Smule Unfollow: How to beat the Follow to Unfollow tactics by spammers

[[Member TheM…]]

@Bhavs- I just created my spreadsheet. A big THANK YOU! I returned the favor to the users who unfollowed me - ha! ha! 
But there were a couple of users listed as unfollowers but they are still showing as followers. Wonder why? 

[[Member Bhav…]]

On 8/29/2022 at 3:48 AM, TheMajesticM said:

A big THANK YOU!

Glad to be of help! Its an incredibly easy way to do what could take ages manually!

 

On 8/29/2022 at 3:48 AM, TheMajesticM said:

there were a couple of users listed as unfollowers but they are still showing as followers.

If you have copied both of the lists correctly from your profile and your formula has been defined correctly (ensure it covers your entire list range ie if you have 1500 followers than the formula should be for cell $A$1:$A$1500 - also dont forget the $ sign!)

Then there should be no exceptions except for Smule glitches. This happens where a person is listed on THEIR profile as following you BUT doesnt appear on YOUR profile as a follower (ie there is a data mismatch)- you can check this manually by opening their profile. In this case, if you want to go to that length, the only way to get them to appear on your followers list is for you to PM them and ask them to unfollow and then refollow you. That should clear the mismatch.

[[Member TheM…]]

@Bhavs- I redid it and it’s all accurate now. Not sure what happened.

I do worry about hacking when using Excel with the Smule site. I do think the app has some vulnerabilities and I know of a few ethical hackers (not so sure they’re ethical) who sing on the app. They always made me nervous. Surely they wouldn’t want to lose their day job over an app… I may be a bit over cautious but anyhoo thank you again.

Edited August 31, 2022 by TheMajesticM
spelling

[[Member Bhav…]]

18 minutes ago, TheMajesticM said:

I redid it and it’s all accurate now

Cool! nice to know it works!😃

 

18 minutes ago, TheMajesticM said:

I do worry about hacking when using Excel with the Smule site

Dont worry, what you just did was (very mild) Scraping of data- and not hacking at all. You are not causing any undue stress on system resources and only retrieving your own data (similar to keeping a backup copy of your FB account for instance) so there will be no comebacks.

 

20 minutes ago, TheMajesticM said:

Surely they wouldn’t want to lose their day job over an app

Rest assured; as I said there is nothing wrong or indefensible you are doing...its all Kosher!

[[Member open…]]

If that is interesting, I could probably create an online version for that, just like our Insights feature. So you would just have to enter your Smule username and it would import all the data and create a table showing the connections between followers and following. 

[[Member real…]]

1 hour ago, Bhavs said:

Dont worry, what you just did was (very mild) Scraping of data- and not hacking at all. You are not causing any undue stress on system resources and only retrieving your own data (similar to keeping a backup copy of your FB account for instance) so there will be no comebacks.

You misunderstand, I think @TheMajesticM is more worried about Smule hacking Excel😀 I would not trust the smule  site either, if they have so many bugs in the karaoke part then there are sure to be many more in security.

[[Member real…]]

1 hour ago, opentype said:

If that is interesting, I could probably create an online version for that, just like our Insights feature. So you would just have to enter your Smule username and it would import all the data and create a table showing the connections between followers and following. 

Sounds great 👍

[[Member real…]]

Speaking of Smule security problems: there's an option to not display your location on the Smule earth map. This works for some people and it doesn't for others. In other words, even when you choose the option not to display your location, they still will display it very often. When it does work, your location shows up as California, where the Smule office is located. This bug has been around a long time, even before their new team re-did the older working layout and messed it up.

[[Member sdr…]]

50 minutes ago, realyquick said:

When it does work, your location shows up as California

😂😂

The two things which disappoint me most are not maintaining scroll positions and not being able to locate a rec in the profile starting from any other list.

The first one occurs like this. You scroll down in a list say, invite notifications. If you tap on any rec to hear it and come back to the invites again, you are again at the top! You have to scroll down again to the record you tapped. This is even worse in search results. A good amount of time is lost in this repeated scrolling down.

The second one is encountered when you see a join in a search and want to find out how many people joined it. For that you have to locate the invite in the opener's profile and the only information you have is the expired time say, 3months. Now you have to scroll down through hundreds of records to reach the invite in question. The join does not show the time of invite which could be a month or two further back. That is again an indefinite amount of scrolling. I often leave it at that point and decide not to join. 🙄

Edited August 31, 2022 by sdr
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[[Member sdr…]]

56 minutes ago, realyquick said:

location on the Smule earth map. This works for some people and it doesn't for others.

It never worked for me. My location on smule earth is consistently wrong. And I take everyone else's location with a lot of salt.😁

[[Member TheM…]]

8 hours ago, realyquick said:

You misunderstand, I think @TheMajesticM is more worried about Smule hacking Excel😀 I would not trust the smule  site either, if they have so many bugs in the karaoke part then there are sure to be many more in security.

