WordPress User – How does someone become a WordPress User?
– this question has been one that I could not find an answer for. Over recent weeks I have been receiving a growing number of emails each day with the subject line New User Registration. The body of the email then says “New user registration on your site suejprice.com:” – then a name and an email address.
I was at first excited thinking these were people who had subscribed to my RSS feed.
Hey I thought, I had their email address and maybe I could see if they wanted to be added to my list. As I delved deeper I discovered that in fact these were spammers. WordPress Users are not always on your team so I found out!
I am writing this blog post now hopefully to help anyone else that may have this happening or even worst be like one of my friends who had her blog “hijacked” (to use her words). So let’s find out more about how people can become a WordPress User.
I realized last week my RSS feed was not working as it should so I could not work out how I was getting these new “ wordpress users” every day. I could not for the life of me work out where they were subscribing.
I did the obvious Google searches on WordPress User and found others asking the same question but there did not seem to be many answers. I checked out some of my trusted friends’ blogs for information but nothing was showing up on how people became a WordPress User.
I talked to a couple of other bloggers and still none the wiser! I went back to my trusted notes from when I set up my blog and could not find anything. WordPress User – how were they becoming that?
Totally frustrated at this point I decided to go through every setting on my site in search of WordPress User. Yes I should have done that weeks ago!
In the menu of my dashboard I found “Users” and clicking on all users gave me a list of all these people. It showed me there were two Administrators – me and my assistant and the rest were subscribers. At this point I was convinced they were all followers of my blog – but where were these WordPress Users signing up?
My curiosity was heightened because of my “hijacked friend” so I was on a mission to solve the mystery.
Late last week when I was talking to the person who taught me to set up my blog I asked her. The answer came from her technical guy and was not what I hoped to hear. He said “ it was spammers using a scrape box!” Apparently they search on https://suejprice.com/wp-login.php?action=register and that is where they can register.
If you open that link now you will see you cannot sign in and you will get the following notice “User registration is currently not allowed.” That is because I have now fixed it – so no more WordPress Users for me!
This very short video shows you exactly how this happened so that you can check your settings.
Please leave me a comment below. I would love to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences. If you received value from this post on WordPress User and believe it may help another blogger please share it with your Twitter and FB friends by clicking on the share buttons.
Business Developer
Skype: sueprice
Email: sue@suejprice.com
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Kaye Flack says
Sue, this is your “hijacked” friend here.
Thanks for taking the time to blog and video this .
Its interesting to note I had followed the steps a few years ago when setting up my blog, I was guided to use those settings.. ( now cant understand why I did that..) .
Like Sue , I had emails saying I had new users!! However I never connected the emails until last week when I realized my blog had been “hijacked”. It was all very scary ,someone was blogging and the posts were being automatically broadcast. When I quickly did a search to find out why and couldn’t find out clearly the answer .
So , I just deleted all the posts however within hours there were 68 posts on my blog and twitter ( talk about being hijacked!) After more research also using my brain I thought there had to be something within my settings!! So like Sue found and went to General settings, the difference with my issue is that I had ” administrator” selected, which gave any user the ability to post!
Its was great when Sue came back and said she had found out why and how “ it was spammers using a scrape box!”
All fixed now .. thank goodness!!
Thanks Sue its amazing how making a comment in conversation, can trigger and help solve a mystery.. The power of being connected !!
Sue says
Thanks for adding to this Kaye as I think it is important to warn others. When you said to me you had your blog hijacked I knew it was connected.
I too cannot work out why I had the box checked and it has been like it for almost 2 1/2 years!!
I am so pleased your own posts were not deleted although I guess it is more likely to be people spamming their links around.
Thanks for taking the time to add your story here.
Sue
Louise Steiner says
Hi Sue…oh how I wish you had asked me when you had this problem…I could have saved you sooo much time! I had the exact same issue last year with people registering as subscribers. Luckily I didn’t have it on the administrators setting like Kaye did, but it was very worrying at the time. I asked Kimberly Castleberry on one of her Q & A webinars and she of course came up with the solution in two seconds flat.
Anyway, glad you have resolved the issue with no harm done to your site and thank you for sharing your story. I guess I should have done the same when it happened to me 🙂
Louise
Sue says
Hi Louise
I wish you had shared your story a year ago 🙂 I guess there is a lot of truth in what Jodie used to teach us. When we learn something that can help someone else share it. I am amazed at how little info there is out there on this issue. I Googled all sorts of combinations to try and find an answer and as all I got was people like me asking!
Good to know and no harm done but it is scary to think people are out there trying to access our sites!
Thanks Louise
Sue
pnr status says
Hi Sue!
I thought of only new user registration as soon as the title is concerned. After reading, spammers and the way they use to register in blog is known. Thanks for your useful info.
