Topic

Glitch Routes

Glitch Routes is an idea started by Lx (creator of Serious Routes with tis) that brings a new experimental approach to the infrastructure and microcosm of Home Street networks. The goal of Glitch Routes is to further improve the efficiency of gathering resources while making it easier to find, visit, and join different "routes". Signpost connections are no longer required and a relatively more even distribution of associated home street iMG bonus can be achieved with this new system.

Currently the system is not finalized, but if you would like to try it out, visit the following page and enter your desired resource requirements. The results will show a list of buttons that will teleport you instantly (no energy or token cost) to the respective home streets. Clicking a teleport button for the same street you are already on will warp you back to the spawn point for that home street (useful if you are on the far edges of a really wide street and want to quickly return to the middle).

http://glitchroutes.com/build/

Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • Looks awesome!
    Posted 12 years ago by Juju Boss Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So these links will include Glitchen that are not on a formal Route?

    I like this idea, full of community spirit, which is why I have joined routes but .....

    ... not all Glitchen feel like that and are very territorial about even their front yard.

    I shall give it try and hope it works, and wish the enterprise well
    Posted 12 years ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do believe they're working on the opt-out mechanism.
    Posted 12 years ago by Stuv Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Like! Will give it a try later on when I'm done decorating my RL house :D
    Posted 12 years ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Excellent idea!
    Posted 12 years ago by Janitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A great idea, but after trying it I'm a little confused. Some combinations show "no routes match" when they seem similar to other similar entries. Also I'm unclear whether what is entered in one column of the input represents what you are wanting to find on the entire route or on a single street of the route. A bit more explanation of just what the input means would be very helpful.
    Posted 12 years ago by Hawkwell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • testing testing
    am using IE
    had glitch forums open in one window and the game in another
    went to the url at the bottom of post ... entered the info and calculated route
    list of names appeared... clicked one and nothing happened in either window
    repeated with same result

    closed the game window and restarted from the forum
    clicked the Glitch Routes link... entered info.. calculated route...chose a name... nothing

    third try ... entered via Glitch Routes.... logged in to the ap...calculated... chose name..
    clicked on my name in the right hand corner and flash crash....

    not quite getting how to do the part where my glitch will go to that person's street...
    Posted 12 years ago by Gypsy_woman Subscriber! | Permalink
  • there shouldn't be an opt out but an opt in.  Kinda an invasion of privacy - I mean when you consider friending and such like.
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TomC, for me the teleport button does nothing. Hmmmmmm, perhaps a little more in depth explaination?
    Posted 12 years ago by Li'll Missy Brenda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is wonderful.  I'm excited!
    Posted 12 years ago by Dartha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The information is publicly available (through the API, I assume). In this way, we establish a precedent that until they change the public/private nature of this data, TS implicitly allows such systems to exist.

    A "moral" precedent would be set, to validate "opt-in" as the appropriate course, if the data were not accessible without permission.

    I can see anyone's street, as long as they haven't blocked me.
    Posted 12 years ago by Stuv Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Since it's not teleporting you into someone's house or backyard, it's not really an invasion of privacy (it is well documented that those are the only two areas where you should have any sense of true privacy in the game).  We all know home streets are public unless someone has blocked another player, and considering you can get to anyone's home street by visiting their profile page, then their street page and clicking on the link to visit the street, this just reduces a great many clicks for those that have resources you are looking for....  However, that begs the question, will it filter out those streets of players who I'm blocked from visiting?

    Overall, I really like the concept of this, and I like that it gives me a visit home street button vice the multiple clicks the game now requires for me to get to a home street from someone's profile.  I also like that it gives more than just people on my friends list so it does encourage exploring others' streets.  I've not actually tried the buttons yet, and will report back when I get in game. 

    Couple tweeks I'd already like to see: 1) an option to just visit streets with lots of different resources (pick streets that have 5, 7, 11 or more different resources - types of resources don't matter) without having to fill in all the fields. 2) an option to only visit my friends' home streets that have the selection I made, for those days I'm not up for exploring, but would like to patron my friends. 

