Hello everyone, as you probably know the post promoter voting bot software had some issues recently dealing with the shutdown of the steemd.steemit.com node and the subsequent performance issues of the new api.steemit.com node (which also affected many other Steem related sites and services). These type of events are very important in the lifecycle of a software project because they highlight all of the issues which go unnoticed when everything is running smoothly.
I have been working quite some long hours both to update the code to make sure it handles these situations much more gracefully in the future and also to refund all bids that were missed from the @postpromoter bot during the outage. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as the saying goes, and I feel that the software is much stronger now and ready to handle whatever the steem nodes want to throw at it!
Here are the specific changes that have been made in the past two days:
Removed "node_modules" folder and updated NPM package
If you've been following all of my updates you may recall that this is the first nodejs / npm project I have ever done, so there's a good bit of learning on my end regarding best practices. One such best practice is that the "node_modules" folder should be excluded from the git repository and all dependencies should be included in the NPM package (package.json file). These changes have now been made so if you're installing post promoter for the first time you can now do:
$ npm install
In the directory where you downloaded the project and all dependencies should be loaded automatically for you.
Price Feed Changes
Bots that accept both STEEM and SBD bids require a price feed to account for each type of currency correctly. Previously the post promoter software used a price feed URL that I set up and maintained myself and reloaded the prices every minute. This was unnecessary and caused significant issues for both the bot software and the Steem Bot Tracker website when my price feed went down.
Now the post promoter software loads the price feed directly from coinmarketcap.com and refreshes it once every 30 minutes. It also saves the last prices it loaded so if coinmarketcap.com goes down then it will continue to use the last prices it received and keep running without any issues.
Wait until previous vote goes through before sending next one
Previously the bot would send out a vote transaction, wait 5 seconds (3 second voting limit plus a little buffer) and then send out the next one. The problem with this approach is that if for whatever reason (such as nodes being slow, for example) the first vote transaction took say 4 seconds to go through, then the next vote would be sent only 1 second later and would then fail.
So now the software will wait until the previous vote transaction completes before scheduling the next one 5 seconds later. This way it is no longer possible for votes to be sent out within 3 seconds of each other, even if the nodes are running slowly, which will greatly reduce the possibility of missed votes in situations like we saw over the last couple of days.
Added RPC node setting to config.json
Perhaps most important of all, there is now an option to specify what RPC node to connect to in the config.json file. If api.steemit.com is having problems, you can now easily switch to say rpc.buildteam.io (props to @themarkymark for running that great node) or any other node that you like for that matter. You can set the RPC node to use in config.json as shown below, and if none is set then api.steemit.com will be used by default:
"rpc_node": "https://api.steemit.com"
In the future I plan to add the ability to specify a list of nodes and have the software fail over to the next node on the list if the current node is having issues, but that change is much more involved and I haven't gotten to that one yet. It would be great if the Steem JS library supported this since I feel that that's really where this belongs, but for now it doesn't so we will have to make due.
If anyone reading this has the ability to make that change to Steem JS and get it merged into the main repo I will do what I can to make sure you're adequately compensated for it!
Additional / updated error logging
Last, but not least, the error logging has been significantly updated and improved to make it much easier to figure out what is going on when and if errors do arise.
Thanks for your support!
As always I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported me in creating this software. I love that it has been able to help so many people get their content promoted and to help so many investors earn a return on their STEEM investment. Please stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks!
Links to relevant commits:
- Removing node_modules and updated package.json
- Load prices every 30 minutes and added more error logging
- Wait until previous vote completed before sending next one
- Allow setting RPC node to use in config.json
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors
Man I’m glad I added you to my witness list. I hope to see you climb the ranks quickly as it looks like you’re really pouring your time and energy into this.
I only wish I had studied programming and computer science instead of mechanical engineering so I could make a bigger contribution to this community. Maybe some day I’ll have the spare time to pick up where I left off years ago and start learning again but so much has changed.
Thank you for your support! Let me know if you do ever get back into programming and I'll be happy to help out!
I appreciate that greatly. It's just a matter of making time for it. Doing my taxes is gonna consume a lot of my time but I'm gonna make a point to at least dip my toes back into it (programming) at some point this year.
It's never too late to start learning! You can start learning about how the web works by just opening up Chrome Developer Tools and poking around in there.
Thank you for the contribution. It has been approved.
You can contact us on Discord.
[utopian-moderator]
This is awesome. Thanks for putting in all this hard work to help secure the future of your programs and of steemit!
Please I sent 2.5sbd to postpromoter and my name didn't even appear in the round and it's over 2hrs with no upvote On my post.
I have sent SBD to @postpromoter and still get no upvote..please help
Your bid was refunded because it was below the min bid amount.
Thanks I fixed it... now it is 1 SBD
hi @yabapmatt thanks for the big help you've been providing! I'm now building a new bot, how can I get listed on steembottracker.com?
Hi @antonsteemit, you can contact me on Discord or Steemit.Chat and we can discuss getting your bot added to the site.
Hi @yabapmatt, I have sent you some info via Discord (My id: Antonasso#0708)
Important Update news about voting bot.thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing your valuable post
From when it will come in action
Nice Post! Very informative. Thank you very much. Please don't stop posting. Postpromoter voting BOT is currently working.
Thanks for the updates and future developments you have coming.
Are we still getting live update on detail button for each bot? I haven't used voting bots in awhile but I remembered it refreshes and shows bids as they come in. Right now, it seems that I have to refresh the page in order to see new bids, clicking on detail will just show whatever that was there when the page first loaded.
