batch-delete 12000 spam posts?
I try to delete spam users quickly, but one bot managed to create over 12000 blog posts before I caught it. I now get this error when trying to delete the user:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 79 bytes) in [...]/public_html/elgg/engine/lib/metadata.php on line 44
Could somebody talk me through how to either increase the memory size for the function (I'm using shared hosting) OR delete the posts directly in the database (I have access through phpmyadmin)??
I really don't want all this gunk in my database! Thanks...
Elgg Technical Support
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- delroy@lazab2011
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- rjcalifornia@rjcalifornia
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- julie levin russo@openid_377574
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You must log in to post replies.12000 blog posts? Wow! Do you have a spam filter? I wish I could help
@Julie May be you can try do what this Guide says (First Link of that search, click on cache):
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=http%3A%2F%2Fevanwinslow.com%2F2010%2F11%2Felgg-troubleshooting-allowed-memory-size-of-67108864-bytes-exhausted%2F&oq=http%3A%2F%2Fevanwinslow.com%2F2010%2F11%2Felgg-troubleshooting-allowed-memory-size-of-67108864-bytes-exhausted%2F&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=0l0l0l654l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0
and then delete the user.
Rodolfo Hernandez
Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison
A memory size of 32 MB seems a bit small. By default Elgg sets 64 MB in .htaccess. You can try to increase the allowed memory size in Elgg's .htaccess:
php_value memory_limit 64M
If the value in .htaccess is already larger than 32 MB the limit is set in the main php.ini config file on your server. Then you would need to adjust the setting there or in case you can't do it yourself you would ask the support of your webhoster.
Only if increasing the memory size to 64 MB (or even 128 MB) doesn't help I would suggest to look for other reasons for your problem. Then the link rjcalifornia posted could help.
Thank you for your help! Even 64M didn't seem to be enough, and I'm on shared hosting so I don't want to overdo it.
The link gave me the idea to go into the database through phpmyadmin. I looked up the owner_guid of the spam account and then searched for all objects matching that owner_guid. I deleted rows from the search results in batches of 500 using phpmyadmin's interface. It seems to have worked!
I'm still looking for a good spam-catching plugin -- CAPTCHA doesn't do much. I'm using Elgg for courses, so right now I just turn off the ability to create new accounts except during the first few weeks of the semester. While it's turned on, I have to batch-delete the spammers every day or two.
Julie, give a look in my plugin: spam_login_filter.
The community are using it with good results.