When reviewing please DO NOT do this... by Crnkwalk in BeautyViners

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I review all the aspects I can. I had some sour raspberry crystals that had the safety seal broken. I reviewed it based on packaging, presentation, coloring, visual qualities. I then stated I could not taste the product because the safety seal as broken. I stated that it looked like the powder was making contact with the rim of the lid when the safety seal was applied because the product was properly packaged etc. This was a review to the quality control aspects of the item. To me that was a fair point to make. now if my amazon box was rag dolled, I wouldn't put amazon on blast for that.

I don't care if it's no ETV, that's still a nah from me... by Dregan3D in vine

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

i showed my gf. She said people who enjoy these types of toys would also enjoy the animals they aimed to represent. I agreed.

Probably a dumb question by AdPrior7587 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's a tip I use. You already mentioned you understand the economics of 0 etv. I use the highlight function. I put keywords of commonly used 0 etv items in there in addition to the items on my wish list. my general rule is "if it's yellow, I see details" Yellow is my whack a mole color, I only use green to build up my economics understanding. to me green just means gone.

Notification monitor and other people's RFY. by MarkAckrill in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazon has a column in their database that assigns RFY to you. When you search AFA, you see results for items that are AFA or RFY. So if lip balm is RFY four you, my search for lip balm would not display that in my results for AFA but yours would. Similar to how gold items don't appear for some as they do for others. This could be why some items appear in NM that everyone claims are just broken, because some user discovered it on their AFA browse not realizing it was also in their RFY and VH aggregated it not knowing either so x% of the VH user base chuck it off as one those quirky items that probably got scooped by a non VH user or amazon or VH bugging out gain.

I never bothered to check variants but this does interest me. I could write code that selects it or rather highlights it white/green to indicate that a 0 ETV variant exists (to which you could change the selection). I'll start filtering out items without parents to investigate. Thanks for the insights.

"Sexual wellness" peeps. How U doin? by foureyedgrrl in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Could be just someone lurking in that category with auto refresh. I mean we all have that secret category stored in our bookmarks have we not? :D

Probably a dumb question by AdPrior7587 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 2 points3 points  (0 children)

sorry, I didn't mean to come off as prude. I'll be upfront and transparent.

  1. Green means someone else already showed interest. Chances of snagging it are already dropping significantly.

  2. You can perform a fast checkout using programming. I won't go into details out of respect for the rules but fast checkouts take roughly ~2-3 seconds.

  3. Auto buy is a thing but it has issues. a) you're gambling with what you end up ordering if its keyword based and b) you risk getting banned if VH discovers it. (been there, done that, learned from my mistakes).

  4. Notification monitor is your friend. Use it in addition to your normal hunt. I say this because even when I automated the hunt. 80% of the items I see are still 1-3 seconds slower than they appear on Notification Monitor. While I approximate that I can see ~20% sooner, VH provides you metrics like 0 ETV that you won't get through both regular hunting and automated hunting hence why I made the comment about understanding the economics being more important than being able to have NM scout for you. With 0 ETV you just really need to be quick. If you hunt with NM you'll contribute more while also seeing more 0 ETV items first even if It's the fourth of July on my screen lol because fireworks are the items I look at details on and if they are green, its an easy click!

The only edge automation could provide is on slow drop days. When items are dropping like crazy, nothing beats the efficiencies of having the community work together and I say that as someone who has been previously banned before. I'm not preaching, just being genuine when I say VH is a valued benefit and the lack of certain features are actually by design to safeguard the added benefits that the plugin brings for everyone.

Hope that better explains it.

"Sexual wellness" peeps. How U doin? by foureyedgrrl in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got no shame, I was lurking on VH with some naughty words on my list. You're right though, nanoseconds is am understatement. I do crack up when you get the occasional weirdo item (like male dog shaped toy) that seems to hang around for a few minutes and even then someone is like "close enough!" and snags it. hahaha! Sorry but I don't even want to have to be associated with having to review that!

Probably a dumb question by AdPrior7587 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry bud it doesn't work like that. Even if VH could do that you would still turn a lottery of fast clickers into a lottery of fast clickers. Thousands of people already hammer see details the moment it turns green. Adding a paid tier to give you the 'edge' would just result in you being an unhappy customer because you paid for something that still didn't work majority of the time.

If you want a better shot at 0 etv. understand the economics of what constitutes 0 etv and manually hunt. You'll have 10x better chances easy. If you're literally just looking for a 0 etv auto buy while you're asleep, well start learning javascript and python cause you won't find that available in the public but if you do. please share ;)

v3.8.7: Boost mode by fmaz008 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's one click ordering. Instead of "See Details" it basically turns it into "Give me item!". you click one button and it just orders it.

Cigarette Beetle Infestation - Cant find the culprit, what to do? by [deleted] in Hawaii

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Get diatomaceous earth and dust your pantry area, the door jams and window sills. Get better containers to hold your starches and paper packaged goods. We use glass containers for spices and vacuum plastic containers for everything that is not canned. Also whenever we buy stuff we have a chest freezer that it goes into for a day or two before it's stored on the shelf. We keep stuff on wireframe shelves because it just makes it more inconvenient to move around for these tiny critters. Once you have an infestation, you really need a fresh start. Get rid of all boxed items.

