Why I refused to use the Vkontakte API
Vkontakte has an incredibly extensive, up-to-date user database that allows you to create convenient applications. In addition to this, the guys made a public API, which allows you to legally use all the accumulated content, but still I’m forced not unreasonably to refuse to use such a convenient tool, and here's why ...
This chapter discusses howit all began, why and why I needed this API and what happened before hour X.
It began with the fact that I had an android device and had a great desire to automate everything and everyone, as well as transfer contacts, birthdays and other useful information to thephone now a smartphone.
Facebook knew how to do it, but due to Vkontaktik’s popularity among friends, there was a need to synchronize such a large and almost constantly up-to-date “phone book”.
Lyrical digression:
When all this was started, there was no close miracle, which is now called the official Vkontakte app.
In view of the need, several applications were written exclusively for private use, which were later laid out in the then android market ASIS:
1) "Vkontakte: synchronization" and
2) "Vkontakte: Birthdays" *.
')
* due to the circumstances described in the article, these applications were removed by me and removed from the publication.
As you know, the interaction with the API is done through the standalone Vkontakte application, which (suddenly) can be blocked by the administration with a special predilection - well, it seems, and revealed all the intrigue ...
Here, too, it’s probably worth making a reservation - in my view, not quite adequate with an adequate authorization system with several (three as I remember) reader tags, application number 1 worked quite unstably (naturally, the curvature of the hands also affected, but nonetheless. ..). The second application also worked through time because of the lack of an official API from google to add entries to the standard android calendar. Nevertheless, applications from some people worked, some even bought paid versions (and those who for some reason could not buy, but really wanted to - wrote to the post office and received an APKSha in a return letter for free, or more precisely, thanks), Overall, everything was as good as possible.
The time has passed, the official application of the social network has appeared, but nevertheless, until recent circumstances, judging by the statistics, up to 20 unique users per day have happened.
Everything would have continued if not ...
One fine day (06/22/2013) during the next visit to the user's page, which is also the administrator of standalone applications, through which all interaction takes place, there were several notifications in the application area, one of which stated that my creation was blocked by the administration.
At first, I thought that there could be some kind of mistake (since I didn’t use my own programs for a long time, and in view of the fact that people rocked them from time to time and for one reason or another, there was no desire to remove them). When entering the application administration, no traces of locks were detected, BUT, the programs from the market stopped working ...
In the notification (it’s good that I didn’t close it, since I didn’t find it later, but I forgot to remove the screenshot), there was a link to those support, which I followed. Asking the question why the application was blocked at all, it was made clear that there would be no quick answer (there should be a screenshot saying “in the form of support for those, the answer is possible within 31 hours).
Some time later, an extremely abstract answer was given that, unfortunately, my problem takes time, will be considered in the near futureand in general, everyone will not care . With all this, they could not even provide an answer, whether the application is blocked or not.
I decided to organize my own investigation and find out why such a thing could happen, as far as I can imagine - this is the problem:
At one point, someone actively searched for spamming using Vkontakte application with my programs, which in turn thought that the most correct thing was a ban.
The fact that the application is blocked can still be judged by the reviews on google play - if before there were approximately equal fives and units (as I said, the applications initially and in fact do not work on all devices for all users, which by the way was described in the description), but now these days in a row there have been several negative reviews with the same diagnosis - applications can not download anything ...
It’s good that this problem happened a few days before the holidays and there is an opportunity to take quick measures, but if it happened a couple of days later, I would know a few weeks later and this fact would dilute the joy of the rest.
Even if I, as a negligent API user, began to bomb the server with requests, I still do not think that a public API, especially of this magnitude, can afford to block applications. By the way, they had points about no more than N requests to the API from one person in X seconds even while writing my programs. So all restrictions should be on the server side and it should just give an error for the next request.
Such an approach as in Vkontakte allows another person \ by mistake \ specifically simply to kill your program, and, in my opinion, it looks like it will be rather difficult to restore the “good name” of the application later.
