Allow automation for business accounts only.

[Shaun]

Hey, so since business accounts are restricted in terms of content they are allowed to post on this platform, I believe it's fair to also allow automation of these business accounts to easily facilitate promoting their services.

This suggestion is a direct change to the MCM ToS Code of Conduct, Article II whereby it states

(ii) You will not use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper, or other automated means or interface to access the Service or extract other user’s information

I feel that this rule is justly in place for regular users of the platform but can also hold an exception for business accounts only - accounts that hold a different agenda and purpose from normal accounts.

My suggestion is to allow the automation of bumping threads and posting advertisements in the shout box by business accounts only through a script that can connect to MCM, log into the business account, and do those functions.

To prevent abuse of this system, I also suggest to implement an authorization system through Cloudflare that will block unauthorized requests to MCM through these scripts - the specifics of which I am unaware of however in terms of functionality, a token or JWT should be embedded in the head of the client (the script) that requests access to MCM. This way, business account automation will first need to be manually approved by staff in order for MCM administration to issue a JWT to the business who wants automation so that it's authorized.

Any unauthorized access will immediately be blocked from accessing the platform.

I also suggest adding specific rules for business accounts, only, that declare that violations from automation usage will result in termination of the authorized access to use automation and a warning or suspension to be administered to the business account.

Thank you.

 

[Justis]

I feel that this rule is justly in place for regular users of the platform

If you feel this way, then you should feel the same way about business accounts, because business accounts can be created by any and all “regular users” on our site.
At the very least, this suggestion would encourage the creation of a business account specifically to use the automation feature to effortlessly bump their threads and post their ads.

I’m not a fan of either of those.

 

[Shaun]

If you feel this way, then you should feel the same way about business accounts, because business accounts can be created by any and all “regular users” on our site.

Business accounts are restricted however, they are not allowed to post opinionated content nor utilize the reputation system in the same manner as a regular user of the platform. There are also unwritten rules in place of professionalism and service-oriented content to be only posted by the business account only across all mediums of the platform including threads, shout box advertisements, and resources.

At the very least, this suggestion would encourage the creation of a business account specifically to use the automation feature to effortlessly bump their threads and post their ads.

I disagree for two main reasons: the first of which regards that these business accounts must be manually approved for automation by administering them a JWT for authorized access to use a script. The second reason, being that owners of the business account will need to develop their own scripts, will both discourage owners from doing so due to lack of resources and encourage new business to develop automation scripts: this is a market after all.

The primary goal of the automation of business accounts is to promote your services efficiently on the platform, by doing so you ensure that your services are reaching its targeted audience while you focus on more important aspects of your service such as its quality, future growth, and staff management.[DOUBLEPOST=1549044790][/DOUBLEPOST]I'd also like to raise a third issue to the previous point and ask why the automation of bumping threads and posting advertisements in the shout box - to you - has or will have a negative impact on the market?

 

[MasterNeb]

Or you could make it a paid option so people won't abuse it

 

[Ava]

Although I don't agree with Shaun as a person, I think this could come in handy for legitimate business owners who want to draw more attention to their services--but only if it was paid, and strictly accessible to verified business accounts only to prevent abuse of it by kids who are trying to sell their 2$ semis.

It would have to be extremely restricted though, and if it was paid, there would be a reason for them to have that particular ability, ensuring that businesses would have to make their own scripts for it seems a little overkill, imo.

Maybe, it could be a simple automated spammer that sends a message every 5-7 minutes in the shoutbox for verified business accounts that have the ability to pay for the feature.

 

[Shaun]

Although I don't agree with Shaun as a person, I think this could come in handy for legitimate business owners who want to draw more attention to their services--but only if it was paid, and strictly accessible to verified business accounts only to prevent abuse of it by kids who are trying to sell their 2$ semis.

It would have to be extremely restricted though, and if it was paid, there would be a reason for them to have that particular ability, ensuring that businesses would have to make their own scripts for it seems a little overkill, imo.

Maybe, it could be a simple automated spammer that sends a message every 5-7 minutes in the shoutbox for verified business accounts that have the ability to pay for the feature.

The main catch here is that this automation needs to be coded using a web scraper. In order for it to work, the developer / business team must supply the script with a JWT (JSON Web Token) in the head/body of the request. This token is manually granted by MCM staff as well for further precautions. Cloudflare will then check to see if the request is authorized by checking for that JWT.

