Sometimes you get a slice of inspiration from someone else. Yesterday @pharesim’s post did just that.
He describes his Web Tool as 'a small tool', and its function to me was irrelevant as I was far more interested in what was behind it..., the code. Being the geek I am, all kinds of ideas started springing into my mind.
It's hardly rocket science. Javascript is the preferred language of the web so why have I been struggling with the likes of Flask and Python to host websites to run my scripts?
Another aspect of this post I picked up on was the hosting service of GitHub he was using. I have had a repository there for several years but didn't realise how easy it is to publish a site directly using the 'pages' feature.
Well doh!…, thanks so much for opening my eyes @pharesim..., talk about not seeing the wood for the trees. @bingbabe was working all day yesterday so I was determined to churn out something useful up and running in just half a day.
'Who Didn't Vote' is… was, a Python script I originally wrote maybe 2 years ago. It always irked me that my posts would get comments and some users would not bother giving me a vote for my efforts.
Occasionally, this is done in error, but there are certain cunts who repeatedly comment on my posts (and other Orca's) simply to gain a comment vote.
Rinse and repeat with the Orca's and said cunts never run out of voting power and gain free votes from the more benevolent (stupid) types like me who encourage comments and dish out juicy votes.
I have heard on the underground grapevine there is a preferred 'list' of HIVE users to target for juicy comment votes. Leave a bullshit comment that's a little better than 'Nice Post' and you can gain some free pennies.
Call me paranoid but this behaviour does irk me and ‘Who Didn’t Vote’ was born out of frustration of these types.
So after a little farting around I managed to get a basic version of 'Who Didn't Vote' hosted on GitHub. A little HTML integrated into the Javascript functions that are basically the same calls to the HIVE API using an external URL call and things were looking good.
const apiUrl = "https://api.hive.blog";
The site looked basic and bland so I added some Tailwind CSS into the code, using the knowledge I picked up when designing and putting together ‘Tales of the Urban Explorer’.
<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-YXN7LF0FT5"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-YXN8LE03T5');
</script>
Next I headed over to Google Analytics, added an new property and the website details. Shove the code they give you in the header section and you are set. Now you can monitor who’s looking at your brand new shiny creation.
It's quite simple but works well. Simply add your username, Click 'Analyse Most Recent Post' and it will show you who's commenting but abstaining from voting for your latest lovingly crafted piece of work.
alert("Stop being a smart-arse, and add a proper username.");
Me being me of course had to add something a little irregular into the code. At least I didn't suffix it with 'you twat'. I must be mellowing.
While ‘Who Didn’t Vote’ could be quite useless for some, I get a lot of auto-votes that I never ask for but don't complain about.
It can be hard to keep track of who has not bothered to leave a vote, but based on my previous sentence this could be a useless tool for you.
I suspect my fellow Orca’s will make use of it.
Having been hanging around here for years, many auto-votes are a consequence of past users long since gone who still have a stake and have discarded their accounts. Some are so old they are from the STEEM days, and never saw HIVE.
Well shit happens, and that’s the way things are here. Stick around long enough and you will gain the same 'benefits'.
Today woke up my coding head yet again. I work with Powershell most of my working days, and I can see Javascript is not so far-fetched from that with its squiggly brackets syntax.
I can think of at least one more 'tool' that could be converted using a similar strategy, one I have not used in some time. First I will need to re-write it as I am sure it uses the deprecated BEEM library, and Javascript isn't going to like that much.
Future updates to ‘Who Didn’t Vote’ could be, displaying the primary image of the last post, displaying the vote weight of the voter and the ability to check older posts.
If they are giving you a 1% vote and a 'Nice Post' comment, it's hardly better than no vote at all and falls into the 'taking the piss' bracket.
DISCLAIMER: Some judgement on what you see is simply common sense. Use this tool at your discretion. Votes are not mandatory and stake-holders can do whatever they like. My opinions about commenting without voting are my own, and not necessarily the same as others.
I think I am going to enjoy converting my library of ‘geek only’ Python utilities so the masses can use them. Expect more from me soon.
Who Didn’t Vote can be found here, and the source on my GitHib repository here.
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My Urban Exploration Tales can be found directly on the internet via my Website: 'Tales of the Urban Explorer'.
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, rehive, engage me or all of these things.
