Information on editing, unsubscribing, purging and deleting platform members
During running a project you might find that you need to edit a users' details (e.g. email address) and/or unsubscribe them from the site. Both of these are more likely in longer term panels and communities but do sometimes happen in ad-hoc projects. We also recommend regularly doing a database cleanse (either quarterly or as a minimum, 6 monthly) to make sure you are not holding details of unsubscribed users longer than you have to.
Any changes to a users' details, unsubscribing from the platform or database cleanses are done via Back Room > Database > Select Sample and then the user(s) can be searched for using the Select Sample page filters.
To edit a users' details
Click on the edit icon (shown below).
From the 'Edit User' page (below), you can the change the necessary name/email address details, change the user’s role (e.g. client/consumer) or change any of the existing user field data.
To unsubscribe a user
You can unsubscribe a user as a single user, or in a batch (this is useful for closing off ad-hoc projects).
Single user
Click on the unsubscribe icon next to the individual user (shown below).
Multiple users
Click the 'Unsubscribe Users' option under the 'actions' header (shown below)
Select the number of users you wish to unsubscribe, either all selected, or all in search (shown below) and then press unsubscribe users.
Purging and deleting users
If you want to keep your platform database clean and up to date, you have the option to purge and delete unsubscribed users (this is also very important from a data retention point of view):
- Purging users – removes their name and email address, you then have the option to remove any information held in user fields about these participants (we suggest only purging personal information and not fields that you might use for analysis) and also overwriting their screen name with the unique system ID (e.g. for users who might have set their screen name as their email address)
- Deleting users – wipes the record of any unsubscribed users who have never logged in
Purging users
Using the select sample page, filter for users who are unsubscribed, not-purged and with a last login date after the platform first went live (all within access behaviour).
Select the 'Purge Users' options from the actions list at the bottom of the page (see below).
You then need to select what you want to purge from your user fields (name and email address are purged by default) and have the option whether you want to overwrite screen name with the unique system ID; then press purge.
Deleting users
Using the select sample page, filter for users who are unsubscribed, not-purged and with a last login date before the platform first went live (all within access behaviour).
Select the 'Delete Users' options from the actions list at the bottom of the page (see below).
Then select who you want to delete (we recommend not deleting unsubscribed clients and/or admins) and press 'Delete users'.
