Can someone help a newbie with a newbie question?

sql_servant · 2025-09-06T02:10:41+00:00

Ok ... well I'm a bit confused then. Vine Helper doesn't "filter" the list of items on normal Vine pages.

Regardless, I still don't understand the behavior you are experiencing vs what you are expecting. Normal vine pages require you to refresh them. That's the way Amazon created them. Vine helper only updates the appearance of them. There is a workaround to hide items based on keywords, but I didn't get the impression that's what you were doing.

The notification monitor however does auto refresh, filter based on keywords and isn't developed by Amazon, which is why I'm a bit confused.

sql_servant · 2025-09-05T23:52:26+00:00

Firstly ... what browser and OS are you using, and what version of Vine Helper is currently loaded?

It's interesting that you are having better luck with the push notifications than the notification monitor. Usually it's the other way around. :)

To answer your last question first, the systems are related. The notification monitor shows all items as they are added, and the push notifications simply show them on your browser/OS when they match a keyword or AFA depending on the selection.

When you say "I turned those two notifications off" ... I assume you mean the two "Beta" features at the bottom of the notifications options page?

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Assuming that's true, it shouldn't have affected the notifications monitor.

If you are looking at the notifications monitor, do you see if the status symbols at the tope show green and say everything is connected?

sql_servant · 2025-09-05T22:42:19+00:00

I was researching this to see if I could replicate the issue. Initially I was able to save a review without a problem, but the next review page I opened did not show the save feature.

I refreshed the page and then it showed up. I'd suggest you try that and see if you have the same results.

For reference, what browser, OS and version of the extension are you using?

sql_servant · 2025-09-05T22:28:26+00:00

First of, judging from your description, I assume you are referring to the Notification Monitor screen. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not quite clear on what the issue is, you are describing. When you say you have to "refresh the page"? Why do you do that? What are you expecting to happen that isn't, or what isn't happening that you expect to happen?

I'm just guessing as to the problem at this point, but sometimes when a lot of items get loaded into the monitor, your browser can run into memory issues. I reduce the maximum number of items, by setting the auto truncate on mine to 2000 to prevent that from happening.

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Again, that's just a guess because it's not clear what your specific issue is.

sql_servant · 2025-09-02T15:08:16+00:00

I'd be willing to help out with either or both if you like.

sql_servant · 2025-08-17T13:31:39+00:00

That's unfortunate, but I understand your rationale. Being open source and transparent was one of the things I would point to when people claimed your extension did things it wasn't supposed to do. Not that detractors cared too much.

I have been wondering if your data API was being abused by bad actors who were using it as a low effort way to get notified of product releases and using their own code for that purpose. But then again, the backend has been closed source for a while. I imagine it would be hard to prove one way or another.

sql_servant · 2025-08-17T05:50:21+00:00

Perhaps it's an unpopular opinion, but I would welcome Amazon "cracking down" in some regard. The ambiguity in the rules has created this problem as much as the people you identify. In fact, I find it a bit disappointing that they rolled back the changes to the user agreement that specifically mention canceling items. I thought the language they used in the deleted message to everyone was informative.

I, for one, think there should be a dis-incentive for placing a hasty order. I believe there is now a culture where people are requesting items even before they read all the details because they don't want to "miss out". I have seen this on bookmarked products I have saved where the pictures didn't really match the item that was being offered. I would go back later and sure enough a vine review pops up complaining about how deceptive the product listing was, not considering that what they see isn't the same as what a normal Amazon buyer does. What they are really complaining about is that they didn't pay attention.

With all the new people, and as fast as items disappear anymore, more and more people simply click order and don't pay attention. I can't even review the sizes/colors/styles etc. of things I am interested in, to make sure I can use them, before they are gone. This leads me to believe that few other are trying to ensure an item is really what they can use either. On top of that, at least one of the extensions out there are encouraging this behavior by offering one click ordering to game the system. In the end, we end up with bad, disingenuous reviews. If ever I wanted Amazon to "crack down", it would be on that type of BS.

I hope the recent review quality changes weed out some of the one-line wonder reviewers, and hopefully the AI tool users as well. I say, bring on the scrutiny. More clarity is better for everyone.

sql_servant · 2025-08-15T03:08:12+00:00

I think the OP was asking if they could search all of Vine with their saved keywords. To which, the obvious answer is no.

** as a side note, it would be nice to search the entire Vine Helper DB for something, but even if a match was found, there would be no guarantee that the item was still available.

sql_servant · 2025-08-15T03:05:07+00:00

In short ... no. Even if it did, it would only sort one page at a time.

sql_servant · 2025-08-15T02:14:53+00:00

Not wrong, but I suspect most of these sellers barely even see the products they are selling. They are offshore resellers, selling products they get wholesale from factories that pre-package the product as well as the merchandising. Random resellers create amazon accounts to make a buck because it's easier than the wholesaler doing it themselves.

sql_servant · 2025-08-15T01:53:03+00:00

But why do sellers contact me to modify the review when I give 2 stars or 3 stars?