    Along the lines of visiting friends comments, would there be a way to make a quick tool that provides a list of all our friends' home streets buttons?  At least until TS gets around to building it in game, this would be a wonderful feature to streamline being able to visit folks on our friends list without having to do the current 4 clicks (all friends page, profile page, street page, visit street button)  to get there.  Would love to see at least three different sorts to this list: Friends list in order they were friended (standard list from friends page), Friends who are online/offline, Alphabetical list of friends.
    Posted 12 years ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It just doesn't sit right with me.  Opt in should be first and therefore give every player the choice and control as to whether or not they want to participate in another player's experiment/outside website.  I for one don't but to enable those who don't want to be included in this venture to not show up on these searches (I'm guessing, I'm not going to go onto a site outside of glitch) I'd make sure to just have the minimum number of individual resources in your front yard and then the main required resources in your backyard.

    Edit: Just been thinking a bit more and I don't believe I'd have an issue with TS offering this service in game (as they own it) but I don't feel comfortable with someone I don't know pulling information about everyone who plays this game onto an outside site.  I honestly felt the same way about the level 60 list I saw.  
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Cool! I haven't joined any resource routes, but maybe if I'm lucky, people will find me this way!
    Posted 12 years ago by Pocket Bard Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, Arabesque, then don't ever use google search, since that pulls all comments anyone has ever made in the forums, everyone's profile info, everyone's home street info, everyone's snaps info...and last check google search was accessible by a lot more people than who were just in the game. Any sense of privacy you might have on the site is frankly a false sense of privacy since it's an internet game and your player information is openly available to essentially anyone that uses the internet.

    ETA:  To reiterate,  the things you have that are private are your house, your backyard, your actions while in game, your home page (I think, though status updates might not be), private groups, unpublished snaps, and your specific account information. Your profile page, your home street info page, your published snaps, forum comments, and non-private groups are all available on the internet for searching/browsing (essentially think, if a non-friend player can see it...so can anyone on the internet).
    Posted 12 years ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks B3achy : ) At TomC or Lx (who I'm sure is reading this via an alt) can you please just put me in the opt out now lol  Just a thing I have.  I can't help that it makes me feel uncomfortable and that won't change.  Shame some folk can't understand not everyone is happy/comfortable having everything open to all.  I feel safe within TS, I don't feel safe outside of it.  I can't apologise if me being uncomfortable is offensive to some people.
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Within TS" doesn't exist, as b3achy explained.

    Everything about your Glitch character is available on the internet (with the seven exceptions listed). 

    It's all available outside TS, all the time. 
    Posted 12 years ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Don't forget to tell Google you want to opt-out as well...
    Posted 12 years ago by Janitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Have just done a gas run  with this and it is my favourite way to a run now :-)

    I had two problems

    1. One Street had no resources on it what so ever. Was the account deletes perhaps and it used to have Gas Plants

    2. Another street had 15 Wood trees, even though I had asked for Gas
    Posted 12 years ago by IrenicRhonda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • works great!
    Posted 12 years ago by The Cat Face Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Is it currently opt-in? Because when I try to build a new list with the same requirements I seem to see the same few people over & over again. 

    ETA: duh, I get it. It's opt-in. Works fine, although GOD has minor issues when I use the list to go to a street for the first time.
    Posted 12 years ago by Aleph Zero Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Aleph Zero, if it's less than 25 names returned, you can pretty much know, those are probably the only players that are matching your search requirements (that are in their dataset).

    Works great to jump right to the streets for me, I'm using Chrome.  That's so awesome!

    However, I built a route request with at least 2 spice, 2 bean, 1 herb and 5 piggies.  Had 11 returns, but didn't quite get what I was looking for:
    First, got a street with everything except the beans (it had 2 gas instead).
    Second, got a street with everything except the beans (it also had gas instead).
    Third, got a street with everything except the beans (no beans, no gas).

