[Closed] Unicomp GB of Dooom!

[pandrew]

@Muirium if you are still picking, I can vouch for kmnov2017. I'm not in this GB but would be great to see this resolved. Also if it will help, we may be able to throw together a script to download all PMs from DT. I've been thinking about it myself for my own messages since it's so hard to find old chats.

[Muirium]

Thanks for the kind offers of assistance, folks.

I’m helping a family member with a move at the moment, so my availability is a little spotty to say the least! But yes it would be good to get the box out of Britain before the Christmas rush, for sure.

I can also offer to help if you need an address in Germany?

I am assuming only the goods were paid for and that shipping to individual addresses still need to be paid for -Is this correct?

The way we could work this out is first we make an inventory of items and then have people claim what's their’s. Evidence of original payment to Muirium will need to be showed though (e.g. screenshots of PayPal transfers?)

As I recall, yes everyone had paid me Unicomp's price for their stuff, back when the group buy was active in… 2015!? Oh boy.

The bit where it came apart was once I brought things back here (which was in Europe back then, sigh) and started divvying out orders, and invoicing shipping out to the buyers. I got some orders out—I started with the biggest ones I think—but then, well, shit happened. Then also the DT PM-pocalypse.

What I worry about is just how long it's been, and how many of the remaining people have since vanished from DT. I fear the final stragglers are never going to come back to claim their stuff. Though who knows…

@Muirium if you are still picking, I can vouch for kmnov2017. I'm not in this GB but would be great to see this resolved. Also if it will help, we may be able to throw together a script to download all PMs from DT. I've been thinking about it myself for my own messages since it's so hard to find old chats.

Yeah, I recognise kmnov, and Snoopy too. I honestly don't know what went wrong when I shipped the whole box to Snoopy; just that it bounced back a long time later, several months I think, still sealed. I need to dig it back out of storage, but I vaguely remember an official notice attached saying "refused by recipient" or something; I don't know if that was German customs or what. I had declared it properly, it was most confusing as well as disheartening. Quite expensive as well as I remember; UK shipping has really gone to shit.

A DT PM archive would be most handy indeed! If I have it in text on my local machine, I can search again and reconstruct the missing history.

[kmnov2017]

You might be able to lookup the transaction history on paypal - probably not the best approach - but workable. Bonus is you'll get their emails that way as well - you dont have to worry about their presence on DT anymore.

For cheap delivery options from UK to EU, lookup DPD.

[Muirium]

DPD looks a good tip, thanks. Still need to ship it all as one "into Europe" to make much sense though.

The big problem is I invited fellow DTers to order whichever individual caps they liked. So the orders are each extremely complex and specific. I certainly never listed all the individual kits and single caps on people's PayPals, so that route is unavailable. Does give a second means to contact them though: by their paypal emails.

So, would you or Snoopy like to get the big box of everything that remains? If you guys could work it out between yourselves, I could sure use the help!

[pandrew]

How many pages of PMs do you have to export?

There is a way to do it 50 messages at a time, like this:
1) Open Inbox
2) Press End key to scroll down
3) Export this view, select Export as XML
4) Click Go, save the file
5) Click the next-page link, go back to step 2).

For example I have 20 pages in Inbox, and 17 pages in outbox, it would not be unreasonable to do this 37 times, and then you have a folder of searchable files.

[pandrew]

Alright, so I wrote a script that will download all private messages, please see the attachment.
To run it, you will need python, and the "mechanize", and "lxml" libraries installed.
If you run it, the output looks like this:

example_output.png (16.15 KiB) Viewed 11407 times

The speed is slightly less than 50 messages per second. (I had to add a 1 second sleep, without it it wasn't reliable)

The result is files named:
inbox_1.xml
inbox_2.xml
....
sentbox_1.xml
....

And you can search these with your favorite plain text tools.

