Last Online in admin member list

[brynn]

Hi Friends,
This certainly isn't a serious problem, but I'm curious about it.

In the Last Online column of Admin > Members > Members, if someone has registered, but not activated their account, it says "Never" italyicized.  If someone has activated their account, but never posted a message, it shows however many days since they registered.  I just happened to notice someone who I know had activated their account, and never posted a message, but for some reason, now it says "Never" not italycized.

After searching the Online Manual, and running down a few things that I thought might be involved, I've come up with nothing.  Does anyone know what the non-italycized "Never" represents?

Thanks for your help 

[Chalky]

Hmm, well spotted, I have one like that as well 

[Arantor]

There is actually a reason in the code for this.

Never is used if never logged in, italics is used if the account is any status other than approved (ignoring a ban)

So if they have never approved their account, it should be Never, italicised. Approving an account will remove the italics - but they are not *automatically* logged in, or should not be according to the code in Register.php::Activate. So they've approved their account by following the link in the email but never logged in from there. All bets may be off if Tapatalk is involved.

Also note if you have any of the other states (reapproving email (state 2), admin activation (state 3), pending deletion (state 4) or COPPA (state 5)) they should be in italics as well.

[brynn]

Sorry for the delay.

Uummm....are you using "approve" and "activate" interchangeably?  I don't understand what you're saying.

I understand that if they never activated their account, it's "Never".  But this guy did activate his account, long time ago.  "Last Online" used to be X number of days.  Now it's "Never".

Are you saying that he was logged in, all this X number of days?  But now he logged out?

X number of days might have been near 365.  Does the cookie expire after a year?

Idk what Tapatalk is, so doubt I'm using it.

[Arantor]

No, because they are different things. I wish I hadn't explained now, because it's only served to confuse.

Internally SMF uses a number to indicate what state an account is.
0 = registered, awaiting activation
1 = registered, activated
2 = registered, email address has changed, awaiting reactivation
3 = registered, awaiting admin approval
4 = registered, awaiting deletion
5 = registered, awaiting COPPA form from parents

Then the same list again +10 to indicate banned.

The code clearly says if the status is anything other than 1 or 11, the account is not currently 'activated' and therefore should be in italics.

It's nothing to do with any cookies, it is using the last online figure in the account which is stored in the members table. There should be no normal reason for this to reset. You didn't seem to indicate that someone had changed from any normal state back to this 'never' state.

[brynn]

You didn't seem to indicate that someone had changed from any normal state back to this 'never' state.

I don't know what they might have done.  Or what I might have done, to change it from X number of days to "Never".  That's why I'm asking.

OH!  But now that you mention tables, I realize how it must have happened, even if I don't know exactly what it was.  My site went down a couple of weeks ago, and my host had to manually edit some tables, while fixing whatever the problem was.  I'll bet that's when it happened!

I just happened to notice this non-italic never, because I was going through and deleting all the members who never activated their accounts.  That's why I needed to understand why it went from X number of days to non-italic Never.

So I should probably not delete them.  Even though they haven't posted a message, they probably think they're still a member..... 

Right??  I'm sorry, but despite your excellent explanation, this is all just a little over my head.  Maybe I should delete them, and they can just re-register, if they ever visit again?

Could you give me a little guidance about that?  Or should I consult my site host?

Thanks again.  And sorry for the confusion.  But at least 1 of us understands now 

[Arantor]

Or you could just leave it alone and if they log back in again it should get updated. It's only if they come back and it doesn't get updated that you should possibly investigate any further.

[brynn]

Awesome -- thank you so much!