a rice generator bot for freerice.com written in python :)

[nanotube]

here comes another exciting production from yours truly:)
http://smokyflavor.wikispaces.com/RiceMaker

this is a rice generation bot for the http://freerice.com game.

all feedback welcomed!

[smartbei]

I have no idea if this is something you care about or not, but bots like this could very well cause freerice.com to shut down its operations, since this bot is obviously not going to go visist advertisers sites (and reading their FAQ, it is advertisers that are paying for the rice). Therefore, I am not sure that this is such a great idea. Either that, or they will implement a captcha, which would make the site less intuitive and usable for us human beings.

In short, nice training program - good idea, but I recommend that you don't leave it on all night. Perhapos you could add a warning about this to your site.

[nanotube]

In short, nice training program - good idea, but I recommend that you don't leave it on all night. Perhapos you could add a warning about this to your site.

thanks for your thoughts.

please check out the "ethical considerations" section of the site and tell me whether you think it's adequate. :)

[smartbei]

Thank you for taking that into account. While I am not sure I agree with your conclusion, that is for the eventual user to decide, (as you wrote).

[pmasiar]

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeRice , they are aware about robots, and did not banned them yet (if they sleep 3 sec between requests).

[smartbei]

You're right, I didn't see that. In fact, they almost seem to encourage the practice, saying : "anyone is free to program and use the scripts. With a delay of about 3 seconds between iterations, it is estimated that a script can feed about 8 people per day, if running 24/7"

8*20,000/10=16000 correct words.

[nanotube]

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeRice , they are aware about robots, and did not banned them yet (if they sleep 3 sec between requests).

well keep in mind that the wikipedia article is not written by freerice, but by various people writing wikipedia articles. so it does not in any way constitute the "official policy" of freerice with respect to bots.

however, i would venture to say that it is highly unlikely that freerice is /unaware/ of the existence of bots. if they are aware, and have not said anything... the burden is on them to decide what to do. :)

[pmasiar]

I am pretty sure that freerice people are aware of wikipedia entry, and check it once in a while - so if bot info was off, they would edit the page.

In my experience, you can rely on "wisdom of the wiki crowds" quite a lot. Despite some vandals, error are cleared quickly, especially in pages someone cares about.

[Wybiral]

If it gets to them, all they would need is a captcha every now and then. In fact, if they used something like reCaptcha (http://recaptcha.net/), they could be restoring literature while feeding the hungry and making people smarter!

[nanotube]

I am pretty sure that freerice people are aware of wikipedia entry, and check it once in a while - so if bot info was off, they would edit the page.

In my experience, you can rely on "wisdom of the wiki crowds" quite a lot. Despite some vandals, error are cleared quickly, especially in pages someone cares about.

there may be some truth to that, in general... but given that the article is fairly new, and furthermore, given that it is now tagged for deletion (bah, them wikipedians and their notability criteria...), i'm not so sure if it can be taken as very reliable. :)

[nanotube]

If it gets to them, all they would need is a captcha every now and then. In fact, if they used something like reCaptcha (http://recaptcha.net/), they could be restoring literature while feeding the hungry and making people smarter!

yea, recaptcha is pretty cool. :)

[divineleft]

For every hour that you run the script, just click all of the ads that you can on the main site. That would offset it pretty well.

[tyoc]

But clicking them without porpuose?

[Termy58]

I'm running this 24/7!

Also he is lying, he did not make this.


class VersionInfo:
'''Version information storage
'''
def __init__(self):
self.name = "RiceMaker"
self.version = "0.3.6"
self.description = "Script to automatically generate rice on freerice.com"
self.url = "http://smokyflavor.wikispaces.com/RiceMaker"
self.license = "GPL"
self.author = "Daniel Folkinshteyn"
self.author_email = "dfolkins@temple.edu"
self.platform = "Any"


You have to be a real ******* to try to steal this.

[nanotube]

I'm running this 24/7!

Also he is lying, he did not make this.


class VersionInfo:
'''Version information storage
'''
def __init__(self):
self.name = "RiceMaker"
self.version = "0.3.6"
self.description = "Script to automatically generate rice on freerice.com"
self.url = "http://smokyflavor.wikispaces.com/RiceMaker"
self.license = "GPL"
self.author = "Daniel Folkinshteyn"
self.author_email = "dfolkins@temple.edu"
self.platform = "Any"


You have to be a real ******* to try to steal this.

and what makes you think that i am not the same guy?

if you are really really curious... you might send an email to my temple address, and confirm. :) you might have tried that before you decided throw accusations around... but oh well, we can't expect everyone on the internet to have good sense. ;P

at any rate... i'm glad you're enjoying it.

[popch]

Couldn’t I just write a computer program to play all day and give a lot of rice that way?

There are two problems with this. First, it overloads our servers so that real people can’t play and learn vocabulary. Second, without real people playing and buying products, it is no longer cost-effective for companies to advertise. Without advertising, we cannot give any rice at all.from http://freerice.com/faq.html

[nanotube]

from http://freerice.com/faq.html

i'm aware of it. ( http://smokyflavor.wikispaces.com/RiceMaker#tocRiceMaker6 )

all that said... rice production on freerice has been on the decline since about the latter part of november... (the monthly totals look like they are going up only because they doubled the amount of rice per correct answer sometime in november, from 10 to 20 grains) so all signs point to (1) people getting tired of it pretty quick, and (2) to an absence of any significant number of users running bots, despite the availability of quite a number of them.

perpend: i wrote a bot, but i don't actually run it. it was fun to write, but it's boring to just run it :)