I don’t like raising unnecessary alarms but yes the thought entered my mind 

[[Member TheM…]]

10 hours ago, opentype said:

If that is interesting, I could probably create an online version for that, just like our Insights feature. So you would just have to enter your Smule username and it would import all the data and create a table showing the connections between followers and following. 

I think I have used the insights feature before and just used it again. Neat! You should definitely create an online version for the following lists. In my opinion I think it would be a great service to the Smule community. 

[[Member sdr…]]

6 hours ago, TheMajesticM said:

I think it would be a great service to the Smule community.

and a great disservice to smule🤪

[[Member Bhav…]]

16 hours ago, opentype said:

If that is interesting, I could probably create an online version for that,

Yes that would be a great addition... !

[[Member Bhav…]]

14 hours ago, sdr said:

The first one occurs like this. You scroll down in a list say, invite notifications. If you tap on any rec to hear it and come back to the invites again, you are again at the top! You have to scroll down again to the record you tapped. This is even worse in search results. A good amount of time is lost in this repeated scrolling down.

Yeah its a big pain in the ass! I used to review my joiners First joined First reviewed (in order to be fair). So say that I have to review 100 joins, in the past I would listen to joiner 1, then 2 etc all the way to 100.

But the new design makes it impossible -it add too much scrolling to do that.

The only workaround I have found is as follows:

So now I estimate the time available- have 1 hr to review joins in that one sitting and then I further estimate the number of joins I can review and comment on - so say 20 joins...so I would start reviewing from Joiner no 20, and then Smule allows to scroll down ie I can like/comment on joiner 20 and then move down to listen to Joiner no19 without being forced out to my main profile.

I proceed then to review all way from Joiner 20 to Joiner 1.

Rinse and repeat until you have done all!
 

[[Member sdr…]]

19 hours ago, sdr said:

If you tap on any rec to hear it and come back to the invites again, you are again at the top!

Correction:

If you tap on any rec to hear it, *visit the opener's profile* and come back to the invites again, you are again at the top!

Just playing and coming back keeps the position.

[[Member Nath…]]

22 hours ago, sdr said:

The second one is encountered when you see a join in a search and want to find out how many people joined it. For that you have to locate the invite in the opener's profile and the only information you have is the expired time say, 3months. Now you have to scroll down through hundreds of records to reach the invite in question. The join does not show the time of invite which could be a month or two further back. That is again an indefinite amount of scrolling. I often leave it at that point and decide not to join. 🙄

Yes! I pretty much always want to know whether 0, 10 or 100+ joined before me, so I too would love to be able to find out how many joins a certain invite got without having to go through the steps you just outlined.

Another related feature I'd love to see added--since we're allowed to dream a little here--is some way to spot expired invites that didn't get any joins at all more easily. This issue isn't even remotely as annoying for me as the one you mentioned in your post, but it still bugs me that I have to work so hard to find something that could be so simple with e.g. a sort feature of some kind.

So, this is my issue. Sometimes I find a Smuler I really like, but who doesn't get that many joins (e.g. because they're new on Smule). Usually there are quite a few very nice and fairly recent (but expired) OCs by that person that no one has joined yet. While the OCs that got at least one join are very easily spotted due to the highly visible counter, the ones that didn't get any joins are sadly very easy to miss.

Let's say I'm talking about Profile X. The only way for me (that I know of) to spot the OCs with no joiners while scrolling through the list of collabs is to look for the songs that just say "Profile X" (instead of "Profile X + 1" or "Profile Y + 1"). They might of course be solo performances, but usually it's a matter of OCs that no one joined. Scrolling while trying to check this information usually makes me more than a little dizzy 🥴 But it's often worth it, I have to add. Such joins are usually very appreciated by the one who opened the song in question 😊

[[Member sdr…]]

14 hours ago, Nathan D said:

always want to know whether 0, 10 or 100+ joined before me

Same here. And I don't want to join if there are already 20 or so joins. I feel joining then will be a burden on the opener and postpone it for a couple of weeks by saving it to the favorites or a playlist created for that purpose in the new version.

I find out the number of joins in the following way. Search for the singer's name, and the song title if you want to make it easier. Select See All from the Recordings section and filter it by Most Recent from the menu. Now you can see all joins in latest first order and the invite will appear at the bottom. It will appear with just the opener's name (without the +). You will be able to count the joins when you scroll down. 

You can use a similar search without the singer's name to find out the invites not yet joined. Follow the same steps. 

14 hours ago, Nathan D said:

But it's often worth it, I have to add. Such joins are usually very appreciated by the one who opened

Very true. 

For me smule is not a public forum to showcase my singing. I take it as a place to connect with a singing partner. And I value the mutual interest in listening and joining each other's invites. Such a connection is better possible when you join a less joined invite. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by sdr
.