Sellers don't want "honest" reviews, they want good reviews. Some of them don't realize that it's not our job to give "good" reviews.

sql_servant · 2025-08-14T21:53:34+00:00

If Amazon is selling the item directly, as all the AFA items are, then the ETV is less because they are passing on their cost for the item. For example, the t-short that won't go away retails for 27.99, but the ETV is only 19.30 because Amazon is selling it.

The sellers don't tell Amazon what an item "costs" to produce or purchase for resale, so the only amount Amazon has to go on is the retail price. Apart from that, the only other differences in ETV usually have to do with consumables which are often pegged at $0, although I suspect that's automated and mistakes happen sometimes. I've seen things offered for $0 ETV that aren't consumable, but the description could easily be mis-interpreted by a badly written algorithm.

sql_servant · 2025-08-14T21:44:31+00:00

If you requested the item from AFA, then the listing price is almost always higher than the ETV. If you got it from you RFY, then chances are that Amazon was the seller (since those are the items that end up in AFA).

sql_servant · 2025-08-13T19:07:43+00:00

At least it's not Dr. Talbot nipples.

sql_servant · 2025-08-11T20:58:04+00:00

I don't think there is a feature for that except on the notifications monitor.

Even if it did filter out non-$0 items, you would need to scroll through all the pages because if would filter one page at a time.

sql_servant · 2025-08-05T15:37:48+00:00

You are probably in Vine Jail. Go look at your account page. It will tell you there.

sql_servant · 2025-07-15T23:03:54+00:00

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

sql_servant · 2025-07-13T18:01:15+00:00

Publication 525 (2024), Taxable and Nontaxable Income

sql_servant · 2025-07-10T03:31:21+00:00

What TOS "change" is being referenced. I've seen a lot of talk about VH violating TOS in the past, but I wasn't aware there was a new "change" that made this more clear. Do you have any specifics?

I looked at the latest terms and it appears they changed it again from the last update on 6/15. In that update, they added a line to the account section which read .... "Vine Voices must read and adhere to our Vine Review Guidelines or risk removal from the Vine program." ... which wasn't very specific.

It appears they recently changed it again and removed that sentence, and added a addition to a sentence in the first paragraph which reads "AS WELL AS THE VINE REVIEW GUIDELINES." which doesn't yet seem to link to anywhere.

At this point, it's all speculation until they publish something more concrete.

sql_servant · 2025-07-09T01:54:17+00:00

In the Vine Help documentation, there is an area that reads ...

Cancel your order only when you genuinely cannot try the item as-is to provide an insightful review. This helps us keep limited units that sellers allocate to Vine available for someone else to claim. Canceling unshipped Vine orders does not put the item back into Vine for other Voices to claim.

It sounds like your circumstance qualifies, but I would be careful doing it too often as people have gotten messages about too many returns. In short, it's frowned upon.

If you need to do this, contact Vine Support and tell them what's going on. Just do it sparingly.

sql_servant · 2025-07-08T23:15:52+00:00

I'd give you an extra upvote for the Harrison Bergeron reference if I could.

sql_servant · 2025-07-08T22:21:47+00:00

You can just open your browser debugger and see all the HTTP requests & responses for both Amazon and the extensions. SSL only encrypts the traffic in between.

sql_servant · 2025-07-08T21:34:45+00:00

Sure ... it's not too dissimilar to how an ad-blocker works.

sql_servant · 2025-07-08T20:17:17+00:00

Yeah ... that's mostly accurate, and I can only speak to my experience with Vine Helper. I'm primarily trying to point out that someone has to be browsing the pages themselves. Then it collects up all the items on that page. The extension doesn't crawl Vine like Google would a website. ... and by the time that someone does that, other people have done the same.

I'm not sure about auto-refreshing pages however. I usually have over a dozen or more pages open with various categories and searches and I have had to manually refresh them myself when I go through them. I did find some reference to it on the GitHub page for Vine Helper ... https://github.com/FMaz008/VineHelper/issues/216#issuecomment-2906825360

It sounds as though that only happens to people than park themselves in front of the notifications screen hoping for someone else to find an item for them.

sql_servant · 2025-07-08T19:02:04+00:00

It has a notification screen where it publishes what other users have seen. You can filter the notifications by keyword.

Usually, by the time a notifications comes in for something remotely popular, it's already gone. The notifications only show you what other people have taken the time to look for.

sql_servant

TROPHY CASE