The bot stops deleting messages after some running

[ShootTheMessengerBot]

Describe the bug I apologize for my lack of expertise in logging bugs, I will provide any additional information that may help.

I am not sure whether this is actually a bug, I would like to rather consult on a strange behavior: Once I leave the bot to run for let's say 10-15 minutes, at first it works fine, I can see it unsending messages and the messages are being unsent. However, after some time I noticed, that the bot clicks on the message, clicks unsend but the message does not get deleted even though there are no errors on f12 console.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Let the script run for a while

Expected behavior A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

Screenshots Add screenshots to help explain your problem.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: [e.g. iOS] Windows 10
• Browser [e.g. chrome, safari] Google Chrome
• Version [e.g. 22] Version 108.0.5359.125 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Logs Add logs from the chrome dev console. Hit f12 and go to the console tab in the window that pops up, and attach what you see there as a txt file.

[ShootTheMessengerBot]

After troubleshooting further I have noticed the following errors appear ocasionally when the messages stop being deleted:

[8SecSleeper]

Are you certain it has nothing to do with FB antibot measures? Rate limiting you? If you stop it for 5 - 10 mins and start it again. Does it make it 10 - 15 mins then the same thing happens again?

If so you may need to add a delay to slow it down. Try using the rate limit pause feature to see if that resolves the issue.

[ShootTheMessengerBot]

Are you certain it has nothing to do with FB antibot measures? Rate limiting you? If you stop it for 5 - 10 mins and start it again. Does it make it 10 - 15 mins then the same thing happens again?

If so you may need to add a delay to slow it down. Try using the rate limit pause feature to see if that resolves the issue.

Thanks a lot for responding to this, yes I though of the same thing, this could be related to antibot measures, as what happens is that in that particular chat window even manual deletion does not work until I close it and reopen/or refresh the page.

However, there is an issue, rate limiting does not help, I have tried 5-10 seconds, maybe you have some information of when this bot was last tested? (Maybe facebook added some additional antibot stuff as you said)

[8SecSleeper]

By default it waits 5 seconds before scrolling up to get another batch of messages, you can change it on a higher value like 60 and it'll wait 60 seconds before scrolling up the get a new batch.

The delay isn't between unsend actions. Rather it's between between getting new batches.

[ShootTheMessengerBot]

By default it waits 5 seconds before scrolling up to get another batch of messages, you can change it on a higher value like 60 and it'll wait 60 seconds before scrolling up the get a new batch.

The delay isn't between unsend actions. Rather it's between between getting new batches.

Understood, thank you.

Another question, can this be the reason why it suddenly stops unsending messages? Because it seems that the issue is not with the scrolling, it actually scrolls up and I see the bot clicking unsend, but the message is not being unsent. I am not sure If I explained understandably enough, but after 10-15 minutes of working (probably even less), the bot starts to click on messages and press unsend, but the messages are not being unsent.

And also, could it be that it is needed to increase the delay in between unsend actions? And if so, is that possible to do?

[theahura]

as what happens is that in that particular chat window even manual deletion does not work until I close it and reopen/or refresh the page

If this is true, the ShootTheMessenger extension can't help you. All this extension is doing is 'faking' user clicks, so if an actual user click fails so will StM.

And also, could it be that it is needed to increase the delay in between unsend actions? And if so, is that possible to do?

Nonetheless, this could be the issue :thinking: Right now it is not super user friendly to do, but doing it programmatically is quite straightforward. You just need to set the number here (https://github.com/theahura/shoot-the-messenger/blob/main/main.js#L165) to something higher than 100(ms). If you feel comfortable doing so, it may be worth downloading this git repository and setting the extension up as a developer extension on your end, locally. And then modify that one line of code, and see if that fixes the issue.

It shouldn't be too hard to add an option to update the actual delay, just want to make sure thats what is causing the problem.

[ShootTheMessengerBot]

as what happens is that in that particular chat window even manual deletion does not work until I close it and reopen/or refresh the page

If this is true, the ShootTheMessenger extension can't help you. All this extension is doing is 'faking' user clicks, so if an actual user click fails so will StM.

And also, could it be that it is needed to increase the delay in between unsend actions? And if so, is that possible to do?

Nonetheless, this could be the issue 🤔 Right now it is not super user friendly to do, but doing it programmatically is quite straightforward. You just need to set the number here (https://github.com/theahura/shoot-the-messenger/blob/main/main.js#L165) to something higher than 100(ms). If you feel comfortable doing so, it may be worth downloading this git repository and setting the extension up as a developer extension on your end, locally. And then modify that one line of code, and see if that fixes the issue.

It shouldn't be too hard to add an option to update the actual delay, just want to make sure thats what is causing the problem.

Thanks for replying, I wonder whether there is any chance you could try replicating the issue at your end?

I can literally replicate it 100% of the time just by leaving the bot on for ~10 minutes. Tried numerous rate limits from 10 to 120 seconds, didn't help.

I haven't tried changing the time interval in between deletion of messages in the code yet. But I probably will, it's just that it seems like facebook detects the repetetive action that the bot is doing and then no longer allows him to carry on.

[8SecSleeper]

I will have to write a extension some time to have a fake account bot chat with mine so I have messages to unsend. I managed to delete years worth of history on factory settings without rate limit. But try as he suggested.

I have alot of experience fighting antibot measures. It's likely measuring actions per time period and flagging for temporary repeat of same action. Just add a few second delay between unsends and put the delay at 60-90 seconds and see how long it runs.

[8SecSleeper]

as what happens is that in that particular chat window even manual deletion does not work until I close it and reopen/or refresh the page

If this is true, the ShootTheMessenger extension can't help you. All this extension is doing is 'faking' user clicks, so if an actual user click fails so will StM.

And also, could it be that it is needed to increase the delay in between unsend actions? And if so, is that possible to do?

Nonetheless, this could be the issue 🤔 Right now it is not super user friendly to do, but doing it programmatically is quite straightforward. You just need to set the number here (https://github.com/theahura/shoot-the-messenger/blob/main/main.js#L165) to something higher than 100(ms). If you feel comfortable doing so, it may be worth downloading this git repository and setting the extension up as a developer extension on your end, locally. And then modify that one line of code, and see if that fixes the issue. It shouldn't be too hard to add an option to update the actual delay, just want to make sure thats what is causing the problem.

Thanks for replying, I wonder whether there is any chance you could try replicating the issue at your end?

I can literally replicate it 100% of the time just by leaving the bot on for ~10 minutes. Tried numerous rate limits from 10 to 120 seconds, didn't help.

I haven't tried changing the time interval in between deletion of messages in the code yet. But I probably will, it's just that it seems like facebook detects the repetetive action that the bot is doing and then no longer allows him to carry on.

Test the lasted pull request.

[theahura]

The changes in the last PR are unobjectionable, I'm happy to merge it (had one comment) and deploy when it's in

[theahura]

I forgot to deploy :grimacing: deploying now! my bad!

Should be live on chrome webstore in a day or two

[theahura]

merged, thanks all