In general, on this note, I decided to tie up with the API Vkontakte.
Updated
Answer from support:
Support Agent # 3487
With this application was recorded spam. We figured out the situation and unlocked the app.
So the assumption turned out to be true, like this.
Introduction
This chapter discusses how
It began with the fact that I had an android device and had a great desire to automate everything and everyone, as well as transfer contacts, birthdays and other useful information to the
Facebook knew how to do it, but due to Vkontaktik’s popularity among friends, there was a need to synchronize such a large and almost constantly up-to-date “phone book”.
Lyrical digression:
When all this was started, there was no close miracle, which is now called the official Vkontakte app.
In view of the need, several applications were written exclusively for private use, which were later laid out in the then android market ASIS:
1) "Vkontakte: synchronization" and
2) "Vkontakte: Birthdays" *.
')
* due to the circumstances described in the article, these applications were removed by me and removed from the publication.
As you know, the interaction with the API is done through the standalone Vkontakte application, which (suddenly) can be blocked by the administration with a special predilection - well, it seems, and revealed all the intrigue ...
Here, too, it’s probably worth making a reservation - in my view, not quite adequate with an adequate authorization system with several (three as I remember) reader tags, application number 1 worked quite unstably (naturally, the curvature of the hands also affected, but nonetheless. ..). The second application also worked through time because of the lack of an official API from google to add entries to the standard android calendar. Nevertheless, applications from some people worked, some even bought paid versions (and those who for some reason could not buy, but really wanted to - wrote to the post office and received an APKSha in a return letter for free, or more precisely, thanks), Overall, everything was as good as possible.
The time has passed, the official application of the social network has appeared, but nevertheless, until recent circumstances, judging by the statistics, up to 20 unique users per day have happened.
Everything would have continued if not ...
The climax and conclusion.
One fine day (06/22/2013) during the next visit to the user's page, which is also the administrator of standalone applications, through which all interaction takes place, there were several notifications in the application area, one of which stated that my creation was blocked by the administration.
At first, I thought that there could be some kind of mistake (since I didn’t use my own programs for a long time, and in view of the fact that people rocked them from time to time and for one reason or another, there was no desire to remove them). When entering the application administration, no traces of locks were detected, BUT, the programs from the market stopped working ...
In the notification (it’s good that I didn’t close it, since I didn’t find it later, but I forgot to remove the screenshot), there was a link to those support, which I followed. Asking the question why the application was blocked at all, it was made clear that there would be no quick answer (there should be a screenshot saying “in the form of support for those, the answer is possible within 31 hours).
Some time later, an extremely abstract answer was given that, unfortunately, my problem takes time, will be considered in the near future
I decided to organize my own investigation and find out why such a thing could happen, as far as I can imagine - this is the problem:
At one point, someone actively searched for spamming using Vkontakte application with my programs, which in turn thought that the most correct thing was a ban.
The fact that the application is blocked can still be judged by the reviews on google play - if before there were approximately equal fives and units (as I said, the applications initially and in fact do not work on all devices for all users, which by the way was described in the description), but now these days in a row there have been several negative reviews with the same diagnosis - applications can not download anything ...
It’s good that this problem happened a few days before the holidays and there is an opportunity to take quick measures, but if it happened a couple of days later, I would know a few weeks later and this fact would dilute the joy of the rest.
Conclusion
Even if I, as a negligent API user, began to bomb the server with requests, I still do not think that a public API, especially of this magnitude, can afford to block applications. By the way, they had points about no more than N requests to the API from one person in X seconds even while writing my programs. So all restrictions should be on the server side and it should just give an error for the next request.
Such an approach as in Vkontakte allows another person \ by mistake \ specifically simply to kill your program, and, in my opinion, it looks like it will be rather difficult to restore the “good name” of the application later.
In general, on this note, I decided to tie up with the API Vkontakte.
Updated
Answer from support:
Support Agent # 3487
With this application was recorded spam. We figured out the situation and unlocked the app.
So the assumption turned out to be true, like this.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/184946/
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