Hyperlinks and advice needed

[Mark R]

Greetings all - I'm Mark, a newbie admin/mod at my site and in need of advice.

1. How do I restore the effectiveness of existing hyperlinks? They are visible but not blue when the cursor touches them nor do they work as a link.

2. I see in our Package Manager section that version 2.0.0 of the Forum Firewall is there but not installed. Is this an oversight or could there be a good reason for this?

3. A lot of old members left the site and deleted their accounts due to spam issues (now under control). Is there any possible way to reinstate their old post count as an enticement to rejoin?

4. How do I create a new membership category? If the post count can't be reinstated, I'd like to able to offer them a "Veteran" membership. I see there is a way to allow members to do their own modifications to title but I want to keep control of the title selections.

My apologies if any of these questions are stupid - I'm an old school low-tech tradesman type so I need help. Many thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Kindred]

1- the visibility of links would be dependent on your theme/css.

2- we don't know...  maybe because it was uploaded but never installed?

3- if they actually deleted their posts when they left... no. Not without restoring an OLD backup and losing everything since then
Although, as an admin, you can manually increase their post count number...

4- title != membergroup.  You can create as many membergroups as you want. (see the usermanual link above)

[Antechinus]

1- the visibility of links would be dependent on your theme/css.

Yes, but he's also saying they don't work as links. That indicates something else is going on. One thought that occurred to me is the site might have been using something like PrettyURL's before. If that was uninstalled or broken, it could bork the links on the site. 

3- if they actually deleted their posts when they left... no. Not without restoring an OLD backup and losing everything since then
Although, as an admin, you can manually increase their post count number...

It would be possible to extract the old posts from an older backup and insert them into the current db. It's not a job for a beginner though. But admins can always fudge the post count for any member, if they want to do that.

[Mark R]

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. How does one fudge the post count, then?

[SychO]

Can you confirm if the deleted member's posts were deleted as well or only the account ?

[Kindred]

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. How does one fudge the post count, then?

log in as admin
go to the user's profile
edit user's profile
type in new post count number

[Mark R]

Can you confirm if the deleted member's posts were deleted as well or only the account ?

Yes. The user names are still there but shown as Guest and the post count is gone.

log in as admin
go to the user's profile
edit user's profile
type in new post count number

Sorry, I'm stuck on step 3 - not seeing an option to edit user's profile.

[GigaWatt]

Sorry, I'm stuck on step 3 - not seeing an option to edit user's profile.

[Dav999]

Better option than manually increasing the number of posts: After they create a new account, reattribute their posts to that new account in Admin > Forum Maintenance > Members > Reattribute User Posts.

[Mark R]

Okay - I've found the page GigaWatt has shown but it applies to my personal profile. I've given myself an extra post and it works. But I don't see how I can apply this to other members.

I've followed that route from Dav999 but I'm missing something. When I hit Reattribute nothing happens. I've tried entering different combos of a user name and post numbers but nada. It seems I can reattribute to Guests, in the box above Members but not a current member.

I'm getting there slowly, I hope. Thanks for all your trouble.

[Kindred]

1- as an admin, you can edit any user's profile the same way you do your own. That includes the post count.
2- you can reattribute posts if you know the email address used for the old account and the new account username.

[GigaWatt]

@Mark R: Find the user you want to change the profile (you can do this via his/hers posts, by searching through members, etc.) and do the exact same thing you did with your profile .

[Mark R]

@Mark R: Find the user you want to change the profile (you can do this via his/hers posts, by searching through members, etc.) and do the exact same thing you did with your profile .

Eish - I've tried. When I do mine there is a Modify Profile button and that is easy from there. When I look at another member's profile all I get is Profile Info and Actions buttons, and those don't change anything. Maybe I don't have permissions for that. But I do seem to have the run of the place otherwise, hell, I've seen where I could delete the whole damn data base if I went nuts. So I dunno.

 

[Illori]

are you full admin?

[Mark R]

1- as an admin, you can edit any user's profile the same way you do your own. That includes the post count.
2- you can reattribute posts if you know the email address used for the old account and the new account username.

I've tried this too now but not happening. Giving up until tomorrow. Thanks so much for the assists - I learned stuff along the way. Regards, Mark

[Mark R]

are you full admin?

I'm beginning to suspect I'm not. 

[Illori]

then you need to talk to the main admin and find it what permissions you actually have.

[Mark R]

I got it right, using the reattribution method. I tried using the old username instead of the email address of my (live) test case, and it worked. Maybe the email address had changed, most likely. I did two, so no fluke. Thank you all very much. What a combination of frustration and satisfaction.