EDIT: removed outdated .zip, please see my next message

[Muirium]

Thanks. Installed Python3 and those two dependencies on my M1 Mac. But I’m a Python noob so don't know what's going wrong here:

Code: Select all

muirium@Johns-MacBook-Air pms % /Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py
/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py: line 1: import: command not found
/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py: line 2: import: command not found
/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py: line 3: from: command not found
/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py: line 5: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py: line 5: `def log():'
muirium@Johns-MacBook-Air pms % Python3 /Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/muirium/Downloads/pms/download_private_messages.py", line 28, in <module>
    br.open("https://deskthority.net/")
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mechanize/_mechanize.py", line 257, in open
    return self._mech_open(url_or_request, data, timeout=timeout)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/lib/python3.11/site-packages/mechanize/_mechanize.py", line 313, in _mech_open
    raise response
mechanize._response.get_seek_wrapper_class.<locals>.httperror_seek_wrapper: HTTP Error 403: b'request disallowed by robots.txt'
muirium@Johns-MacBook-Air pms % 

robots.txt is on Deskthority's server, right?

Same Error 403: b'request disallowed by robots.txt' if I run it in Idle. The fact I’m even mentioning trying that should convey just how much of a **Sound the Alarm: Newb Alert!**

[Muirium]

How many pages of PMs do you have to export?

My inbox is currently 149 pages. To be honest, now that I poke about in there, I’m just seeing what a hideous mess this is. The Unicomp GB just keeps on coming up page after page as I skip around to peek. (And with many different subject lines, as I did everything by hand and so did the members.) Scripting is not going to piece together the history, it'll all ultimately need done by hand. What a pounding, multi-thousand message headache!

That's what's been keeping this stuck so long: not the physical shipping, but the what bits to who?

[pandrew]

Hey,

Looks like robots.txt error might be because your version of mechanize is different from mine.
Anyway, I tried fixing it so it would work with your version too, please try this new attached version.
This zip file now also contains a second script named "make_html.py" that collects the .xml files and outputs a single messages.html file,
trying to reconstitute threads.
There may be problems with thread reconstitution if people have changed subject lines while replying to messages, or if more than one person is messaged at the same time, but otherwise should be okay, and you get one html file to search for everything.

Please let me know how this one works out.

How to use it:

• Install python3, and the following python packages: mechanize, lxml
• Download the zip attached here, extract.
• Run:

  Code: Select all

  python download_private_messages.py

  -- It will ask for your username/password. It will create a bunch of xml files in the directory you run it in with the content of your messages. It downloads the text content of all PMs. It does not download attachments!
• Run:

  Code: Select all

  python make_html.py

  -- this takes the xml files in the local directory and tries to reconstitute all threads, outputting everything in a single file called `messages.html`. You should be able to open messages.html in your browser, and easily search your PMs.

Andrei

[snoopy]

I shipped the box to you in 2020. It bounced back to me, months later, unopened. The shipping labels should still be attached to it. Disheartened, I put it back away in the deepest bowels of my storage where it lies quite forgotten. Have you got a valid address for me this time?

The ultimate problem remains the fact we don’t know who ordered what. Literally: at all. I (evidently rather naively) relied on DT’s PM system for all record keeping. PM search broke in 2017 or whenever the Deskthority phpbb migration occurred, obliterating my history. I don’t know who any of the remaining stuff belongs to, and none of them have reached out to me for many years.

If you want another shot, give it a go by all means. My heart sank when it came back to me, just like that time I shipped a NeXT to Seebart…

My address is still valid and was back then (due to Homeoffice also kind of always at home). It never arrived at my door step and the tracking was strange, I think it never even left UK. I tried to contact the parcel service but they said only the sender is allowed to do things. Tried to contact you again, but no reply.
I was really worried, checked tracking every day and had fear that the stuff will be lost forever. It's good that it bounced back, but I think it was never even close to my doorstep.

[snoopy]

DPD looks a good tip, thanks. Still need to ship it all as one "into Europe" to make much sense though.

The big problem is I invited fellow DTers to order whichever individual caps they liked. So the orders are each extremely complex and specific. I certainly never listed all the individual kits and single caps on people's PayPals, so that route is unavailable. Does give a second means to contact them though: by their paypal emails.

So, would you or Snoopy like to get the big box of everything that remains? If you guys could work it out between yourselves, I could sure use the help!

Last time it was Hermes and I think they messed it up. So DPD sounds good.
It will be hard to track down people, but I still offer my help on whatever needs to be done.

[pandrew]

@Muirium Hey, is the updated private message downloader script from this message working okay for you now?

[Muirium]

I'll get around to it.

Good news: the Unicomp box is out of storage. The outer box is much worse for wear (it originally came from Ducky Nordic, anyone remember him?) so I've re-housed the contents in a new box instead. It's all ready for shipping.

