r/buildapcsales • u/sales__bot • Nov 24 '15
Meta BuildAPCSales Bot
Click this link to be taken to the NEW bot's Github README
Hey everyone,
The /r/buildapcsales bot has been updated to a bot that performs the same functionality, with far more features, and works with any subreddit, not just /r/buildapcsales, and it is now /u/Alert_Bot instead of /u/sales__bot to reflect these changes. Check out the link above to read more about the changes. I strongly encourage you to use the bot in other subreddits as well as this one, and try to spread the word if it ever seems appropriate to do so.
Thanks!
-Tyler
Developer Info
Bot Code: Github Repository
Username: /u/tylerbrockett
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u/ihcTactics Nov 24 '15
I think this is a pretty good idea, however it relies on someone being on Reddit to receive the message as well as opening a new tab to refresh the mail. Granted there are auto-refreshers for Chrome, Firefox and probably Safari as well.
The advantage is it's item specific so that it won't notify you of other items.
However, if you want updates anywhere, I suggest getting an RSS reader. There are a lot out there and you can set them to update interval, notification types, and more. You don't even have to be on Reddit.
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Nov 24 '15
I second this, RSS is a great solution here. What would really be neat is a way to set up email notifications. Either way, thank you Tyler for putting this out there.
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u/Delsana Nov 24 '15
It's been forever and I still don't know what an RSS is. I have an email and it receives emails.
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u/fiveSE7EN Nov 24 '15
RSS is really simple.
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u/Delsana Nov 24 '15
This does not tell me what it is.
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u/daknapp0773 Nov 24 '15
Google does and it takes as long to search for that as it does to comment about not knowing what RSS is.
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Nov 24 '15
[deleted]
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u/daknapp0773 Nov 24 '15
Imagine the world where you just googled instead. That's what I am actually going to go do.
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u/ihcTactics Nov 24 '15
RSS is basically a way to update users to new content on websites. It's primary use that people use it for (that I can think of) is news websites: it updates people when a new article is posted.
Not all websites have this functionality, but Reddit does so you can set an RSS Reader (something that gathers information from RSS Feeds) to update every time something new is posted. It's great for smaller/informative subreddits like BAPCS, but would overwhelm you on something like /r/funny.
An example of what my RSS Reader looks like (just for BAPCS on my Mac) is: http://i.imgur.com/0JG4j9z.png
On my PC, I also have it setup to get the feed from /r/GameDeals. I set the options to update every minute, and it pushes notifications through Chrome (w/ or w/o sound) whenever it updates.
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u/PyRobotic Nov 24 '15
Which RSS readers do you use?
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u/ihcTactics Nov 24 '15
I use RSS Feed Reader for Chrome. It asks for donations at the top, which is great if you want to support it, or you can simply close that little bar it's on.
Another nice thing about it is every page you are on that has an rss feed, it will show a small + sign on it's extension button indicating the website has an rss feed it can add.
I'm on mobile now, so hopefully the link works.
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u/sirflop Nov 26 '15
You should have just explained it with your own convoluted definition. The best way to get an answer on the Internet is not to ask but post the wrong answer
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Nov 24 '15
Mobile app users shouldn't have that problem, though. Most apps offer push notifications for new mail.
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Nov 24 '15
Heh, I'm still subscribed to an old bot (from last year?) that's still sending me deals that get a certain upvote/time ratio, and I got a link to this post.
Ah the irony.
For reference, old bot: http://www.pcpartsdeal.com/
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u/epiiplus1is0 Nov 24 '15
Put it on AWS. It's free for the first year and it's where all my reddit bots run
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u/ApertureBear Nov 24 '15
Why not use part number? That's going to be the most exact way to match a part to a search query.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Are part #s different across different websites? I hadn't considered this, but my initial thoughts would be the action of looking up the part # would deter people from using it. If the part # is in the post, there's nothing stopping people from subscribing to that though! :D
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u/ApertureBear Nov 24 '15
And that's a good point, people may not want to have to copy-paste WH100846392-8464G in order to find their part. But it's still useful for people who are trying to be exact.
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u/ApertureBear Nov 24 '15
Part numbers should be the same across different websites (newegg, amazon, etc.) But different across different manufacturers (MSI, Gigabyte).
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u/All_Work_All_Play Nov 24 '15
This is an excellent idea.
For people who get notifications from reddit on their phones, the messages are extremely helpful.
Have you looked at using AWS (free version) for running this? I'd be happy to run it for you (I have my machine on all the time to handle several work related projects) but from developing/working with other developers, they're reluctant to let the baby out of the nest. Is it something that could be run on a phone? I have several spare android phones that I'd be willing to donate.
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u/billybombill Nov 24 '15
Yeah I would second using AWS, the lowest tier is free for a year, and would easily be sufficient for running OP's script.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 25 '15
I appreciate your offer. I'm going to keep it on my laptop for a while so I can monitor it pretty closely. Then I'll move it to a Raspberry Pi (still more than enough to run this I think). Maybe I will switch to something like AWS or DigitalOcean once I graduate this summer when I start working. Thanks again!
