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BAC5.2

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 16, 2011
186
2
I want to create an automator script to automatically post content to a forum (tutorials and reviews and things like that).

There are a few restrictions on the forum, that the posts cannot be the same and that they cannot be posted within 20 seconds of eachother.

Any ideas? I tried the "watch me do" function, to copy/paste information, but that didn't work.

Ideas?
 
I want to create an automator script to automatically post content to a forum (tutorials and reviews and things like that).

There are a few restrictions on the forum, that the posts cannot be the same and that they cannot be posted within 20 seconds of eachother.

Any ideas? I tried the "watch me do" function, to copy/paste information, but that didn't work.

Ideas?

Why exactly would you need to do this? You could do it through AppleScript, but it seems a little suspicious... Explain why you need this, and I might be able to help. :p
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
Using anything that automates posting to a forum would be highly frowned upon. Only spambots need to do this.
 

BAC5.2

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 16, 2011
186
2
My reason for wanting to do this, is to type a single tutorial reply or review that spans multiple posts. I want to be able to rapidly post these long messages, to reduce the chance of a mid-posting interruption (someone replying before the full document is posted).

I've gotten clearance from the board to do it, I just need to write the script to be able to actually do it.
 

RedTomato

macrumors 601
Mar 4, 2005
4,155
442
.. London ..
Type in notepad and copy/paste? I presume you know your forum word limit per post. MS Word shows you the wordcount at the bottom.

Or ask your forum board to increase the post word limit if it's a problem for you. Should be quite easy to do.
 

BAC5.2

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 16, 2011
186
2
The word limit is where the problem lies.

I thought it would be more fun to have an Automator or Applescript program that would automatically break up my long posts and post them sequentially. I guess I could do it the old fashioned way, but that's not as fun.
 

chown33

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2009
10,751
8,423
A sea of green
This is the web. It has links.

Write and post short articles to forums. The post should be engaging and readers should want more.

Then add a link to the longer article or tutorial. That's where you put the body. If you have no other website, you can upload HTML to S3 and make it public-readable. S3's pricing is quite low.

Multi-post wall-of-words tutorials and articles are tl;dr.
 

subsonix

macrumors 68040
Feb 2, 2008
3,551
79
This is the web. It has links.

Write and post short articles to forums. The post should be engaging and readers should want more.

Then add a link to the longer article or tutorial. That's where you put the body. If you have no other website, you can upload HTML to S3 and make it public-readable. S3's pricing is quite low.

Good point, or start a blog.
 

BAC5.2

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 16, 2011
186
2
Considering the entire purpose of the forum is to post DIY tutorials and step-by-step guides, I'd rather contribute than pay to host my stuff elsewhere.

If you guys have no help, then thanks anyway.
 

chown33

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 9, 2009
10,751
8,423
A sea of green
Considering the entire purpose of the forum is to post DIY tutorials and step-by-step guides, I'd rather contribute than pay to host my stuff elsewhere.

What's the forum?

Without seeing it, it seems to me the guidelines on post length are there for a reason. If the guideline on length is a restriction on the posting of reasonable tutorials and step-by-step guides, though, then that seems like a reason to increase the allowable length. For everyone, not just for you.


If you guys have no help, then thanks anyway.
Think about what you asked for.

You asked for someone to write a script, or provide step-by-step instructions for you, to perform a task specific for you. This forum isn't a "write me a program" forum. It isn't really a step-by-step instructional forum, either, though that might occur if the steps are brief.

You also said you thought it might be fun to automate it. So where's the fun if someone else does all the work? Watching it run? Fun for you maybe, not so much for whoever wrote it.

Maybe you should break it into two problems: splitting to meet word-count requirements, and posting data. You can do the first and write it to files. Or simply insert markers like "-----" at the right places. Then you can at least copy/paste properly sized posts manually. Then do the auto-uploading later, perhaps by breaking that task down into smaller pieces. Oh, and write the whole thing up as a how-to article.
 

BAC5.2

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 16, 2011
186
2
Scoobymods.com is one.

I asked for ideas on how to accomplish the task, not a step-by-step or for someone to do it for me.

I'll keep considering it, but maybe I'll abandon the idea and simple resort to the copy-paste method.
 
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