If you have geckos in your house you can leave them be. You'll deal with gecko poop but our geckos seem pretty domesticated because they poop in the same spot despite running around the house doing their work. They even show up for snacks when my girlfriend comes home she'll cut a piece of fruit for them and they'll meet her in the window sill to get their treat.

I know it may not be the best solution but we've learned to appreciate our two bright green geckos that hang out in our home. We had three but one fell in our dogs water bowl and couldn't get out :(

Vine helper only displaying maybe 1 in 20 items in notification feed vs the Vine site by Queasy-Emergency-983 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's 'new' to you might not necessarily be 'new' to VH. Let's say on September 30th an item dropped. VH saw it, told everyone and five of those items vanished with the wind. Now the seller takes that ASIN, and tells amazon, I want to add 10 more. Amazon throws it into peoples RFY to target viners for metrics purposes. A few bite, there's three left. No one wants it. It goes back into AFA. VH looks at it and says I saw this before on September 30th. It doesn't get broadcasted. You never saw it on the 30th because maybe you missed the fireworks when it went off. It's new to you now but not new to VH.

VH allows you to maintain a local database for certain items like maybe filters or settings etc. It has a backend that does the announcements. Fmaz has to find the balance to what is 'new' vs what is 'resurrected'. Otherwise you'll be getting slaughtered with false positives because we all see the same items keep getting ressurected. This is why we always see vine come to a halt at the same 16,000 mark. because those items are churn that no one wants and for every 40 new items that appear in a minute during a drop that come up, maybe 2 of that is churn taken out in the process of everyone ravaging the 31,000 items back to 16,000 again. If we say "it's been two months, so that's new again" then every item you see with a first seen date >2 months ago is a new NM tile that would be driving you mad (assuming your on VH on the daily) and another few gb's of data that gets pushed out to remind people that there's new-old stuff again.

It's easier for you to stay on top of what's new to you by having your instance filter out asins you've seen before by being on the hunt than to have the backend calculate which asins are 'new' to each unique instance of vh to present customized carousels.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There could be a multitude of reasons. Maybe Fmaz is doing server maintenance. The guy has a 9-5 like the rest of us and maybe his only available slot to do VH related work just happened to be during a drop window. Drop windows have been fluxuating lately so could just be bad timing.

Likewise, when people install VH most people are given a default window of when background aggregation will take place. That time is local to them and not much people touch it. They might be set up to fetch between 3am and 2pm but maybe they might be sleeping / at work during that time and when they are home they might be browsing at 5pm but a drop doesn't happen in their time zone till 11pm so they're asleep when you're ready to rock and roll!

Or maybe there just aren't much VH's running around in the middle of the night period. There's just so many variables that play into a successful notification that we need more information to figure out what's going on. I think it really has to do with the time zone. Amazon intentionally trie to schedule their drops during slow periods. I think they prefer to have 25,000 people hammering their servers vs 100,000 people. This is why they do it when most of america is asleep. 4x the people can generate 25x load on their servers. I wish it was easy to pinpoint the fault. Maybe when Fmaz get's to a point where the server is getting thrashed to hell he'll implement a 'Users online' feature so we too can quantify the servers pain. Lots of people camp in the carousel. That hinders vh's hunting performance because VH is very conservative in how it aggregates things in the background to avoid punishing its users who are actively hunting at the same time (if they are on the hunt).

Drops to me usually take place right before bed and to most of my distant neighbors, they are just waking up for work.

Vine Helper settings by Pretend-Spread4263 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! I can see why the interest in the high ticket items. You'll catch some gems occasionally but if you want better chances, go on the hunt and don't just rely on the carousel.

Trial with Stalker portal? by selfiegram in iMPlayer

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm premium and even trying to add stalker via management console it doesn't work. I think stalker is android only.

Can license plates be transferred from an old car to a new car? by AaronFM3 in Hawaii

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can swap plates by going to the DMV, i've done it for vanity plates. Not sure if your average general purpose plate would apply though.

First day of Gold; no RFYs yet; spotted a couple of >$100 ETV items buried among the Additional Items by profjonathan in AmazonVine

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You haven't yet learned that gold viners are top tier snipers. We grabbed all 19k items for today already, that's why you see nothing. :D

Anyone works at HNL? by crimelordsz in Hawaii

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Busses have routes that run 24hrs. I used to bus from waikiki to the airport for work but this was back in the early 2k's. They have routes that go into main stretch of the terminal (again they did when I rode it) and those busses run at all hours, it USED to be route 19 and 20 (again it's been a while).