In terms of allowing business accounts - I think a better filter is to have a certain milestone for business accounts (posts, threads, likes, reputation, etc.) to be reached before being able to apply for automation as opposed to it being upgradeable.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Ava]

The main catch here is that this automation needs to be coded using a web scraper. In order for it to work, the developer / business team must supply the script with a JWT (JSON Web Token) in the head/body of the request. This token is manually granted by MCM staff as well for further precautions. Cloudflare will then check to see if the request is authorized by checking for that JWT.

In terms of allowing business accounts - I think a better filter is to have a certain milestone for business accounts (posts, threads, likes, reputation, etc.) to be reached before being able to apply for automation as opposed to it being upgradeable.

What are your thoughts?

I agree with your concept of adding a filter, but I feel like posts/threads wouldn't be considered relevant for automation, however, I still stand with thinking it should be paid. Supplying the script can be good to apply an EVEN bigger filter, ensuring that only serious business accounts would be able to use automation.

Reputation milestones are something that would be the most straightforward and required item in automation, since it determines the community's experiences with said business and can really be a factor in deciding whether or not it deserves the ability to automate messages.

TLDR; Reputation filter would be nice, I still think it should be paid though. IMO, it should be something exclusive and only given to serious businesses.

 

[Shaun]

I agree with your concept of adding a filter, but I feel like posts/threads wouldn't be considered relevant for automation, however, I still stand with thinking it should be paid. Supplying the script can be good to apply an EVEN bigger filter, ensuring that only serious business accounts would be able to use automation.

Reputation milestones are something that would be the most straightforward and required item in automation, since it determines the community's experiences with said business and can really be a factor in deciding whether or not it deserves the ability to automate messages.

TLDR; Reputation filter would be nice, I still think it should be paid though. IMO, it should be something exclusive and only given to serious businesses.

Supplying a script may/may not be possible, for simplicity it's best to just get the script/web scraper authenticated by MCM using a JWT and having developer's create those scripts.[DOUBLEPOST=1549074636][/DOUBLEPOST]The reason it may/may not work is web scrapers work as if they were actual organic users. Therefore the web scraping script would log into the account, navigate to threads posted by the account, click the thread in interest, and - if up thread is available - it will up it, then log out.


This process may not be repeatable for all business accounts based on the amount of threads they have posted or if they want some threads to be bumped and other's not.

This sort of variability is hard to cover in an immutable script that will be handed out to everyone and it may not cover everyone's use case.

For this reason, I think it's best for companies to develop their own scripts.

 

[Lotus]

this is a market after all.

I'd also like to raise a third issue to the previous point and ask why the automation of bumping threads and posting advertisements in the shout box - to you - has or will have a negative impact on the market?

Correction. A marketplace and community.

I personally believe automation will unbalance the market, promote unfair advantages through business accounts and simply be an annoyance to the community.

Automation is boring, impersonal and dare I say in the format of an advertisement, spam that I ignore most of the time. Over-promotion of a product/service actually does annoy people. You may be thinking logically by maximizing exposure whilst also making it easier for you to maintain a presence, but perhaps you may need to consider the illogical aspects where people just hate seeing things way too much in certain areas they prefer not seeing ads, such as the shoutbox. It's favouring the business minded, not the average community member who may be a small time consumer. An unnecessary shift in power.

Automation may as well unbalance the marketplace economics. The random element of inconsistent humans makes it great when I try to search for something. Making everything linear through scripts just bores the long term residents of this site. Those who don't have a script will be forced to use a script to even think of having a fair chance competing those who are already established. Furthermore, it's a developer favoured venture. What about all the artists on the site? They will be forced to hire a developer just to think of competing in this robotic environment filled with automation and scripts. That's raising barriers of entry, not something I'd hold an interest in doing for this site.

This marketplace grows everyday. Consider the shoutbox, which might just become an ad-pocalypse when at a certain point it will likely have more bots than humans. I can imagine people setting their scripts to up-thread their post typically at peak hours. But you won't be the only one thinking of that. Hundreds of like-minded people will be thinking of that. That, makes a mess as constant evaluation to the scripts would have to be made to ensure you are at the top of the list. You could even say it puts an unnecessary load on the site when all the bots hop in at the same time to perform an action, similar to a DDOS attack.

Keep things simple, why make it so much more complex?

TLDR; MCM ad-spam dystopia with many annoyed community members.

 

[Mick]

Automation has always been something I've been incredibly against, since it provides users with unfair advantages for obvious reasons. As announced in our most recent announcement, we will be implementing a limited and controlled API to our Ultimate users, allowing them to interface with the site as long as they have paid the $5/month for the upgrade.

I don't like the idea of giving automation abilities to business accounts.

Denied, thanks for the suggestion.