Instagram “influencer” extorting restaurant for money that’s so 2018
Quite literally: the blog post is from 2019 and the behavior is from 2018.
I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#12Leveraging social currency to obtain free food? I hate to break it to this guy, but women have already found a way to automate this process far more efficiently.
My initial thought. lmao
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#13> The beauty of this all is that I automated the whole thing. And I mean 100% of it. I wrote code that finds these pictures or videos, makes a caption, adds hashtags, credits where the picture or video comes from, weeds out bad or spammy posts, posts them, follows and unfollows users, likes pictures, monitors my inbox, and most importantly — both direct messages and emails restaurants about a potential promotion. Since its inception, I haven’t even really logged into the account. I spend zero time on it. It’s essentially a robot that operates like a human, but the average viewer can’t tell the difference. And as the programmer, I get to sit back and admire its (and my) work.
It'd be funny if the views and likes are also from bots. As well as there being a bot that algorithmically judge promotion solicitations from "influencers" and automatically dispenses the free meal from their advertising budget (is it really just a free meal?). Makes me want to write a short story (I wish I had movie making talents for a short movie) where social media bots keep reposting content and sending heart emojis to each other after the future where Putin's nukes killed us all (too soon?).
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#14As far as I can tell, based on him saying he doesn't ever log into the account he's just flat out lying to these restaurants when he says he will exchange a review on his IG for a free entre
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#15I find this fairly repugnant.
In the same way that dumpster diving also gets you free food - but you are essentially a parasite, living on the waste of others. At least with the dumpster diving, the relationship is clear.
He generates literally nothing of value here - everything is stolen from others.
I truly hope we end up with the same social aversions to things like this that we do for other taboo social activities.
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#16I respect the time, effort, and engineering the author put in. But this sort of thing largely just makes me feel gross. We’re moving towards an Internet that’s just one never ending loop of regurgitated spam. Call me naive, but I wish people wielding these skills felt more responsibility to be good citizens of the Internet, rather than spamming cyclical stolen content and “growth hacking” their way to followers by ma…
Seems like it helps everyone here.
There are always gonna be social media marketers when the audience on the medium grows.
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#17If this is not already a Black Mirror episode, it should be.
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#18I respect the time, effort, and engineering the author put in. But this sort of thing largely just makes me feel gross. We’re moving towards an Internet that’s just one never ending loop of regurgitated spam. Call me naive, but I wish people wielding these skills felt more responsibility to be good citizens of the Internet, rather than spamming cyclical stolen content and “growth hacking” their way to followers by ma…
The signal to noise ratio has plummeted on the internet.
See this post on Reddit where someone is driving in people’s blindspots to give them an opportunity to use their modified car horn that sounds like a train horn. Inevitably, another account asks them where they got their car’s horn, and then they can plug their (or their client’s) website.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/tjnsgt/my_tra...
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#19I respect the time, effort, and engineering the author put in. But this sort of thing largely just makes me feel gross. We’re moving towards an Internet that’s just one never ending loop of regurgitated spam. Call me naive, but I wish people wielding these skills felt more responsibility to be good citizens of the Internet, rather than spamming cyclical stolen content and “growth hacking” their way to followers by ma…
Seems like it helps everyone here. There are always gonna be social media marketers when the audience on the medium grows.
Maybe helps everyone individually in the short term. In the long term, loss of trust in basically everything increases friction for all aspects of interacting with others in society.
Re: I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram
#20This is simultaneously both a cool project and a depressingly complete waste of human potential to create and consume via that demon scroll of mindless consumption that is Instagram…
On the other hand, that's the entire premise of Instagram and any other engagement-based business model. At least this guy uses the "profits" to acquire food as opposed to (another?) superyacht.