    So it looks like the bean tree selection is currently glitched, or I had too many options and it couldn't find any streets so it gave me ones with most of them...if that was the case, it would be nice to have a notification of that none of the streets matched my criteria, but these were close...

    ETA: Yea, when I just select at least one bean tree, it says nothing matches that search criteria. Also, I do know of a friend should have matched the empty patch requirement but they didn't show on my list, and it was only 5 players listed (even the baseline data on the first page of glitchroutes said there were 12 patches in the database, so not sure why the other 7 didn't show).  So it looks like it might be missing some home streets.  I did try it with at least one of each resource selected as the only option, and it looks to have compiled lists of over 25 for the rest, though you might want to make [animals] non-selectable.
    Posted 12 years ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • How could it possibly be opt in?
    Posted 12 years ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Arabesque, I can understand where you're coming from (I think). 

    I can only speak for myself when I say that my discomfort comes from any API development from a player who was banned for abusing this tool and taking advantage of other players for their own gain.  I understand that information is public, but I'm not thrilled about the possibility of information being exploited rather than utilized to improve gameplay experiences by player(s) who have done so in the past.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sloppy Ketchup Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If you don't feel comfortable, simply don't use it. No worries. There are plenty of other players who find loopholes and exploits in this and every other game on the internet that don't get banned. You probably play and chat with some every day and don't even know it.
    Posted 12 years ago by Dagnabbit Rabbit Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Very cool.
    Posted 12 years ago by snarkle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Using this tool I have found the following:

     * Bean tree owners buy the store brand
    * There is a 70% chance that a user with more than eight sparkly rocks wears glasses
    * Most jellisac owners prefer credit unions
    * 1/16 users has a trojan gnome installed
    * Over 80% of suspected egg seasoners have a fake online dating profile
    * Spice trees strongly suggest either sweaty feet OR bad driving skills

    The only protection I've found from this exploit is to wait in front of my signpost and shout "get offa my lawn" at all visitors.
    Posted 12 years ago by scragz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 1. Finally, a Glitch-related use for dual monitors. =D
    2. This isn't an "exploit." Glitch has an API for doing this kind of stuff. Some of this stuff (like the level 60's leaderboard mentioned earlier) should've been in the game to begin with (either that, or the fact that one was produced by a third-party proves the opposite: that the game itself doesn't need to be a Swiss army knife, and external developers will provide many features that would be considered indisputably necessary, which may be the ecosystem TS is going for), so I think it's awesome that third-party developers are stepping up to the plate.
    3. Home streets are a public resource, and always will be. The developers of Glitch Routes are going above and beyond what they're required to do by working on an opt-out feature. Tiny Speck intended home streets to be used as a public resource, and this tool uses them as such. Any notion of privacy on your home street is a falsehood.
    4. Back to my previous discussion of the API, there have already been API tools that index home streets, and allow you to teleport to them (and provide all sorts of neat information). And before home streets, there were API tools that did the same thing, but using the streets of Ur. Moving back to my third point, home streets are more or less the new Ur, but with moar resources. So equivalents of those previous tools that now apply to home streets are just the natural progression of things.
    Posted 12 years ago by Jus​tin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • *aplause* Justin D
    Posted 12 years ago by Li'll Missy Brenda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • if I understand correctly, it's good that someone has created something that already exists (for example the 'actual' housing resources routes within the game and accessible via the housing resource routes group page.

    Aside from being uncomfortable with my data being pulled out without my permission by another player and not TS, I don't see the point in creating another way to access the same resources readily available via the housing resources which obviously contain players who are happy to share their streets (which I am also happy to share also) - I'm just not happy that I've been pulled into a program without permission.

    I also question the information players can access after recent events.  Who is to say what is actually and really being looked at and used.

