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 > Account Search.
You can then use the filter options to search for the user/s for whom you would like to amend details.
To edit a users' details
Once the users(s) are returned by the search, Click on the edit icon (shown below).
From the 'Edit User' page (below), you can edit Core Field details such as name/email address, change the user’s role (e.g. client/consumer), screenname/password.
You can also change any of the existing user field data by clicking the ‘Custom Fields’ tab on the left-hand side.
To unsubscribe a user
You can unsubscribe a single user, or a batch of multiple users.
Single user
Click on the unsubscribe icon next to the individual user (shown below).
Multiple users
Ensure you have selected the user(s) you’d like to unsubscribe using the tick boxes to the left of their record(s) (shown below).
Next, 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 ‘Save’. If you select all in search, this will unsubscribe both selected and unselected users from your search criteria.
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, email address and title. 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 – this tutorial offers direction on how to wipe s the record of any unsubscribed users who have never logged in.
Purging users
Using the account search page, once you have set the above drop-down option to “unsubscribed”, filter for users who are not-purged and with a last login date after the platform first went live (all found within access behaviour).
Select the 'Purge Users' options from the actions list at the top of the page (see below).
You then need to select what you want to purge from your user fields (name, email address and title are purged by default). And. You have the option whether you want to overwrite screen name with the unique system ID. You will also need to select to purge selected users or all users returned by search, then press ‘Save’.
Deleting users
Using the account search page, filter for users who are unsubscribed, not-purged and with a last login date before the platform first went live (all found within access behaviour).
Select the 'Delete Users' option from the actions drop-down list in the top-right hand corner of the page (see below).
Then select who you want to delete (we recommend not deleting clients and/or admins) and click 'Save'