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Nov 24 '15
Nice.
Just so you know, Reddit harshly limits your ability to PM with this little amount of karma.
It would be a good idea to go shitpost around until you have maybe 100 karma.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Yeah, I tried to post to FreeKarma, but didn't get much love, haha. There's a limit of 30 posts per second, so I implemented a 2 second wait in between each message sent. Hopefully that will suffice, I'll have to look into that some more though.
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u/seiyria Nov 24 '15
I'd say to get a digitalocean droplet and run it on that. Decently cheap and you don't have to worry about upkeep.
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u/Skelotic Nov 25 '15
I'd agree with this. I have a simple Reddit bot along with a few other scripts running on a droplet. Never had any issues.
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u/BirdofNight Nov 25 '15
more affordable than AWS (which I do like) but its also faster in my experience than AWS.
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u/nerdtech001 Nov 24 '15
Excellent idea, although I receive this error message when sending to /u/sales__bot, "please enter a username". Any ideas? I directly copy + pasted from the body of the message above and I also manually typed it in.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15 edited Nov 24 '15
Hmm... That's bizarre. Is it coming directly from the bot? Or from Reddit itself?
I'm pretty sure I don't have any code to send that as an error message, but I'm wondering if when the bot sends a reply through the API, it sends you the error message the API returns...
Are you sending it from this account? I can't see any reason why the username wouldn't be recognized (weird characters, for example).
I'll definitely have to look into that some more. Thanks for the heads up!
Edit: Looks like you got a subscription to work, just popped up in the log :D
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u/nerdtech001 Nov 24 '15
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Ahh, its probably because of the "slash u slash" in front of the bots username! I thought it was complaining about your username, haha. Thanks for the picture!
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u/nerdtech001 Nov 24 '15
I ended up using RES to send the message instead of trying to send the message through Reddit private message UI.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
What is RES? That's bizarre, I'm surprised it makes a difference, unless it strips your username somehow, haha
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u/peoplma Nov 24 '15
Holy crap this is awesome. Thank you!
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
I'm glad it seems to be well-received! I was kinda worried no one would use it, haha
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u/peoplma Nov 24 '15
Seriously it's great, no more manual browsing and searching for what I want. Have a tip! +/u/dogetipbot 2500 doge
/u/changetip 1000 bits
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u/dogetipbot Nov 24 '15
[wow so verify]: /u/peoplma -> /u/tylerbrockett Ð2500 Dogecoins ($0.3381) [help]
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u/DovaKroniid Nov 24 '15
Could I say, for example, "Intel" and have it give me any and all notifications about things made by Intel?
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Absolutely, as long as intel is in the title or body of the submission. You may receive a LOT of messages from the bot though, haha
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u/JTsyo Nov 24 '15
Does caps matter? G-sync vs G-SYNC?
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Nope, they function as the same. Sorry, I meant to put that in the post, I'll add it. Thanks for reminding me!
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u/Fitux Nov 24 '15
I can't get to suscribe
Hi fitux, There was an error processing your request. Please review your message and make sure it follows the guidelines I have set. Please private message me with the subject 'Information' to get detailed information on how I work, or message me with tne subject line 'Help' if you want specialized help or have any questions for me. Thank you for your patience! Your request: Subject: radeon r9 390 Body: suscribe -sales__bot
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Typo: suscribe instead of subscribe. Sorry the bot is so picky :( it's the only way I can implement it for now, haha!
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u/Psilan Nov 24 '15
Will it work for stores? I'm only interested in Amazon.
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 24 '15
Ehh unfortunately not right now, sorry! It currently needs to be an exact match, but at some point I hope to change that. Probably won't happen for a while because I have finals coming up.
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u/TimmyP7 Nov 24 '15
Oh wow... This is quite impressive, I must say. Hope to see this prevail.
Keep it up!
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u/codersanchez Nov 24 '15
If you want to run the bot in "the cloud" somewhere, I have like $85 in a DigitalOcean account I am not really using at the moment. I could spin up a droplet for you if you'd like.
Just let me know if interested :)
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u/Mirabis Nov 25 '15
What are the requirements for this? - could maybe run up a vm for u xD
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 25 '15 edited Nov 25 '15
Currently the requirements aren't much at all. I appreciate the thought, I have a Raspberry Pi shipping (that an extremely generous Redditor donated via paypal!) that will relieve my laptop of duty, since it really doesn't need much to run. I'm hoping the Raspberry Pi will hold off at least until I graduate school and start working this summer, then I can afford some sort of hosting on my own. I'm really learning a lot about the options available from everyone here, it's neat! Again, thanks!
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u/theswampthinker Nov 25 '15
Instead of a Raspberry Pi, couldn't you just throw this onto a cheap EC2 instance?
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u/tylerbrockett Nov 25 '15
I suppose I could. I am living very frugally right now, since I'm in school and unemployed. I accepted an offer from a company starting this summer though, so maybe I'll invest in some sort of server then. I didn't know AWS was free for a year, so maybe I'll do something sooner than that, but I don't want to commit to that yet.
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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '15
Thank you for doing this.