upvoting via Reddit API - bad idea ?

[ATuringtest]

Just looking for feedback from other botters on Reddit. Is it better to go through a headless selenium session to up vote, comment etc or is it safe via api ?
What do you think is safe via api and not safe. Or just forget api becasue its the easist way Reddit can identify you botting ?

 

[goo99p]

Don't touch PRAW !
That's so dead unless you want to make something legal.

I have a list off 100 accounts of me shadow-banned just because of that.

 

[ATuringtest]

Don't touch PRAW !
That's so dead unless you want to make something legal.

I have a list off 100 accounts of me shadow-banned just because of that.

Thought so, but thanks for the heads up.
I was thinking of using PRAW to get thread ids from a subR's to send up votes from selenium

 

[rednada]

Getting IDs from PRAW should be safe as long as you respect API requests limits.

 

[The Undefined]

During my journey (which you can find in the forum), I've made a feature for my software called, Humanize. The feature basically was a simple upvote/downvote bot to warm-up accounts; however, it didn't work as expected (due to a rookie mistake of not using proxies).
Thus you can cast votes, and unless you're massively spamming the endpoints (without proper randomization and proxies), the votes will be fine and the accounts will not suffer from shadowbans/temporary bans.
In other words, use API, but change your actions randomly and make sure you're using proxies.

 

[ATuringtest]

Proxies are quite easy with PRAW, I had a basic upvoter working in about 30 mins

HTTPS_PROXY=http://localhost:3128 ./prawbot.py

Quite impressed with the documentation , some nice github drops for a few things as well.

 

[The Undefined]

Also, another thing that I forgot to mention is, don't mess around with selenium. Although Selenium has its own use-cases, Reddit and most of the big social networks out there have already passed it and can detect it using various methods. In the case of Reddit, taking a look at the logging API will help you understand what I'm trying to say. They basically have fingerprinting mechanisms that don't rely on User-Agent, thus are able to detect you from miles away.

 

[ATuringtest]

Also, another thing that I forgot to mention is, don't mess around with selenium. Although Selenium has its own use-cases, Reddit and most of the big social networks out there have already passed it and can detect it using various methods. In the case of Reddit, taking a look at the logging API will help you understand what I'm trying to say. They basically have fingerprinting mechanisms that don't rely on User-Agent, thus are able to detect you from miles away.

Yeah selenium is a dead giveaway that's why i don't use it anymore for social media
Selenium's fine for scraping. But there's far better, undetectable alternatives out there, they are just not as well supported or N00B friendly. But work just as well. Yeah one of them is old an clunky and it automates the browser slowly, but it uses ocular recondition and winOS gui indexes, Zero footprint and no chrome dev injections. No way of telling if its human or not.
But like you said, you made noob mistakes. I don't see them as noob mistakes, I see them as refining the product or R&D. You might loose a few accounts on the way, but no war was ever won without some casualties lol.

 

[Neelesh Kumar]

I'm using praw to get post data and using selenium to upvote them. Each account has a different IP because I've installed a VPN in the browser for each reddit account. Still only first 3 upvotes count and after that they stop counting. Also upvoting just one post from each account can get the accounts suspended for vote manipulation. So what is the best way to make your upvotes count for sure and not get banned?

 

[Neelesh Kumar]

Don't touch PRAW !
That's so dead unless you want to make something legal.

I have a list off 100 accounts of me shadow-banned just because of that.

How do you know if your account is shadowbanned?

 

[goo99p]

Go to your profile page then log out. if you can still see your profile you are ok, if not (given an error like this user not found) say GG to that account.

 

[Neelesh Kumar]

My accounts are not shadow banned but my upvotes stop counting after post reaches 4 upvotes for some reason

 

[goo99p]

My accounts are not shadow banned but my upvotes stop counting after post reaches 4 upvotes for some reason

your accounts might be semi-shadow banned. it's and state that like your message will be shown to 1 person out of every 10 views or something, this is reddit's last chance for your acc.
but if your asking me abandon this account, it does not worth it.

 

[Neelesh Kumar]

So create new accounts?

 

[francis christin]

Thought so, but thanks for the heads up.
I was thinking of using PRAW to get thread ids from a subR's to send up votes from selenium

just use Reddit ajax calls