The bot tracker site refreshes every 30 seconds, so you shouldn't have to refresh the page.
I see. Thank you for your hard work. This site has been very useful for me.
You got a 41.18% upvote from @steembloggers courtesy of @yabapmatt!
You got a 29.95% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @yabapmatt! Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!
I really do not understand what is a bot because I am a beginner steemit, just one week I often read postings on the wall steemit, but I want to register also bot but I do not know how !? and what is a bot !? please tell me how to @yabapmantt? if you do not mind, sorry a thousand sorry I think about this bot very stupid people see me because still miss what bot
Release the Kraken! You got a 100.00% upvote from @seakraken courtesy of @yabapmatt!
Didn't receive upvote and refund from bot @sleeplesswhale Please help me.
4 hours ago Transfer 0.700 SBD
https://steemit.com/steepshot/@strefanetu/20180105t093657962z-post
i have vote for witnesses to you . please support me
All this hard work. THANK YOU very much for it.
I am a programmer myself, i know how hard it is to get things work the way they are supposed to in a real-life "battleground" situation.
I'm new here. Need support. I subscribed to your excellent blog, please subscribe and you are on mine. Thank you!
hello there, good job you have here.
i am newbie. i have voted and followed you.
please visit my profile and vote and follow me
thanks
Anyone who visits my blog will be back. We can mutually support. Thank you in advance.
Great work, does @postpromoter take delegations?
@spmarkets Hey, could you undelegate your SP to @ryacha21
He is leasing 30k SP from @minnowbooster then using that to VOTE Up his own 7 Day old comments on random posts at the last minute. Scroll his comments to around the 6 day mark or just go to https://steemd.com/@ryacha21; he has a lot of self love on his own old comments.
HE IS DOING IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER.. He is farming the pool.. If you could help it would be appreciated..
Learn more about this sack of monkey spunk here:
https://steemit.com/shitpost/@pawsdog/the-shit-post-diaries-1-17-18-4
Interesting
hello @yabapmatt. For sure @postpromoter just gave me 19 when i invested 10??? with the 19, they will take the 25% and then divide by 2 which makes almost 7 steem dollars from me. This a loss of 3 stem dollars for sure. Please, be kind to me on this post https://steemit.com/busy/@jona12/don-t-call-me-a-minnow-i-m-a-baby-whale. Thank you
Hi @jona12, the @postpromoter bot (like all other bid-based bots) are based on a bidding system. This means the vote value is based on the amount of SBD/Steem that is bid in each voting round. Some rounds you might have a slight loss and some you might have a slight gain. Overall it's pretty close to break-even which it sounds like it is in your case as well.
Also please remember that the payout value fluctuates as the value of STEEM changes in the markets, so your actual return will not be determined until the post pays out.
Bueno, veamos cómo se comporta el robot ahora, acabo de usar su servicio
Good night my friend
https://busy.org/indonesia/@fajrinurdin1990/toba-lake-speciality-d4a5d771b996c
Bantu kami kawan
Help us friends
Guys becareful using Voting services, whale account @GrumpyCat is now downvoting random posts that use these type of services: https://steemit.com/steemit/@dineroconopcion/is-grumpycat-abusing-it-s-steempower
They downvoted me calling my posts "Trash" :( always something on Steemit. So tired of this Whales playing police. Funny thing is that they do user Voting Services too
I paid 4 sbd for @postpromoter to upvote a post but I had paid for a post that the owner already spent 5 SBD for. how can I get my 4 sbd refunded?
@theoccultcorner your 4 SBD would have been added to the 5 SBD that the author sent for the post, giving a total of 9 SBD bid for it and that's what the vote value was based on. Since you got the vote value for which you paid I do not feel this is refundable.
right on man. thank you. i am satisfied with that. i didnt know it was added to the post. thank you very much.
Have my support and what in my hand this, greetings friend @yabapmatt
Hey @yabapmatt I am @utopian-io. I have just upvoted you!
Achievements
Community-Driven Witness!
I am the first and only Steem Community-Driven Witness. Participate on Discord. Lets GROW TOGETHER!
Up-vote this comment to grow my power and help Open Source contributions like this one. Want to chat? Join me on Discord https://discord.gg/Pc8HG9x
post @yabapmat very helpful for me as a beginner..
thank you .. Success always
I have made bid for the link https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@onlineprds/cryptocurrency-market-update-11-jan-2018 twice, by mistake. I request you to kindly avoid the last one and refund the amount.
I sent you a SBD but you did not upvote my post i use first time your bot
Hi @annie32, if you're referring to the 0.1 SBD you sent yesterday it was refunded to you since it is below the minimum bid amount of 1 SBD.
I don't understand this system.please introduce it.
Since the tool went viral in steemit I see a lot of people sending bids even when the 100% vote is lower than the actual bids, worse of it is that is even happening above the 5 minutes treshold!!! This is not only making it really hard to find a profitable bid but making people lose money, and maybe without them even knowing.
Could you please put a warning pop up in the "send bid" interface to let the voter know the bid is not profitable?
Furthermore it could even be optimized the actual vote price in USD, since even after curation, the liquid reward could confuse the bidder to think is all liquid.
Thanks again for your work and support
saliudos me tropece con tus post y me parecen interesante tienes mi apoyo
This is so awesome. Thanks your information, I is the beginner 🔰