lyncd

User Spam Remover for WordPress

User Spam Remover is a plugin for WordPress that automatically removes spam user registrations and other old, never-used user accounts. It also blocks the notification e-mail that WordPress normally sends to the administrator whenever a new user registers (annoying when that registration is spam!) and logs it instead.

The plugin adds a configuration panel so that all of these options can be turned on or off, and it logs and fully backs up all user accounts that it deletes, so that you can restore them if you need to.

Features

User Spam Remover screenshot thumbnail

Configuration screenshot!

  • Automatically deletes user registration spam and other orphaned, never-used accounts.
  • Very simple, enable and go! Doesn’t interfere with the normal user registration process in any way. So, it doesn’t add captchas or activation or anything else — you’re free to use it alongside a plugin that does, if you like. (For more info on why I’ve written it this way, see the FAQ).
  • Blocks notification e-mail that WordPress normally sends to the administrator every time a new user registers (instead, logs this event).
  • Fully configurable, with grace period for new accounts and optional username whitelist.
  • Fully logs all actions and backs up all user accounts that it deletes so that you can seamlessly restore them if you ever need to.

Installation

Note: Please report any bugs or issues you have in the comments below, so that I can make it better.

Requirements:

  • WordPress 3.9+
  • PHP 5.1+ (tested with PHP 5.2 through 7.0 series)
  • MySQL using PHP mysqli extension

To install:

  1. Download, unzip and upload into your plugins directory. (Or, install through the plugins menu in WordPress.)
  2. Go to the Plugins configuration screen in WordPress and activate. Look for the settings link to go to the User Spam Remover settings page (User Spam Remover also gets added to the left menu under “Users”).
  3. On the settings page, you’ll need to click the “Enable” checkbox to turn the plugin on. Scroll down and change any options you like. Click “Save Changes.”One note on logging: By default, all logging is enabled (good!), but the log directory is set to the log subdirectory of the plugin. While this is OK, it means your log files will be viewable over the web, so I recommend you change this directory to someplace else (i.e., if the root of your site is /www/mysite/html, do something like /www/mysite/log). Be sure to use chmod or your FTP program to make this directory webserver-writable (don’t worry, User Spam Remover will warn you if it’s not).
  4. Once you’re done, that’s it! Feel free to use the blue “Remove spam/unused accounts now” button to test it out. User Spam Remover will run once a day automatically from now on.

Questions? Please see the FAQ.

Upgrading

There’s nothing special you need to know. Either upgrade through WordPress itself, or download the newest version, unzip and upload the new files.

Versions

See the changelog to see what’s new. First released in 2010. Version 1.0 was released on April 4, 2017.

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