Understanding Auto-EOT w/r/t Importing Existing Members

[BobTabor]

Hi,

I need some reassurance before I pull the trigger on this import that I'm doing it correctly.

I have a large database of existing members that I'm importing into s2Member. There are lifetime members (level 4) and non-recurring one-year members (level 3).

At the point when I go live, I'll no longer be selling level 3 … only level 2 (recurring one-year) and level 4. Once all the level 3's have expired, I'll re-use or something a year or so in the future.

As I import existing one-year members (level 3), I'm setting their Auto-EOT date to the END DATE I'm storing currently in my database for each of those members.

Just to be clear … when a level 3 user expires, they do NOT have a recurring membership on file with PayPal. So, they will need to re-enter their data or not be able to access the site.

My concerns:

(1) Suppose a member's level 3 membership expires. What is the user's experience? Will they see a message upon login? What should I be doing in this case?

(2) Let's suppose that member wants to "renew" by now purchasing a level 2 membership. My concern is that because the Automatic EOT time on the account has already been manually set to a specific date, their account will be "expired" even if (s)he has just renewed.

(3) Can they purchase a level 2 membership and salvage their existing username and password, or will they basically have to create a new account?

Thank you!
Bob

[BobTabor]

(Note: if you read this earlier, I've completely re-written this post because it was so wrong on so many levels.)

After a few hours, I'm older and wiser but still in need of a bit of assistance to understand this correctly so I can make the right import decisions.

We ran an experiment. We imported a Level 3 user who's Automatic-EOT was in the past. However, that person was still able to login, presumably because the Automatic-EOT had already come and gone and either (a) they were ignored by the cron job or, (b) we just didn't wait long enough for the cron job to run.

Our second experiment was to import a Level 3 user who's Automatic-EOT was in the future by like 10 minutes. We did have to wait a bit longer than 10 minutes but they were moved to Subscriber level, which is what we had our PayPal Automatic-EOT setttings set to. Great!

Questions:

(1) Will the cron job ignore an imported Automatic-EOT date we set to, say, 6 months ago? (Or did we simply not wait long enough for the cron job to run?)

(2) We have 10 years worth of expired members. Is there any reason from s2Member's perspective to go ahead and import these people. Specifically -- if I add their original Automatic-EOT from way in the past will s2Member give me any clue that this person was a Level 3 member in the past? OR will they simply look like any other Subscriber?

(3) I had planned on using the Subscriber level for a free 10 day trial ... NOT for the resting place of the eternally damned souls of those who did not renew their subscription manually. Bummer. So, kind of off topic here, but can I use Level 1 for this purpose? In other words, can I use any other Level (like Level 1) for a short-term free trial without displaying the payment form?

Thanks!

[Cristián Lávaque]

(1) Will the cron job ignore an imported Automatic-EOT date we set to, say, 6 months ago? (Or did we simply not wait long enough for the cron job to run?)

If you already know the EOT time is in the past, then don't even give them Level 3 on import. Straight to Subscriber, right?

(2) We have 10 years worth of expired members. Is there any reason from s2Member's perspective to go ahead and import these people. Specifically -- if I add their original Automatic-EOT from way in the past will s2Member give me any clue that this person was a Level 3 member in the past? OR will they simply look like any other Subscriber?

Well, if you register the person as a Level 0, you'd be missing the first payment time for Level 3. I don't know if that's important for you. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Scripting -> s2Member Content Dripping

Code: Select all

$time = s2member_paid_registration_time ("level3"); // ... first "paid" registration or upgrade time at Level#3.
  

(3) I had planned on using the Subscriber level for a free 10 day trial ... NOT for the resting place of the eternally damned souls of those who did not renew their subscription manually. Bummer. So, kind of off topic here, but can I use Level 1 for this purpose? In other words, can I use any other Level (like Level 1) for a short-term free trial without displaying the payment form?

You can give a trial at Level 1 with s2Member Pro's Pro-Form for free registrations, just change the value for the level attribute. WP Admin -> s2Member -> PayPal Pro-Forms -> Free Registration Forms


Does that help?

[Cristián Lávaque]

(1) Suppose a member's level 3 membership expires. What is the user's experience? Will they see a message upon login? What should I be doing in this case?

s2Member won't notify them, you'd need to send them an email letting them know what'll happen on EOT and advice them to update their membership.

(2) Let's suppose that member wants to "renew" by now purchasing a level 2 membership. My concern is that because the Automatic EOT time on the account has already been manually set to a specific date, their account will be "expired" even if (s)he has just renewed.

When they modify their payment subscription, their EOT would be updated.

(3) Can they purchase a level 2 membership and salvage their existing username and password, or will they basically have to create a new account?

If they are logged in to their account when they purchase, then their account will be modified instead of having to create a new one. So you should show the modification button to those logged in only, so you don't get any of those users clicking that button when out of their accounts.

[Jason Caldwell]

(1) Will the cron job ignore an imported Automatic-EOT date we set to, say, 6 months ago? (Or did we simply not wait long enough for the cron job to run?)

Yes, s2Member will process all EOTs, even if the dates are in the past. The Auto EOT system will look for Users with an EOT Time that is less than or equal to the current time, at the time the WP-Cron process is running. So the answer to this question is no, s2Member will NOT ignore them, they will be processed. You probably just didn't give the WP-Cron system enough time.

[Jason Caldwell]

(2) We have 10 years worth of expired members. Is there any reason from s2Member's perspective to go ahead and import these people. Specifically -- if I add their original Automatic-EOT from way in the past will s2Member give me any clue that this person was a Level 3 member in the past? OR will they simply look like any other Subscriber?

No, they'll just look like any other Free Subscriber. No need to import them really. Unless you just want them to be capable of logging in. Even Free Subscribers can access your Login Welcome Page. So one benefit to importing them, would be to allow them to log in, and then use a Conditional in your Login Welcome Page to detect that they're a Free Subscriber, and ask them to upgrade to paid status perhaps.

[Jason Caldwell]

(3) I had planned on using the Subscriber level for a free 10 day trial ... NOT for the resting place of the eternally damned souls of those who did not renew their subscription manually. Bummer. So, kind of off topic here, but can I use Level 1 for this purpose? In other words, can I use any other Level (like Level 1) for a short-term free trial without displaying the payment form?

Yes, as Cristián pointed out, it IS possible to set Free Subscribers to Level #1, using s2Member Pro Forms for Free Registration. In your Free Registration Shortcode, for the Pro Form, set level="1" instead of the default level="0".

[BobTabor]

Gentlemen, I'll reiterate my deep love for you both. Thanks for the insightful replies. This helps A LOT. I hope to send some traffic your way once this is all said and done.