solved auto-approve followers checkbox not doing its job?

Hi,
I've discovered that despite my members having checked the checkbox for "automatically approve followers" on their account's Profile Tab, they are accumulating pending followers. This seems to be happening for some members who have not logged in for a couple months, and also some who log in regularly. Maybe they have their settings to not received notifications for new followers... but shoudnt' the checkbox then approve them despite that?

Here are examples of this occurring among my site members:
https://fotmd.com/john-henry
https://fotmd.com/joe-sanguinette
https://fotmd.com/randy-adams

Thanks for any help with this. Perhaps I'm not understanding how it works.



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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 04/30/18 10:54:00PM

They all have APPROVE FOLLOWERS checked (maybe thinking that means 'automatically approve followers' ). The help for that is

My guess is they've mistakenly thought the checkbox meant automatically. plausible?

--edit--
I can understand "Approve Followers" could have a double meaning. Better wording options? "Review Followers" .... suggestions?
updated by @michael: 12/14/17 01:31:32PM

Oh my goodness... I think we've ALL (me AND my site members) been thinking it meant to just automatically "approve followers" !
I guess we ASSUMED it meant that... and when you think you already know what something means, you don't think to click on the "?" help button.

Yikes, I definitely need to change the language there then. "Review Followers" is not too clear for most folks either. Unfortunately, it may have to be longer to give the clear meaning.
Perhaps "Keep Followers Pending until my Approval" ?

update: that's what I did... changed the wording next to the box to: "Keep Followers Pending until my Approval". I also slightly changed the help language to: "If this box is checked, anyone following your profile will need to be approved by you before becoming an active follower of your profile."
I think that will straighten things out for everyone.

Thanks for turning on the light! Marking this 'solved'.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/14/17 04:13:26PM

Thanks for the adding the wording here. might need changing to that for everyone. "Approve Followers?" and "Approve Followers!" have opposite meanings.

We'll get something sorted. Appreciated.

And then there's always : "Approve! Followers?"
ol ;D


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Many of my members seldom go through their account settings. I've looked at a whole bunch of members, and they almost all seem to have the checkbox checked by default, even members who joined long ago and never did anything.

Most of my members are older than 50 and it's hard work to get them to understand the 'follow' system as it is, without also expecting them to check on their followers page regularly. Despite having site help threads up and 'pinned', I am always having to explain to members how they need to 'approve' a follower and then 'follow' back before they can send messages to each other. I'm pretty sure less than 1/4 of my members ever look through all the tabs in their Account Settings area. Without the 'approve' step it would be way faster and easier for them.

So- Is there a way to re-set all my members' options to have the box UNCHECKED by default instead? (and those who have their 'notifications' set to advise them of a new follower would still get those notifications)
Having followers approved automatically (unless they check the box and set it NOT to) would HUGELY facilitate and improve the process of my members connecting and communicating.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

from the DATABASE ADMIN tool you can run this query:
to SEE all of the values of the approve followers for all your profiles.

and you can use this query to CHANGE those values to 'off'

The database admin tool is found at:
ACP -> DEVELOPER -> DEVELOPER TOOLS -> TOOLS -> DATABASE ADMIN

And you run queries by (screenshot)

Probably this tool was run: https://fotmd.com/friend/admin/tools That sets all the follower approve to 'on' so that followers dont become friends instantly.

Hmm... if I ran that tool a year or more ago, then can it be run to reverse the setting easily?
(If I ran it back then, I probably had already misinterpreted the "approve followers" wording even way back then. dang)
If the tool cannot be used to reverse, then give me a little while to puzzle my way through your prior post instructions with the query and all.. (scary stuff!)

btw- I'm now finding that some of my most active members for years, and also some of my own moderators... never thought to go to their followers tab- and have only just now realized they had tons of followers 'pending' ...for goodness knows how long. This surely must have been frustrating for members thwarted while trying to interact. I had no idea, since I blithely went along thinking the checkbox was handling all that for everyone... when in fact it was doing the opposite of what I wanted. =8-o


