Assign users a random digest time?

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around assigning users a random digest time in a Discourse forum. GeoffSchultz migrated a phpBB forum with 1400 users and noticed all digests were sent at 8 AM. He sought help to randomize the digest times between 00:00 and 23:00.

Pfaffman suggested modifying the user_stats.digest_attempted_at value by adding 0-24 hours to the current value. However, GeoffSchultz was unsure about connecting to the database on a DigitalOcean droplet.

Pfaffman provided guidance on accessing the database via Rails or using PostgreSQL. GeoffSchultz decided to use PostgreSQL and successfully updated the digest times using the query:

UPDATE user_stats SET digest_attempted_at = digest_attempted_at - interval '1' DAY * random();

Pfaffman confirmed the solution, and GeoffSchultz reported that the digest times are now spread out evenly.

1

I recently migrated a phpBB forum with about 1400 users to Discourse. Other than a handful of accounts, all of the digests seem to be sent starting at 8 AM. Is there some way to assign the users a random time between 00:00 and 23:00?

– Geoff

2

I don’t know but I was told (by AI):

https://ask.discourse.com/discourse-ai/ai-bot/shared-ai-conversations/wisnZ2lMtzSY1ji_QM8BiA

Click saver: no, if AI knew and wasn’t hallucinating.

3

I think that you could modify user_stats.digest_attempted_at for all of your users with a random value. Maybe you’d add 0-24 hours to their current user_stats.digest_attempted_at value.

4

This is what I kind of guessed that I would have to do. However, I’m used to shared-server environments where there’s a database server that I can remotely connect to. I’m very good at SQL, but I’m lost as how to connect to the database on a DigitalOcean droplet. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

5

You want to do it from Rails rather than modify the database directly.

But you could

./launcher enter app
su - postgres 
psql discourse

and have at it.

You can look at Administrative Bulk Operations and, I think, find some examples that look like

users=User.where(something)
users.each do |user|
   user.update(field: value)
end
6

Thank you very much for the pointers. I decided that doing it from Rails was too much of a learning curve, so I figured out how to do it via postgres. Here was my solution:

./launcher enter app
su - postgres 
psql discourse
UPDATE user_stats SET digest_attempted_at = digest_attempted_at - interval '1' DAY * random();
7

Looks right to me.

I think for this it’s safe enough. I understand the go-with-what-you-know approach but Rails gives you lots of protections (making sure stuff gets enforced and tables stay connected and so on).

Glad you got it sorted!

8

Checking the email logs, everything is now spread out evenly. Thanks for your help!