So: who to? Snoopy or kmnov2017? Can you guys discuss it and come to an agreement?

Actual shipping may be a little delayed, seeing as this is Edinburgh today:

Spoiler:

[kmnov2017]

So: who to? Snoopy or kmnov2017? Can you guys discuss it and come to an agreement?

To me. The post office is across the street from me, I can ship out items easily...

[Muirium]

Alright, you’re up. I’ll get it shipped today.

Edit: update. DPD insists on picking up the box as it’s too big for their drop off service. They’re coming on Monday.

[Muirium]

DPD picked it up from relatives yesterday. 7.5 kilos worth…

[Muirium]

According to DPD’s tracking, the parcel spent several days being examined by customs. Fingers crossed they didn’t mess it all up: all the kits are individually wrapped.

Delivery History

Date / Time Description
28/11/2022 - 16:22 International Hub - In Transit
28/11/2022 - 15:29 Duty Paid
28/11/2022 - 15:05 Customs Cleared
23/11/2022 - 15:36 Customs Examination
22/11/2022 - 16:11 Customs Examination
22/11/2022 - 08:06 Customs Clearance in Progress
22/11/2022 - 06:20 Exported by international gateway
22/11/2022 - 03:45 Forwarded to Aschaffenburg - Exports
22/11/2022 - 03:45 Confirmed at Hub
22/11/2022 - 02:56 Confirmed at Hub
21/11/2022 - 17:02 Parcel left depot
21/11/2022 - 13:11 Collected from self-labeller

[kmnov2017]

Stuff has arrived in Germany. I am making an inventory of items received. Please message me to claim your stuff....

[kmnov2017]

Okay, a morning of counting…

Unicomp Box.pdf

That’s how granular this stuff gets! Right now, it’s all together in the biggest box I can find. Weighs over 8 kilos. I think my own order is still among it all, though, as I’ve searched my own caps stash and can’t find Unicomp stuff. So I’ll need to figure that out next.

You’ve your work cut out for you, Snoopy!

There's a slight discrepancy in the items received. I am not surprised one bit with this, given how complex the order has been.
Here's the inventory of what I received. Highlights in Red is where I see a slight discrepancy....

Now is the time to claim your stuff. Please send me a PM with a screenshot of your final confirmation of the stuff you asked Muirium to get for you and then the next steps will follow...

Status.png (82.17 KiB) Viewed 10488 times

[Muirium]

I’d forgotten all about that manifest! I really could have used that while packing this, to know something wasn’t right. The discrepancies will be my fault unless Der Zoll really messed up the package. I’ve quite possibly sent them to the wrong people long before it all landed up on your plate. Goodness me, what a mess! I apologise for ever letting this go so pear shaped. Thanks for helping out with it, kmnov and Snoopy.

[kmnov2017]

Snoopy's box is already on its way.

Others - please claim your stuff...

[kmnov2017]

Bump...

Only Snoopy claimed his stuff so far.

[LLRnR]

Oh wow that was so long ago lol. Back in late Feb 2016, Mu sent a message to vsev and myself to know if our Unicomp order was to be sent to vsev only or to both of us, we decided it would be vsev. I haven't heard from him since March 2016 and I also haven't been around the forum since around that time. By some miracle, if you still have some unprinted Unicomp keycaps plus some orange ones with funky legends, those are mine, but I really doubt it

[kmnov2017]

Oh wow that was so long ago lol. Back in late Feb 2016, Mu sent a message to vsev and myself to know if our Unicomp order was to be sent to vsev only or to both of us, we decided it would be vsev. I haven't heard from him since March 2016 and I also haven't been around the forum since around that time. By some miracle, if you still have some unprinted Unicomp keycaps plus some orange ones with funky legends, those are mine, but I really doubt it

I've sent you a PM

[LLRnR]

Amazing! Mu and kmnov2017, you are officially my heroes kmnov is shipping my part of the order from Germany to France. Much love for you guys

[kmnov2017]

LLnR's stuff is already on its way. Others please claim your stuff.

[vsev]

Hi there,
thanks to LLnR who managed to reach me after so many years, I can claim my order as well !
best regards to you

[kmnov2017]

Hi there,
thanks to LLnR who managed to reach me after so many years, I can claim my order as well !
best regards to you

Vsev's stuff is on its way