Oddly named groups with 2 users

Support

AI-generated summary

A Discourse forum instance is experiencing an issue where 160 groups with only two members have been created, but no pattern can be recognized. JagWaugh initially suspected an issue with the removed Babble chat plugin, but sam confirmed that core plugins wouldn’t cause this issue and suggested verifying the plugin removal and rebuild. Stephen requested the plugins section from the yml file, which Gunnar provided, listing various plugins but no apparent connection to the issue.

Falco suggested examining the created_at timestamps of the groups to pinpoint the cause. Gunnar ran the suggested command and found that the problematic groups were created between August 2018 and January 2019, potentially coinciding with the installation and removal of the Babble plugin. The investigation is ongoing, with Gunnar set to reboot the instance to further investigate the issue with disappearing avatars.

1

Anyone else seeing this?

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There are something like 160 of these on our site. All with just two members. I’ve had a look at them, and they don’t seem to show any pattern I can recognise.

2

Are you using a chat plugin? (or any plugin that can „connect” two users?)

3

We were. We removed Babble about 1 month ago, these groups only started to appear in the last week.

4

I can confirm nothing in core or any official plugins would cause this.

Are you 100% sure you removed the chat plugin AND rebuilt?

5

Nothing in settings about babble. The log shows it being enabled about a month ago, but presumably because of the way plugins are added and removed there is no way to log a “plugin removed” event.

The only changes we’ve made which might be related are discourse-topic-trade-buttons, and Akismet..

6

Show us the plugins section from your yml file.

7

I haven’t got shell access:

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8

How was this instance installed? Who hosts it?

9

We run on AWS. We went live in 2016… probably not an import issue.

10

I didn’t ask that, but you said you don’t have shell access, does someone else?

11

@Gunnar will do a reboot when he gets a moment (we’ve got some disappearing avatars). Anything in particular he should look for?

12

Maybe the created_at timestamps can help you pin down where this is coming from?

./launcher enter app
rails c
Group.order(:created_at).map{|g| "#{g.name} at #{g.created_at}"}
13 
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/docker_manager.git
      - git clone https://github.com/davidtaylorhq/discourse-whos-online.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-data-explorer.git
      - git clone https://github.com/leodavidson/discourse-reset-bump.git
      - git clone https://github.com/Ebsy/discourse-nationalflags.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-staff-notes.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-patreon.git
      - git clone https://github.com/LeoDavidson/discourse-forcemoderation.git
      - git clone https://github.com/joebuhlig/discourse-mlm-daily-summary.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-yearly-review.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-akismet.git
      - git clone https://github.com/jannolii/discourse-topic-trade-buttons.git
      - git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse-saved-searches.git

Gunnar

14

It was installed by me using the “5 minute” installation procedure from a Docker image that was recommended when I installed, in the fall of 2016.

It’s hosted on AWS, I have shell access. We store as much as possible in S3 and use CloudFront.

15

Thanks. Now, that is interesting.

=> ["everyone at 2016-10-27 01:23:57 UTC",
[ ... deleted a bunch of default groups from the output for clarity ]
 "0c4237a55a437e745adbf49ddb42896c at 2018-08-03 17:17:46 UTC",
 "15324615cad3736be1b16f008024962d at 2018-08-03 22:12:51 UTC",
[ ... deleted a bunch of random groups for clarity ]
 "e0f319af42dcc4faf52f7d23fdab880c at 2019-01-10 12:59:03 UTC",
 "0971bb32374715856236be3069b39e46 at 2019-01-11 04:00:43 UTC"]

So, the problem started in August of 2018 and ended in January of 2019. I can’t say for sure, but that could very well coincide with the installation and removal of the Babble plugin.

Thanks,
Gunnar