The Official Write Your Own Bot/RSVP Thread - Asking to buy one = Restricted from thread

[bigj505]

honeslty i dont even know how to code to the extent of everyone else, but id have to believe this did stop a lot of people, probly mostly the ones who bought their programs, but still this did make a difference im sure. nikes make progress it seems like, slow but steady. 

well, it didn't stop the end users. it stopped some of the programmers. end users just go to the next option to be honest.

its a case of funneling out the novice developers and sending business towards the more seasoned developers. still 30,000 users (number thrown out there) but 30,000 users using say 3 scripts vs 30,000 using 300.

in all honesty, some image noise/weird font would do wonders in foiling the scripting efforts but Nike seems to like taking baby steps. Its almost as if it really doesn't want to stop scripts as a whole.

 

[solecollector09]

Streaming API sometimes has a lag. I use two. One uses streaming API, the other uses the user_timeline endpoint. The latter has a rate limit, so it doesn't start until right at 8:00 AM Eastern, but it usually gets the link just a little bit faster than the straming api.

So are you using 1 program that uses both methods simultaneously or do you run 2 bots on every release to see which one happens to be faster that day?

 

[4wrestling]

I mean I'm no expert, but once the OCR can identify the # and spacing, it should be no issue.

 

[onlydsdunks703]

well, it didn't stop the end users. it stopped some of the programmers. end users just go to the next option to be honest.

its a case of funneling out the novice developers and sending business towards the more seasoned developers. still 30,000 users (number thrown out there) but 30,000 users using say 3 scripts vs 30,000 using 300.

in all honesty, some image noise/weird font would do wonders in foiling the scripting efforts but Nike seems to like taking baby steps. Its almost as if it really doesn't want to stop scripts as a whole.

i dont think the want to really end bots, or care enough to, theyre still a brand, that can sell anything, i think they just want limited regulations on it. they know they could do something or hire someone, but why bother, theyll only do something when that market audience starts to leave because they dont fell like they have a chance. not saying thats really started to happen, but im sure a few people have just stopped dealing with nike, theyre a very minor minority, but still potential customers. they make minor changes to keep bringing people back because they feel like now they have a chance that they didnt have before the change. 

 

[bigj505]

I mean I'm no expert, but once the OCR can identify the # and spacing, it should be no issue.

its pretty much the post processing the OCRd image that identifies the real hashtag.

if someone could post the OCRd text, a better understanding would occur.

 

[bigj505]

well, it didn't stop the end users. it stopped some of the programmers. end users just go to the next option to be honest.


its a case of funneling out the novice developers and sending business towards the more seasoned developers. still 30,000 users (number thrown out there) but 30,000 users using say 3 scripts vs 30,000 using 300.


in all honesty, some image noise/weird font would do wonders in foiling the scripting efforts but Nike seems to like taking baby steps. Its almost as if it really doesn't want to stop scripts as a whole.

i dont think the want to really end bots, or care enough to, theyre still a brand, that can sell anything, i think they just want limited regulations on it. they know they could do something or hire someone, but why bother, theyll only do something when that market audience starts to leave because they dont fell like they have a chance. not saying thats really started to happen, but im sure a few people have just stopped dealing with nike, theyre a very minor minority, but still potential customers. they make minor changes to keep bringing people back because they feel like now they have a chance that they didnt have before the change. 

I don't think they make minor changes to bring people back. its the people that see something tweaked then shout "end of bots" in harmonized unions.

lord knows what nike is really doing. evidence shows that they are paying attention to whats going on and have allocated resources to address some issues. they don't even need to hire someone to help. they can just contract someone for use when needed.

the real head scratcher is what they do to make things better. they take the complete wrong strategy.

 

[solecollector09]

well, it didn't stop the end users. it stopped some of the programmers. end users just go to the next option to be honest.

its a case of funneling out the novice developers and sending business towards the more seasoned developers. still 30,000 users (number thrown out there) but 30,000 users using say 3 scripts vs 30,000 using 300.

in all honesty, some image noise/weird font would do wonders in foiling the scripting efforts but Nike seems to like taking baby steps. Its almost as if it really doesn't want to stop scripts as a whole.

Maybe they accepted the idea of programmers always finding away around there process so they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. Force the programmers to have to update their bots constantly instead of allowing one fix. I'm sure they will make another change after everyone creates a bot that will work with the new images.

 

[bigj505]

^^^ I don't think that's it. Proof is that they don't push the updates before the release. they do it during the week when nothing is releasing which gives developers ample time to make updates. also, updates are far and few to the website which also shows your theory doesn't hold up.

 

[solecollector09]

^^^ I don't think that's it. Proof is that they don't push the updates before the release. they do it during the week when nothing is releasing which gives developers ample time to make updates. also, updates are far and few to the website which also shows your theory doesn't hold up.

At the end of the day... All they need to do is what they're doing. Then they can say they are taking steps to combat it instead of allowing it to just happen. Are they going to spend millions on it? No way. Why? Because this isn't a real problem in their eyes. They are still making their money. They just can't sit back and do nothing so they make it seem like their doing something.