My Recent Post .. 25 Nice InDesign Tutorials for Inspiration
Sue says
Thanks for your comment. I think it is very scary that people are out there trying to access other people’s sites.
Sue
Broadband blogger says
This is a helpful tips, for those newly blogger which are practicing wordpress platform.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment.
Gisselle says
Hi Sue.. I am very thankful I have found your post here.. This is because I have learned something, and this is a lesson for us about registering new user..
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Gisselle. I thought I should share my findings to help protect others.
Sue
Mika Castro says
Hey thanks for the help I am still not getting it to work but at least I understand a bit better now. Very clean and easy to read tutorial. What I want to see happen is if somebody click about us the header changes and so does the sidebar to match the about us content ect. I will get there this was a good start, thinking it might just be easier to copy new directories onto my server lol.
Sue says
Hi Mika
Thanks for your comment. I am by no means a technical expert and still learning every day. Someone who is very good with WordPress is Kimberly Castleberry of http://just-ask-kim.com/. Kim has lots of good tips about wordpress on her blog so check her out.
Sue
Mika Castro says
Hello Sue! I just visited http://just-ask-kim.com/ and i find great articles regarding WordPress. Thanks you for sharing the link.
Sue says
Your welcome Mika. Kim has some great stuff.
Sue
forex says
This is a very well written article.
I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful information.
Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.
forex
Sue says
Thanks for your comment
Sue
Pete Goumas says
Hi Sue,
I am glad to know that you fixed the issue and thanks for the video and it also help us to check our website settings so that we can’t catch in trouble.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Pete.
I really thought I had to share my findings so I can help others.
Sue
Andrew says
very interesting post thank you for sharing this post with us it is very useful and i will be sure to try this out. Great post.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Andrew. I hope my post helps others.
Sue
Adrienne says
Hey Sue,
You could have asked me too, I would have helped you. I learned this a few years ago when first getting my blog started. Here is another tip for you.
If you still have “admin” as your log-in you need to change that immediately. Hackers know that the majority of people never change that so they can usually play around and figure out your password. Also create a new admin, direct all your posts to that admin and delete your old one. It’s that easy.
Another tip is to install the plug-in called Limited Logins because spammers will try to log into your blog to hack it and this way you can shut them down immediately and block them permanently. I’ve had over 50 people try to hack into my blog and one has tried doing this over 30 times.
Glad you got that resolved and hope these tips help.
~Adrienne
Sue says
Hi Adrienne
Hey I wish I had asked you too! It was such a frustrating thing.
Thank you also for the other tip and I will implement your suggestions. I had my blog hacked late last year. I literally got up one morning and logged in and all my posts were gone – everything. It was shocking to say the least!! Fortunately I back up daily so it could be all put back together.
Wow you have had some serious hackers after you!!!
Thanks Adrienne you are awesome.
Sue
Alonzo says
Hi I am so grateful I found your website, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Google for
something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a remarkable post
and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the excellent work.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Justin. I am glad you found my site even though it was by default 🙂
I do hope you return.
Sue
Jenny says
Sue, Great Post. I had a similar issue with my Blogger.com blog a few days ago. As soon as I post something I was getting a few hits then more traffic. The blog I was posting was not promoted almost a fresh blog site. I was so happy to see 500 visitors in a few days after making 30 postings. When I analyze the traffic and referring sites I found out that those were actually some spam type of bots 🙁 Some of those referring bot sites bestbxcleaner, personal-scanera, etc.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Jenny. I am sure it happens to us all. I was quite shocked initially to realize this exists and to the extent it does.
Sue
Robert says
Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was
extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any recommendations for novice blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Robert. I am not sure what happened to your first comment as it did not show up in my spam.
A couple of things I recommend for for people starting out blogging is to follow the lead of other bloggers. A couple of good ones I recommend are
http://adriennesmith.net/
http://just-ask-kim.com/ (I learned how to put my blog together etc from Kimberly)
Have you heard of Empower Network? I have joined it and wish it had been there when I first started blogging. The training in it is awesome.
http://www.empowernetwork.com/theylovetobuy.php?id=sueprice
All the best with your blogging
Sue
cmichaelsny says
WordPress Dashboard or usernames you do not recognize or have approved can be indications of a security breach in your installation..
Sue says
Thanks for your comment. I should have queried these “users” before I did but thought they were subscribing to my RSS. I know better now though!
Sue
Lisa says
I really love Word press because it can easily solved it’s problem. One of my problem now is my widget thinks I’m a span and I can’t log-in to the admin page. But I can always go to my c panel and delete that widget.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment Lisa. That is weird that you cannot log in. I am sure there is a way around it and that you will find it.
Sue
John Cooper says
Hey Sue, I really appreciate the review. Thanks so much for your time and I hope it helps your reader out in some way!