[[Member Nath…]]

3 hours ago, sdr said:

Same here. And I don't want to join if there are already 20 or so joins. I feel joining then will be a burden on the opener and postpone it for a couple of weeks by saving it to the favorites or a playlist created for that purpose in the new version.

[---]

For me smule is not a public forum to showcase my singing. I take it as a place to connect with a singing partner. And I value the mutual interest in listening and joining each other's invites. Such a connection is better possible when you join a less joined invite. 

Bull's eye! Couldn't agree more. And the first thing I did when the playlist feature was introduced was create a playlist named "Maybe join". Before that, I copied the urls to the respective performances I wanted to revisit later and maybe join and kept them in a note on my phone. 

3 hours ago, sdr said:

I find out the number of joins in the following way. Search for the singer's name, and the song title if you want to make it easier. Select See All from the Recordings section and filter it by Most Recent from the menu. Now you can see all joins in latest first order and the invite will appear at the bottom. It will appear with just the opener's name (without the +). You will be able to count the joins when you scroll down. 

You can use a similar search without the singer's name to find out the invites not yet joined. Follow the same steps. 

Awesome tip! Works like a charm for counting/esitmating the number of joins for a specific invite. You've saved me a lot of future work, my friend!

I'm not sure I understand how to use the same strategy for invites not yet joined, though. If I search for all recordings with a particular singer and sort them from most recent to older ones, I end up with pretty much the same list as if I just go to the singer's profile--except this list is longer, because it shows every separate join as one "entry" in the list instead of just showing one entry with a highly visible counter. And the invite doesn't stand out (visually) any more to me than  it does when I scroll through the songs on the singer's profile either. Maybe I'm missing something...?  

Either case, thanks heaps for the great tip!

[[Member sdr…]]

3 hours ago, Nathan D said:

If I search for all recordings with a particular singer and sort them from most recent

 

Finding expired invites not yet joined is difficult 😁 Though I don't look specifically for such invites, I found out that a refinement of the above method might work for you.

Start with searching a song (not singer) and list recordings with the most recent option. Scroll down to 8d. Now look for small play counts and zero loves. It could be a solo or an invite without joins. If you want to be sure, add that singer's name also to the search before the song title and repeat the process.

I usually come across such invites when I search for newer songs. For older and more famous songs, it is more difficult to spot them. I guess there is no other easier way. 😁

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by sdr
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[[Member TheM…]]

On 9/1/2022 at 2:25 AM, sdr said:

and a great disservice to smule🤪

Maybe 😂 but in all seriousness I think Smule should be grateful. The chief complaint I have always heard from users on the app since way back when is the following and unfollowing issue. I’ll never understand why it was programmed to cause so much divisiveness. There are silly users who follow and unfollow for numbers but those of us who don’t and want to keep our favorite users and discover them missing due to the way the following list was programmed (not a glitch) can be sad. So since Smule cannot correct the problem or will not, I think creating some type of method as @Bhavscreated or one as @opentypesuggested would calm users. A win for Smule. My take … 

Edited September 3, 2022 by TheMajesticM

[[Member sdr…]]

29 minutes ago, TheMajesticM said:

in all seriousness I think Smule should be grateful.

It is something that they could do in one line of code! Instead of doing that if they redundantly mark every singer as Following in the Following list, they should have their own reasons for it. Maybe that they don't want people to act on impulse and unfollow immediately. Anyway, I check back on my new followers the next day to see whether they are still following me. If not promptly unfollow them.😁

 

 

[[Member Nath…]]

5 hours ago, sdr said:

It is something that they could do in one line of code! Instead of doing that if they redundantly mark every singer as Following in the Following list, they should have their own reasons for it. 

Exactly! That redundancy makes the programmer in me cringe. Of course I'm following everyone in my Following list!

The only thing that button ("Following") does in my Following list is making it easy to unfollow the singers in the list, because I assume that I can click on the button next to a singer and the status would change from "Following" to "Follow". Although I guess the ones I unfollow in this way might immediately disappear from the list so I might not actually see them there with the "Follow" button next to them.

In effect, I would be able to very rapidly unfollow all of the people I follow by repeatedly using the button in question while I go through my Following list. But, really, who needs a feature like that? How often do you want to unfollow a bunch of singers at the same time?

[[Member open…]]

On 8/31/2022 at 3:41 PM, opentype said:

If that is interesting, I could probably create an online version for that, just like our Insights feature. So you would just have to enter your Smule username and it would import all the data and create a table showing the connections between followers and following. 

It still needs a couple of days of coding, but it is already working:

[[Member Nath…]]

2 hours ago, opentype said:

It still needs a couple of days of coding, but it is already working:

Magnificent!! I personally would LOVE a feature like that! 😍