How to delete all comments from a user [spam]

[Swanny]

This happens from time to time on my PP Pro installation (phpBB 3 forum integration).

A spammer signs up, doesn't actually post in my forums. But he goes into the photo galleries and spams up 50 or more photos with the same spam comment, complete with spammy links.

Now, here's an example that was brought to my attention today.

One of the 50 comments he's left: Smiling at you - Ford F150 Photos

His PP profile page: Member Profile - Ford F150 Photos

Now.... here's the problem. I click on the PP admin link on his PP profile page, the link titled Delete All User Photos. Now, he doesn't have any photos, but I am able to click in there where I check off Check to delete all comments by this user and click DELETE PHOTOS button.

The problem is it doesn't actually delete his comments. Remember he doesn't have any photos uploaded, but I still expect it to delete his comments, which it doesn't do.

So now I have to manually click each of the 50 photos, and manually delete each comment.

So....
1) Is this normal behavior?
2) Why doesn't the Check to delete all comments by this user option work in this case?
3) Do you guys have any plans in the future to enable spam checking through something like Akismet (available in WordPress)?
4) Can I just delete the comments directly from the PP database, something like DELETE FROM pp_comments WHERE username = 'aguo'? Or does that have negative consequences somewhere else in the DB? That would save me a lot of time!

[Swanny]

I just thought I'd post a quick followup. This issue is not yet resolved. However, I was poking around and saw that you suggested to another PP owner who had a similar problem to upload one photo as that user, and then go back and click the Delete Photos/Comment link.

So... I uploaded a photo as that user who did the spamming. Then I went in and clicked the same Delete link to delete all photos, checked off the box to delete comments... AND it did delete the photos, but did not delete a single comment made by the user.

So now it looks like there might be a bug....?

[Swanny]

OK well I did some poking around in the database. Although it looks like I can use a simple DELETE SQL statement in the comments table, that will not update the pp_photos table. There are two fields (numcom, lastposter) that will be incorrect if I do a manual delete on the comments table.

Help please.

[Swanny]

OK well I can't wait too long. So I went ahead and manually deleted 46 of the 48 spam comments. I left a couple there so you can see what I'm talking about (if it helps).

[Chuck S]

to my knowledge a user needs to have photos to delete comments as thats what the admin thing is used for

anyway if your server has gd2 which most have you can use CAPTCHA images for guests to post.

You can run in admin scan database the ability to rebuild cat counts to update anything you deleted manually.

[tonmo]

Can someone give me the SQL for this? I have the same problem. Probably the same spammer. There's an "approve all" in the comments queue in photopost admin cp, but no "remove all" option.

[Chuck S]

There is a remove link for every comment displayed there just no mass way to do it.

You can not formulate some query without knowing what your trying to delete from who.

[tonmo]

I know the usernames of two users I banned. I know I can delete one at a time, but these two users spammed tons of comments selling shoes, electronics, etc. So is there a query you can suggest that would delete all posts from a specific user?

[Chuck S]

well something like this

DELETE FROM pp_comments WHERE username='somename';