    My stance won't change on this one.  I'll just keep using the existing routes that have been set up by individual players who want to participate in them.
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nifty idea guys!
    Posted 12 years ago by le beebs Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Who is to say what is actually and really being looked at and used."

    developer.glitch.com/api/

    There's everything you can look at and use. It's really not all that exciting.
    Posted 12 years ago by scragz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good idea, but I notice that it's only listing some folks and not many (like when I look for metal rocks, only one person has more than 15...). Are you planning to include all resource routes folks and those that want to opt in or something else?
    Posted 12 years ago by Ayasta Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm somewhat confused by the talk about this being an "exploit". What (apart from the program randomly selecting players for each "route") is the difference to, say, this tool? resources.grelca.com/directory

    As far as I could tell after a short look, both tools provide about the same information - does that mean that both are "exploits"?

    I'm not trying to belittle the fact that people might feel uncomfortable at getting visitors through this tool. But if it uses information that is available in other places, and which is being made available to developers through the API, shouldn't those facts be worrying people, rather than the fact that someone is using that information?

    I for one would find this tool useful, and I've been using the one I linked above for a bit now, too. Resource routes may on occasion have broken links, or streets listed might not contain much of the resource I'm after - if I can see/select how much of my resource(s) are to be in the streets I visit, that is actually helpful.

    If this tool is legitimate use of the API, I'd say that calling it an exploit isn't very helpful, particularly as people who would use it are by extension being accused of cheating. And I suppose that the staff would be the ones to decide about what counts as an exploit, rather than players who are (for good reasons of their own) either opposed to it or support it.
    Posted 12 years ago by Not a Princess Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's basically like being "pulled into" a phone book. Opt-out database of contact information - only, in this case it's information about you in a fictional online world. None of the information they collect about you can be used to personally identify you (and even within the context of the game, it doesn't make you in particular any easier to find; it isn't designed with the intent of finding a particular player).
    Posted 12 years ago by Jus​tin Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  my data being pulled out without my permission by another player and not TS

    TS is making this data available to other people.  Not all of your data is available, but TS has chosen to make some of it public.  Only TS decides what information can be accessed via the API.  

    You also make some of your information available by posting in these forums.  As the Google search link  above shows, it's all indexed and available through a simple Google search. 
    Posted 12 years ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay! A full-fledged tempest in a teapot! (Sorry about the mixed metaphor) It's been a while since we had one of these in the forums. It's about time!

    And to think someone might find out something about my imaginary character rather than about some of the nearly 70,000 other imaginary characters. Shocking!!!!
    Posted 12 years ago by Hawkwell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think perhaps I was unclear- I'm not alleging that this idea is an attempt to exploit anything, nor did I make some claim to information privacy (to which anyone who has heard me rail about the folks who demand home street privacy will attest).  I'm sharing my opinion that no matter what the function I'm not crazy about banned-player-created content.  Yes, as someone suggested, the solution is that those of us who are bothered don't need to use the tool.  Since we're on a forum I just thought I'd share my reasons for not using it.
    Posted 12 years ago by Sloppy Ketchup Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the feedback everyone!

    IrenicRhonda, yes currently streets are automatically added to the database from scanning, but there will be an opt-out feature coming soon for people who do not want to appear in the search results.

    Hawkwell, you can define from 1 to 5 requirements of all streets that show up in your search results. If you input "at least 10 Bean Trees" and "no more than 5 [Animals]", then both of those criteria must be met for the streets in your results (so only streets that have 10+ Bean Trees and less than 6 Piggies+Chickens+Butterflies total will show up). The more requirements you define, the less likely the result. Also things like "at least 20 Spice Trees" won't work as 15 trees is maximum on the current maxed out home street width.

    Gypsy_woman, thanks for your test results; which version of Internet Explorer are you using? Did you have the button page opened in one tab and the game window in another tab? By any chance do you have another browser other than IE to use? There might be slight server delays if Glitch.com is lagging and the teleporting could be affected, so if you have already clicked a button, it might not be an instant reaction in the game window.

    Arabesque, an opt-out feature will be coming soon, and you've been added to the opt-out list.

