Does anybody use auto repost scripts to drive myspace traffic to their site? Because it seems like myspace just disabled it.
They made the bulletin edit page require a unique hash value. They did this with the bulletin confirm page a couple weeks ago, but now both pages are "secured." I'm trying to figure out a way around it, but don't know if it will be possible. It's a shame, because there are a lot of great uses for sending data to the bulletin form.
Yeah I noticed the hash code too. All of my traffic is coming from bulletins, so I'm kind of panicking. I'm a php noob, so maybe this is a stupid question, but is there a way to retrieve information from the html of a page using php? Then you could retrieve the hash code from the "post a bulletin" link on the users home page.
You can retrieve the HTML of a page using PHP, but the hash that MySpace uses is unique to each account, so even if you could retrieve it, it wouldn't work for anyone else. If you send the wrong hash value, it sends you back to the bulletin listing as if you provided no hash. I know how you feel, though. My site has a lot of bulletin features, and I also got most of my traffic from them. I think they're mostly concerned about "whore trains," but I had a lot of handy bulletin posting features that are now broken.
The code would have to retrieve it for each individual user. Couldn't you just set a variable? Like: Where "HASH VARIABLE" is the retrieved hash code from the user's "http://home.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user" page I know. I just set my site up last week, and I was getting over 3,000 hits a day with my bulletins.
You would have to be logged in as that user to get their hash code. The page would be accessed by PHP on your server, so it wouldn't be logged in at MySpace at all. If you could manage to get PHP to log in to MySpace with the user's name and password, then you could do it, but you'd need the user's name and password. Do your users trust your site enough to give that information out (okay, they're MySpace users, maybe they'd do it anyway )? You could ask users to provide their hash before being able to post the bulletin, but I don't see many people being willing, or able, to do that. Granted, they do it with friend IDs, but the hash is a bit longer and complex, and it might not be worth it to them just to post a bulletin. After all, the reason for posting a bulletin in this manner is usually convenience.
I see what you're saying now. Since the php is server-side, it's not going to retrieve any information specific to that user. That's a shame. There were many legitimate uses for that function. Even the more deceitful uses weren't really that bad. Looks like my 15 minutes of fame are over
We can hope that MySpace will reverse their decision. I've already seen a few bulletins from users complaining about the new restrictions, and we know that MySpace is worried about putting too many rules in place and having another social networking site emerge as the "cool" place to hang out. It's also possible that a new way to get data to the bulletin form will emerge. I've come close to discovering such a way, but still have a few issues to address. My advice is to watch the big "whore trains" and see how and if they adapt to these changes. If all else fails, you could contact MySpace and let them know how you feel about the changes. They probably don't care about you, but you could tell them that their users are unhappy. I know a few people who are sending messages already.
Yeah I already complained. I didn't give specifics. I just sent an email saying that I couldn't post bulletins anymore, which isn't exactly true I have noticed that in the "events" portion of the site, the change has affected the "bulletin this" option. So there's a legitimate complaint. Although that's probably something they could resolve without reverting back to the old code. Hopefully if enough people are vocal they'll change it back though. I'll try and ride it out. Keep us updated on here if you have any breathroughs Matt.
It looks they completely disabled the bulletin.edit page. Try creating a bulletin from within your own account and then go to edit it - you will be redirected back to the bulletin list. I'm sure myspace users won't be happy with that.....
For now I'm using some javascript I found that copies the bulletin to the user's clipboard. It requires a little more work on the part of the user, but it's better than nothing until someone finds a workaround.