Sue says
Thanks for your comment John. I appreciate it.
Sue
Kathaleen says
I have read so many content about the blogger lovers except
this post is actually a fastidious post, keep it up.
Sue says
Thanks for your feedback Kathaleen.
Sue
Bea says
Such a great tutorial! In the beginning, wordpress seemed too complicated for me, that’s why I decided to choose a more simple but less cool platform. I’ve been searching for a great wp setup tutorial for such a long time when I came to your blog. I think I’m going to move my blog to the wordpress platform.
Sue says
Thanks for your comment. WordPress is not difficult but does take some learning.
Sue
Callum says
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to
say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!
Sue says
Thanks for the feedback Callum. I appreciative it.
Sue
Sean says
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve visited this blog before but after looking at a few of the posts I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m certainly delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!
Sue says
Thanks for the comment Sean
Sue
Merle says
It’s actually a nice and useful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Sue says
Thanks for your feedback Merle
Boris says
Tremendous issues here. I am very happy to look your article.
Thank you so much and I am taking a look ahead to touch you.
Will you kindly drop me a e-mail?
Sue says
Thanks for the comment Boris.
Sue
Madge says
Hey There. I found your blog the use of msn. This is a really well written article.
I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your helpful info.
Thank you for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.
Sue says
Thanks for your feedback Madge.
Sue
Kandace says
Good post. I am facing a few of these issues as well..
Sue says
Thanks for commenting Kandace. I hope the post can help you.
Sue
Danilo says
Wonderful article! That is the kind of information that are supposed to be shared across
the net. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this
publish higher! Come on over and talk over with my website .
Thanks =)
Sue says
Thanks for your feedback Danilo, I appreciate it. Hey I think the search engines should position me higher too 🙂
Sue
Halley says
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching for WordPress user
Sue says
Thanks for commenting Halley and glad you found the information useful.
Sue
Anna says
Thank you! I received my first “new user registration” e-mail this morning. And because I’m searching for replacements for FeedBurner, but haven’t acted on anything yet, it raised a red flag. I have since disallowed new user registration on my site, and am glad to know there was a simple solution.
Sue Price says
Hi Anna
Thanks for your comment and glad you found a solution.
Sue
Marcia says
Thank you for the post. This issue has been confounding me for some time. I just checked and I have 301 user/subscribers. All with gibberish names. Fishy, eh? So I racked my brain too. How did they become users? The strange thing, in my case, is that I don’t have “Anyone can register” checked in my settings. And yet there they are! Also, although I am the admin for the site, I have never once received an email from WordPress informing me of new users, so I didn’t even think to look on the Users page. When I tried out the “scraping” URL and arrived at the Register page, there was a clear announcement there “User registration is currently not allowed.” So I am still living under the shroud of mystery. Any thoughts?
Sue Price says
Hi Marcia
Adrienne Smith had a comment on that post that may help you. I have just copied it for you.
“You could have asked me too, I would have helped you. I learned this a few years ago when first getting my blog started. Here is another tip for you.
If you still have “admin” as your log-in you need to change that immediately. Hackers know that the majority of people never change that so they can usually play around and figure out your password. Also create a new admin, direct all your posts to that admin and delete your old one. It’s that easy.
Another tip is to install the plug-in called Limited Logins because spammers will try to log into your blog to hack it and this way you can shut them down immediately and block them permanently. I’ve had over 50 people try to hack into my blog and one has tried doing this over 30 times.
Glad you got that resolved and hope these tips help.”
Try that and please let me know how you go. Scroll down to see Adrienne’s links.
Thanks for fining me and do let me know if that helps.
Sue
Jean says
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This had been driving me to distraction. Every morning I’ve had to be clearing out the “users”. I couldn’t think where on earth they were getting in. So simple to put right.
Again thank you,
Regards, Jean
Sue Price says
Hi Jean
I am glad this was helpful for you. Read the other comments for the post too as there are a couple more tips there.
Thanks for letting me know it helped.
Sue
Rita says
Thank you so much for this post. It helped me a lot! I will share it on my FB page so it can help others too. I have a question: What did you do with the list of subscribers? Did you delete them?
Sue Price says
Hi Rita
Yes I did delete the subscribers. Remember they are probably people who were trying to hack your site. So just check them and delete.
Glad it helped 🙂
Sue
E.D Gasçon says
Sue, what can I say…Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You’re a real lifesaver! For the past 3 days I’ve been going through all the same issues you went thru. I just went to General settings, I had ”subscriber ” selected, which denied any user the ability to post. Thank God!
Sue Price says
Hi E.D.
I am very pleased this helped you. I had to do this post as I too had difficulty finding anything.
Thanks for letting me know.
Sue