    Li'll Missy, if you are on a browser that is logged into Glitch.com for both Glitch Routes and the game window, clicking a button in Glitch Routes should teleport you to that player's home street. But if it's not working, there might be lag or a momentary network interruption.

    b3achy, right now there's no fast way to tell if a player has blocked you unfortunately. Great ideas with the additional search options for streets with many different resources; that and the friends-only results are on the to-do list. The list of all TP buttons of your friends is good idea too but for people with huge lists it can take a super long time to retrieve all the home street links, so right now there isn't a good way to create this.

    IrenicRhonda and b3achy, thanks for the reports; right now the data is being updated again and will be set to update automatically in the future. You might have seen some outdated information. Fixed the Bean Tree search problem. The [Animals] option is on purpose as it allows you to select Butterflies + Chickens + Piggies together, so if you wanted a street with many trees but not 40+ Piggies/Chickens/Butterflies, that is one purpose :)

    Ayasta, yes more people will be added as the scanning continues, and an opt-in feature will also be available soon (in addition to opt-out) for people who are not added yet but would like to join.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you Tom : )
    Posted 12 years ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah, thanks for the clarification TomC. Sounds like there might be a challenge with the [Animals] one, since I selected just 'at least 1 [Animals]' and it tells me there are no streets available with that search. Thanks for fixing the beans!

    And per the friends list...know what you mean with some having a lot...I ended up building a static page for myself today once I looked at how it was coded in your HTML results (I don't code well, but I am really good at re-using someone else's code once I see the pattern of what it does). Have a few more friends to add, and it's a bit quirky, but it works in a pinch.
    Posted 12 years ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It would be nice if you could include machines among the options.
    Posted 12 years ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh, well, then I need to correct my feedback. It's not totally working. I searched for streets with the minimum requirements for the barnacles & fireflies route, and got very very few players. All of the streets on the generated list fit my criteria, but I know for a fact that it was a small fraction of what's out there. 
    Posted 12 years ago by Aleph Zero Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not sure if this addresses your issue or not, Aleph, but if you're looking for a street with 36 barnacles, it actually counts as 12 barnacle pods (since there are three on each pod). So if you type in 36 barnacles, you get zero results, but typing in 12 gives a lot. I don't know about the fireflies!
    Posted 12 years ago by tis Subscriber! | Permalink
  • b3achy, thanks again for the bug reports. Good luck with your static list, it certainly will work well :)

    Pascale, unfortunately information about machines is not shown publicly, so there's no way to automatically retrieve this data without actually visiting that home street. If machine info shows up one day, it'll be added to the search options.

    Aleph Zero, there is a bug with how TS displays Firefly Swarms; it doesn't take into account multiple swarms, so even if you have 4 Firefly Swarms it'll still say "A Firefly Swarm". Thus for now you can only search for 1 firefly swarm in order to find results. Also only about 650 streets are in the database at the moment; more will be scanned as time goes on. There are stats on the home page.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Search for [Animals] should now work and search results display how recently updated the data is for that home street as well as a list of all the resources found on the most recent scan.
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Impressive.

    One note, I can't search for 0 animals.  They seem to make lag for me, and I'd like to avoid streets with them if I could.  I was hoping to be able to search for streets without any animals, but even search for exactly 0 butterflies/piggies/chickens, I still get streets with them.
    Posted 12 years ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Tibbi, thanks for the report! For now try searching for "no more than 1 [Animals]"; working on a solution.

    Edit: Does searching for "no more than 0 [Animals]" work now?
    Posted 12 years ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love the updated data, but is there a way to possibly hide it if I don't really care what's on the street? Also, just like the machines, I assume there is no way to cannot track the icons?

    Thanks for a great tool.
    Posted 12 years ago by Anty-pants Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why are people freaking out about this? Home streets are supposed to be public. If you don't want anybody on your home street, just get a couple of bottles of wine of the dead and put everything in your backyard.
    Posted 12 years ago by Reirei Umezaki Subscriber! | Permalink
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