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/15/17 01:03:03PM

The above database queries Michael suggested are pretty simple and straightforward but yes, the database admin tool can be a dangerous place to be if you're not sure what you're doing
Say the word and we'll do it for you. We can also run another simple query to 'approve' all pending followers if you like?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Bear in mind though that if all pending followers are approved by this 'back-end' method, no emails about it will be sent. New followers will just 'appear' to your users. You might want to notify them before doing this?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Uh, I resemble that remark. =:-\

Gosh Paul, "say the word"? Well heck YEAH, I'd LOVE for you to pull the magic switch and UNCHECK that checkbox for all my 3000+ members on fotmd.com- but I'd need it also on my other jr site pennywhistleclub.com
If you do this will it make the default setting for that checkbox UNchecked for also all new members that come along in the future?- that'd be ideal!
And, YES, it'd be a great thing if you could also approve all currently PENDING followers while you were at it, on both sites (though not many are likely pending on the pennywhistle site)


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

No, I'll mention it in the thread I have currently going on my site, but I don't worry about notifying them all- it's quite benign and all my members are super friendly and into communicating.. but also clueless about their own account settings much of the time. I can't see why any of them would want to maintain a bunch of pending followers when they could merely delete them anyway. I'm going to just say go ahead on this.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

p.s. my personal thought is that jamroom sites (especially ning-to-jamroom imports) should, if they don't already, have the default being that box should be UNchecked to start out. I don't remember how all mine wound up being checked...it was a couple years ago when I was but a newborn jambaby.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

That box is unchecked, by default, for all new profiles.
So do it for both your sites?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Yes please, Paul... so great!
Will you also be able to approve all current pending followers on fotmd.com for me?


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Paul... do you mean you have set it this way just now? Or do you mean that it already was set this way?
...because I really think new members have been having the box checked by default.
Hmmm, Let me create a new member and see how the default is set.... brb


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Yes, as I suspected- new members currently get the 'approve followers" checkbox CHECKED by default. I really need to change that (on both sites), it's preventing member interaction.
See the pending member I just created, here:
https://fotmd.com/profile/settings/profile_id=5946/id=5946


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/15/17 03:19:12PM

Now i see where I must have clicked the button long ago when I added the "Followers to Friends" module... in the Tools section (see screenshot). Now I remember- that at the time, i thought "Set all site profiles to 'Follower Approve'" meant set it to automatically approve all follows. D'oh!
Paul what happens if I were to click the "Set Approval" button again?- does it toggle back to what it was before? Not that I am about to do that though- because I know you may be in there trying to change things for me...so I won't touch anything.
At least now I know how it got that way! All because I misunderstood the meaning of the words and button/setting labels.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/15/17 03:28:05PM

Sorry for the many posts in a row, but I'm just noticing the description of exactly how the Followers to Friends module works:

"Followers to Friends sets up the Jamroom Followers system to work like a "Friends" system by automatically "following back" a profile when a user follows a new profile. Includes a tool to set all Profile settings to require Follower approval so it works like a Friends request. "

I installed this module over a year ago because I thought it would help complete the 'follow back' circuit allowing members to then PM each other. My members were having a real hard time understanding the Follow system, I thought this would make it way easier.

Now I see that what I was hoping it would do has created a situation where many members are completely unaware that they have a whole bunch of Pending followers. Even those who have notifications set to ON for 'new followers' are seemingly not following the email/notification's link to go approve the new followers. This is very problematic. I hate to say it, but on Ning it seemed it was much easier for my members to understand and use the Friend function.
I'm trying to think of how to handle this.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Its the Friend module that is listening for the creation of new profiles and changing the default setting to 'Approve'. That module is going to need to be updated with that as an option. At the same time, its tool can have an option to globally set or unset the option. Will need to get that done first prior to the database queries.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Yes, understood Paul.
So the little weirdness will be that if members are set with the checkbox OFF (so that their new followers go through without needing their approval), then should I also keep the Friends module to make it do an automatic follow-back and complete the connection without the profile owner's approval? This would enable anyone to go ahead and follow, and then Private Message any other member, without that member having a choice.... so I guess that might create a problem concerning certain self-promoting or needy members. Not sure how I can have this arranged so it's more user friendly but not completely free for all. I can't tell you how many members have been confused by the follow/followback arrangement over the past two years. Over and over, my members ask "how do I 'follow' someone?"... and now I've found out that so many members have accumulated pending followers because they never check their followers page and they are by default set to have to approve followers.

