this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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Collection of stories about useful scraper robots

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This community collects stories about robots harvesting data from the net (typically the web) and performing a beneficial service.

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I recall an inspirational story where a woman tried many dating sites and they all lacked the filters and features she needed to find the right guy. So she wrote a scraper bot to harvest profiles and wrote software that narrowed down the selection and propose a candidate. She ended up marrying him.

It’s a great story. I have no link ATM, and search came up dry but I found this story:

https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_webb_how_i_hacked_online_dating/transcript?subtitle=en

I can’t watch videos right now. It could even be the right story but I can’t verify.

I wonder if she made a version 2.0 which would periodically scrape new profiles and check whether her husband re-appears on a dating site, which could then alert her about the anomaly.

Anyway, the point in this new community is to showcase beneficial bots and demonstrate that there is a need to get people off the flawed idea that all bots are malicious. We need more advocacy for beneficial bots.

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