • YonasH
  • PunBB Extensions Dev.
  • Offline
  • From: Dublin, IE
  • Registered: 2007-02-10
  • Posts: 148

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

You can just create new default group, with same limited permissions as guest.
Then create new forum and make it visible only for this new default group (read permission only).
In this forum create one topic with information, that users need to be verified before will get full access.
When verify is success, moderator (admin) can change group of this user.

I done it on my new site:
Guest can see only one forum/topic with info about registration and verify.
New registered user can see only one forum/topic (next one) with details about verify process.
After successfuly verify, moderator can change user group.
Of course verified users doesn't see first two forums wink


I know that is not best solution on the world, but it's working wink Maybe use it as temporary one?

YonasH's repository + Extensions Directory = PunBB Extensions Online Library (in progress....)

Away. I will be back soon.
  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 6

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

Thanks Yonash

I should have said that the reason for requiring admin approval of registrations is to keep out spammers -- all of them.

But we also want everybody to be able to see all the forums. Nothing should be hidden. We just want full control over who may post.

In every other respect, PunBB is exactly what we need.

Now I'm wondering if I could write an extension myself. hmm

stapleton's Website

  • YonasH
  • PunBB Extensions Dev.
  • Offline
  • From: Dublin, IE
  • Registered: 2007-02-10
  • Posts: 148

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

So, if default group will not have permission to post, you'll get what yu want smile
They (and only they) will just see new forum with instructions how to get full access. No spam boots will come through.

YonasH's repository + Extensions Directory = PunBB Extensions Online Library (in progress....)

Away. I will be back soon.
  • Registered: 2008-11-16
  • Posts: 528

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

But his userlist would still be cluttered up with spam registrations.

  • YonasH
  • PunBB Extensions Dev.
  • Offline
  • From: Dublin, IE
  • Registered: 2007-02-10
  • Posts: 148

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

Yes, that's true. But in his way he will have plenty of hidden not verified user entries wink
Anyway I said that it can be just temporary solution for him

Cheers

YonasH's repository + Extensions Directory = PunBB Extensions Online Library (in progress....)

Away. I will be back soon.
  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 6

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

Ok I will try this suggestion ...
I don't mind deleting spammers.
If they cannot post, and nobody else knows they exist, it will not affect our real users.
And thanks for taking an interest smile

stapleton's Website

  • Registered: 2009-02-05
  • Posts: 6

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

Done it! So far, so good ...

But it's not scaleable it is?
Perhaps best seen as a very useful extra precaution?

stapleton's Website

  • Registered: 2009-04-20
  • Posts: 32

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

stapleton wrote:

Using version 1.3.

We need to do this ...

1. New users registers, with confirmation link by email as usual.
2. New user confirms by clicking link.
3. New user then sees a message stating that registration is not complete until an administrator has approved it.
4. Admin (or moderator) gets an email containing an approval link.
5. If the admin person approves, he/she clicks on the approval link.
6. New user gets an email saying the registration has been approved, followed by welcome message.

I imagine this is possible. But I can't find an extension for it.
Are we being too optimistic?    smile

Is there anyway that we can make this happen? It would be a very useful tool! Thanks!

  • Registered: 2009-05-06
  • Posts: 1

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

I have tried the "powerless group" method but find it quickly becomes a pain to deal with all the spammers that build up in there.  On a very low key WWW site I found I was getting 10~20/day signing up and it was proving quite hard to discriminate who was good/bad.  In short, while it's technically a solution that works it practically becomes very annoying.

May I suggest that in addition with what stapleton has suggested (the 6-step process) that the applicant needs to write a small note or message to the admin to validate that they are actually legitimate (perhaps saying why they wish to join or even just telling you what the forum is about smile ).

11 Reply by william (edited by william 2010-08-19 06:31)

  • Registered: 2009-02-15
  • Posts: 3

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

YonasH wrote:

So, if default group will not have permission to post, you'll get what yu want smile
They (and only they) will just see new forum with instructions how to get full access. No spam boots will come through.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but wondering if there's a way to prevent a group of users from modifying visible user parameters (signatures / website, for example). Just some background on the actual problem I'm trying to solve...

I'm seeing a lot of SEO spammers signing up, waiting a while, then adding a signature and / or website, but not actually posting. Even if the signup looks spammy, it's hard to know for sure to can them until the signature shows up (especially since I have a lot of legitimate foreign users on my forum). I believe humans are involved in some part of the process, because they use a variety of throwaway email addresses, are usually connecting from the Philipines or other places where labor is cheap, and I have a captcha on the signup already.

Anyway, I'd love to be able to allow users to signup / post, but require manual intervention before someone can add a link or signature.

Another annoyance is that setting the signature length / lines to "0" prevents even the admin from emptying out a signature -- even if the text box is completely empty with no spaces, it seems to consider it "1" line. I'm running the latest 1.3.x

12 Reply by KeyDog

  • KeyDog
  • KeyDog
  • Global Moderator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-12-12
  • Posts: 1,693

Re: Admin approval of all new registrations

1. Install the official Stop Spam from Bots Extension and insert a new Question, deleting the old ones after
2. Install the stopforumspam Extension (unofficial) or
3. You can to query the stopforumspam database.

Should see your registrations dwindle. The botnet hitting is you is using real yahoo, hotmail, gmail accounts and breaking the rather simple default CAPTCHA. It basically hits all forums with SMF, vBulletin and phpbb - aswell as PunBB to some extent.