Hmm... just thinking... is there a way to have some sort of flashing button or message appear on people's profile page advising them that they still have Pending Followers awaiting their approval? (and include a link that takes them right to their Followers page where they can see the bright yellow Pendings) ....Something way more 'in yer face' than just the notification they might get only once?


excuse me- will be back in an hour....got to go take care of something


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/15/17 04:06:48PM

Its likely for the Private Messaging system that the Friend module was designed to set 'approve on' on all new profiles. Otherwise, users could just follow and message (or spam them)!! With that in mind, its probably best not to make any changes to the module, so it your case, with your users mostly not understanding the 'follow' concept, it might be best to just disable the Friend module and give your users who do understand it more control?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

I have to come back to this with a fresh brain tomorrow. The path often seems more obvious to me after sleeping.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

we've changed it to this. (screenshot)

I think that's a good move, Michael. It will help avoid this kind of issue in the future, for others.
I have not forgotten this thread- just been distracted by other obligations for the moment. Will readdress this soon to see if/how I can fix things up for my site.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

For the benefit of folks in the future trying to address this issue and finding this thread, I continued this subject in a newer thread here:
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum/new_posts/55796/helping-my-members-see-their-pending-followers


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Hi Strumelia....sorry to post here on a completely unrelated topic but I was wondering how I could get hold of you about this blog:- https://americymru.net/chris-jones/blog/4870/searching-for-songs

As you can see Chris is interested in collecting Welsh folk songs that may have made it across the Atlantic and been preserved here despite subsequently dying out back home in Wales. I wondered if this would be something that might be of interest to you and your members?

If you scroll to the bottom of the above linked page you will see a Disqus comment which suggests that Chris should concentrate his search in the Appalachian region. That is where you are based, yes?

Please let me know your thoughts.

Ceri, I tried to log in there via Goggle to comment on his blog, but Discus insists I create an account first, sorry but no.
Perhaps you can pass along to your friend that he should join my site and I can then guide him to a Welsh member we have and to areas where we do discuss the old tunes and ballads that came across the ocean to America so long ago and were preserved in rural pockets of the Appalachian area. My site often discusses such related topics as your friends is investigating, because the mountain dulcimer was used in the 1800s by early settlers/immigrants to accompany very old ballads from Scotland, England, Ireland, etc. Send him our way, we may have some folks who can be helpful. https://fotmd.com/


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

k.....will do. Thanks Strumelia

Hi Michael,
I think there may be a small error here. Now since the change in the Follow module's language string, it seems that TWO language lines are showing up redundantly on Profile settings- specifically, both line 3 AND line 41 are showing next to the textbox. Maybe you added line 41 rather than just editing line 3?... and both are now showing up?
See this screenshot below. (btw, the 'help/info' string #39 seems to be working just fine)


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Wondering how to solve the new duplicate language line as per my previous post with screenshot... thanks!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

That is the correct wording, but you layout seams to be missing the small formatting, It should read

LARGE TEXT: "Followers Require Approval"
SMALLER TEXT: "Keep followers pending until my approval"

The first is the title, the second is the explanation.

You could change the language to however you like though from the LANGUAGE tab on the module in the ACP.

Oh... I thought maybe the new wording you added was supposed to be 'instead of' the large text. The lack of the second line being smaller (on my site, not exactly sure how that evolved but not too important) made it seem like two redundant statements, so I thought they were doubling up. That's ok, I've just added a parenthesis around the second line to make it feel more like an explanation now.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015