 

[fourdoor]

It's hard for me to believe that after 2 releases, this is all the change that was made to the Twitter RSVP. Maybe they could have made changed to how the inventory is accounted for at the stores to prevent the backdoor hookups but an updated bot will probably be out by this weekend taking all of the RSVPs already.

 

[bigj505]

^^^ I don't think that's it. Proof is that they don't push the updates before the release. they do it during the week when nothing is releasing which gives developers ample time to make updates. also, updates are far and few to the website which also shows your theory doesn't hold up.

At the end of the day... All they need to do is what they're doing. Then they can say they are taking steps to combat it instead of allowing it to just happen. Are they going to spend millions on it? No way. Why? Because this isn't a real problem in their eyes. They are still making their money. They just can't sit back and do nothing so they make it seem like their doing something.

if you say so.

fyi - wouldn't cost millions to fix just so you know.

 

[4wrestling]

If Nike really wanted to prevent bots, they could change the RSVP image type each week.  One week it could be a circled hashtag.  The next week it would third word in a sentence.  The next week it could be the answer of 2+2.

99.9999% of bots wouldn't work (I'm sure some super bot could still exist) because they wouldn't know what the necessary response would be for that week's RSVP.

 

[bigj505]

If Nike really wanted to prevent bots, they could change the RSVP image type each week.  One week it could be a circled hashtag.  The next week it would third word in a sentence.  The next week it could be the answer of 2+2.

99.9999% of bots wouldn't work (I'm sure some super bot could still exist) because they wouldn't know what the necessary response would be for that week's RSVP.

QFT

 

[method]

So are you using 1 program that uses both methods simultaneously or do you run 2 bots on every release to see which one happens to be faster that day?

Two programs, I run the streaming one just in case nike is late on the tweet and I hit the API rate limit.

its pretty much the post processing the OCRd image that identifies the real hashtag.

if someone could post the OCRd text, a better understanding would occur.

I've been studying OCR for the last couple of weeks, and I'm about to go in on figuring this new one out. Got some tricks I'm gonna try out. All this new OCR is gonna do is lower the probability of being right.

 

[evilside]

Yes. The suggestion to switch between different processes - unannounced would be the best approach.  BOTS can't read instructions for nothin. 

 

[bigj505]

I used to work in legal document processing. looked at OCR for days. something I definitely never have an interested in dealing with personally ever again.

it is interesting in seeing how people deal with the circle tho. I never came across stuff like that. it was just grabbing text from scanned documents. this was like 5 years ago now tho. times have changed. use of OCR has changed

 

[evilside]

The fix for an RSVP service is easy - provided they know how to code it.

The fix for my DESTROYERS is simple.

 

[solecollector09]

if you say so.

fyi - wouldn't cost millions to fix just so you know.

Yea I'd say so. And even if it doesn't cost millions they're not going to spend money on something that isn't really a problem. They're have bigger problems such as people getting shot and stabbed during FCFS releases. Nike would rather deal with cry babies complaining about bots than the public complaining about violence during their shoe releases.

 

[fourdoor]

I used to work in legal document processing. looked at OCR for days. something I definitely never have an interested in dealing with personally ever again.

it is interesting in seeing how people deal with the circle tho. I never came across stuff like that. it was just grabbing text from scanned documents. this was like 5 years ago now tho. times have changed. use of OCR has changed

My first ever job was working pt for a company that used to scan/process resumes via OCR for those huge job conventions back in the day... 17years ago! WTF when did I get so old? 

OCR has changed for sure now that even captcha systems are bypassed by bots. Hell, I usually miss out on the correct captcha answer half of the time myself! LOL

Questions for those that are more familiar with OCR. Do the OCR engines have the ability to distinguish color? So instead of circled text, it's just the text highlighted in say red?

 

[solecollector09]

All Nike employees have to do is read this thread if they are short on ideas to stop the RSVP bots. Lol

 

[evilside]

No. OCR is strictly for text.  There is an computer vision program that determines contours.  I want to say that color way be an additional deterrent but it will limit successful RSVP sites to people who can code the heck out of OpenCV.

 

[bigj505]

No. OCR is strictly for text.  There is an computer vision program that determines contours.  I want to say that color way be an additional deterrent but it will limit successful RSVP sites to people who can code the heck out of OpenCV.

further dwindling developer options unless the OpenCV dev successfully makes a plugin (paid or free) devs could use.

 

[bigj505]

if you say so.

fyi - wouldn't cost millions to fix just so you know.

Yea I'd say so. And even if it doesn't cost millions they're not going to spend money on something that isn't really a problem. They're have bigger problems such as people getting shot and stabbed during FCFS releases. Nike would rather deal with cry babies complaining about bots than the public complaining about violence during their shoe releases.

if you say so.

 

[solecollector09]

if you say so.

 

[jayheazy]

Can anyone help me with the api codes ?