Prune users and posts by IP

[iPollesion]

I recommend having a way to prune users by IP.

Please see: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2166380 for more information.

[stevemaury]

The danger of that feature is that it assumes both that every user has a unique IP and two users with different IPs are different users. Generally, neither is true. Users with the same ISP using DHCP will often have the same IP, as will users on a common network, like a company or a university.

Since most people do not understand that, using such a tool could result in many inadvertent deletions.

[Senky]

-1

[Pony99CA]

The danger of that feature is that it assumes both that every user has a unique IP and two users with different IPs are different users. Generally, neither is true. Users with the same ISP using DHCP will often have the same IP, as will users on a common network, like a company or a university.

Since most people do not understand that, using such a tool could result in many inadvertent deletions.

True, but you'd see the list of names being pruned in the candidate list, so why not allow IP addresses in the Prune criteria? In fact, why not allow a range of IP addresses (1.2.*.* or 1.2.3.128-191, for example)?

In addition, phpBB allows banning by IP address, which is arguably worse. Pruning deletes me (and maybe my posts), but banning prevents me from even visiting. So I'll give it a +1 -- it would allow me to easily prune all users from an ISP that I don't like.

My question is which IP address you'd prune on -- the registration IP address, session IP addresses, posting IP addresses or all of them?

Steve

[3Di]

Prune by IP it is like a gamble in the wind, a No No.

[iPollesion]

If such a feature were added, in order to counter any worries, there would have to be a dialog screen showing which users are going to be pruned that are tied to the I.P. addresses submitted for pruning, maybe show a post count next to their username. The username could link to their member profile page.

Undoubtedly this feature would allow users to easily manage a board riddled with would-be spammers, so I still think this feature is good to have, as far as pruning posts and topic is concerned.

Banning by I.P. would be optional.

[Pony99CA]

Prune by IP it is like a gamble in the wind, a No No.

Pruning by any criterion blindly is a gamble. That's why the prune candidate screen should be displayed in a format similar to the Member List showing the values of the pruning criteria with checkboxes to unselect the ones that you don't want to prune (that checkbox part appears to be done).

Plus, as I said, phpBB allows banning by IP addresses, so pruning isn't that much different. The biggest difference is that you can accidentally delete somebody's posts, which is almost irreversible, but if somebody knows what they're doing (and we warn people about the dangers of pruning by IP address), I don't have a problem with adding this.

If you're really worried, don't allow pruning by only specifying an IP address (or range); allow it as one of the criteria that gets ANDed with all of the other criteria so that it acts like a further filter to narrow down the candidate list.

Steve

[imkingdavid]

If the pruning page is changed to display the users to be affected, I can support the inclusion of an IP filter.

[DavidIQ]

+1 for allowing pruning by IP with a review screen prior to executing the pruning. We already show a list of users to be pruned so it would just be a matter of adding checkboxes to them or allowing for each to be deleted individually.

[Pony99CA]

+1 for allowing pruning by IP with a review screen prior to executing the pruning. We already show a list of users to be pruned so it would just be a matter of adding checkboxes to them or allowing for each to be deleted individually.

The checkboxes are already there, I believe. Check out the Improve User Pruning feature RFC post by AJD and the second image. The code is listed as Merged,

I would just prefer that list to look like the Member List, with pruning criteria as the column headings. (In fact, all lists like that should be implemented like the Member List. For example, the Bots list should be sortable by Bot name, User Agent match, IP address, last visit and active status.)

Steve