As Admin, how can I delete SPAM Users and questions/posts they've made IN BULK?

Question

I've had thousands of SPAM users join, circumventing reCaptcha and email confirmation, and I want to delete all of them along with anything they've posted.

How do I do this?

I've read in a similar question, dating back 4 years now, that a 'delete' statement in the database is the best way.  I'm happy to do that but would like someone to offer a template SQL statement so I don't accidentally break any indexing/foreign-keys etc.  Alternately, how can I `hide` questions via an SQL statement (which will allow me to delete them via the `Delete Hidden Questions` button?

Comments

Ok, I have blocked all the SPAM users using:

UPDATE `qa_users` SET `flags` =3 WHERE userid > X

Be careful if your have legitimate users amongst the SPAM users, I did not.

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I have now hidden all the SPAM questions using:

UPDATE `qa_posts` SET `type`="Q_HIDDEN" WHERE type = "Q"

Be careful as this does not consider valid questions.  You may need a more elaborate WHERE clause.

(I didn't have to worry about this as my site was set-up to demonstrate Q&A to some friends.)

This is going to take a while, "Deleted 238 of 54,245 hidden questions without dependents..."
(10 hours later, it's up to 31,400+, lol)

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My earlier rant about loosing words was unfounded.  The words are still there, just the cross reference table 'qa_contentwords' has been updated, and reduced from 1.7GB down to 2MB.

Answer 1

This plugin may help

Download from github 

Q2A-User-Manager

Comments

I also own one forum and register lots of spammers. I had to give up to reject them - waste my time.