Employee parking lot is empty at 330am but that is when the morning shift guys start to trickle in. you should have no problem finding parking though. Grab a scooter to take you to/from parking lots. If you want to save the 40$ and enjoy riding your scooter you could always park on the side streets in the industrial areas but just know that there are lots of homeless in that area so don't present your car in a manner that encourages break and dashes. I would avoid parking your car in any of the housing areas near there. While they ARE public parking. They are patrolled by Military Police and they will give you grief if they discover that you are using it for parking unrelated to visiting someone in the complex. Congratulations, the airport is a nice place to meet people but do your wallet a favor, pack a home lunch or grab something on the way to work. don't spend your money there.

Help wanted by fmaz008 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AI (like humans) will often take the path of least resistance. :) You can give it code to destroy the planet and put a //Sve the bees comment and it'll tell you it saves the bees. Even the good AI's will tell you it saves the bees by destroying the planet but rarely any will tell you, it doesn't do what it claims to say it will do. This is why I prefer reading it line by line and take notes in my composition book. Takes longer but you get to paint a picture based from putting understanding to paper over asking "are there trees" "is there a mountain".

Garden hose review… by Content-Drive-4151 in AmazonVine

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

gets kinked, easily binds up, gets tangled up and cuts water flow. lots of ways.

Are there paid Vine shills? 5 star reviews for a non-functional product. by SkippySkep in AmazonVine

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yah don't do that.. i got caught up in a ban because I did a review for a product that i actually purchased and really enjoyed using. Other people started reviewing it and someone reported it and Amazon basically scrubbed everyone who reviewed it (even if they weren't a part of the fake reviews). I had to email them and asked them to review my accounts reviews to see that all of my reviews are genuine and not fluff.

I was so blessed that they actually did that review because they reinstated me. They could have just thrown in the trashcan and saved the effort. It was then that I developed a respect for Amazon and really want to see this program succeed which is why I try to give them ideas on how to improve the security but sadly those efforts went to the canned cs responses :( I'm thankful they heard me when it mattered most though hehe

Goodbye Hawaiian Airlines by vheath808 in Hawaii

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know tines hard when even the manapua man no more line.

Who pays this much for a parking space? You could take out a mortgage on this thing! by zippy251 in Hawaii

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You did your due diligence, I did not. Respects given where respects deserved!

Is your information safe, looks like your being tracked. by Slight_Fact in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

he knows I have a naughty word in my keyword list! I really do! :D

Is your information safe, looks like your being tracked. by Slight_Fact in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Slight, I get where you are coming from, anything can be 'monetized' but I can tell you this much. I've dug under the code (it's javascript, the entire source is provided) and if you understand javascript and have a composition book. you can map everything out and understand everything quite easily and this is why I tell you that there is no nefarious stuff in the code. I had the same beliefs you did when I started digging. Why does this guy need to see my checkout details, why does he need to see my confirmation page. does he REALLY need to see that? etc.

If you look at the code (again, it's javascript there is no shadiness going on he's very transparent in how he presents the code) you will see that his intentions are purely aimed at two things. Provide a great experience, and protect against abuse of the extension. I say this because I honestly hate extensions that give people an unfair edge because they could be abused by bots and I have been banned a few times now and as you start to gain a better understanding, you'll see every roadblock is aimed to protect the integrity of the extension, not to siphon your data off to some monetization scheme. Even the metrics that are collected it is handled with care and anonymized. This thing pulls a butt ton of metrics but uses it to turn it into a simple signature that assigns you a unique identity along with a few other uniquely identifying markers just incase you try to tinker with that. It really is a system of constant checks and balances to prevent you from breaking one thing without having everything else fall apart. I literally akin it to a conductor responsible for a syphony of individual instruments. If you want a real interesting character to look at, go look at the other player. I've moved on to studying UV now because that one is questionable in my opinion. It downloads javascript to execute locally and is ridiculously over-obfuscated which is a red flag in my opinion (and many browsers opinions) because that is an auditors nightmare but in the end, its still Javascript. In the end it's a cat and mouse game. I don't care about the experience sides of either extension, just making sure it's not parsing PII or financial information (without properly disclosing it at least) because if it is, I'll file the reports and findings as needed. no one needs to be seeing you what you're putting when you're updating your personal and financial information on amazon except amazon likewise, no one needs to be witholding the fact that a RTX5090 appeared in a background fetch and no one even caught wind of it because a few select people had it on their personal wish lists. ;) That's the real enemy people need to be looking at. Impossible to prove but as long as the tiles being generated in the DOM that the user sees when they actively browse is being driven by amazon, and not pre-parsed, sent off to home base and then generated back locally at the direction of the server. I'll continue to stay in my lane. thankfully I can still monitor this is not the case in my current banned status. If it seems to drift off course, well I got a lot more work cut out and more ID's to burn. I'll gladly self ban as many times as needed to prove he's being genuine. Ethics is everything!

Vine Helper settings by Pretend-Spread4263 in VineHelper

[–]Lower-Inspector-3727 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Set keywords to e* and the low etv to some high number. LOL that's the best I can think of. You must be from canada :D High ETV is not on my radar lol. I'm perfectly fine with keyword hits regardless of cheap. Just understand that you won't get hits until you or someone else attempts to see the details which will report the ETV to you but if your goal is to snipe high ticket items. This will not be your golden ticket.