<center>https://s4.postimg.org/stpazbwu5/Discovering_New_Authors_Faster.png</center>

In a discussion with @patrice the other day, she asked me if it's possible to parse the blockchain in way in which we could find authors who made their first post in certain timeframe.

A couple of back and forth messages, and I had something to work on; I was excited to experiment with the recently released ```steemtools``` python library by @furion. Many thanks! 

The purpose:

- discover new users faster - from their first blogpost
- eradicate spam/plagiarism in its infancy - from what I've seen, numerous new authors have been trying to fake it from their first post

This code can be further expanded/optimized for other purposes - come with ideas. 

So, here's the rationale behind the algorithm:

- parse all blocks from the last 24 hours (this could be modified)
- look for ```comment``` operations (blogposts and comments)
- restrict for blogposts
- if this is the author's first blogpost, retrieve the link
- output the link to the screen, and save it to file

The code is redundant on purpose: if it does not get executed to the end (god of code knows why?!), there's no file to look into for the links, so better be safe and output to the screen as you get the links.

However, the output to the screen will contain duplicates (some link may appear more than once). I can remediate the issues but the idea was to get this out immediately. 

This does not matter too much though, because once the code is completely executed, the duplicates are removed in the text file, so you get a clean final output. 

To run this, you obviously need Python and ```steemtools``` with all its dependencies. The guide to ```steemtools``` is provided by @furion in the release [post](https://steemit.com/steemtools/@furion/ann-steemtools-a-high-level-python-library-for-steem). 

Here's the code for my algorithm:

```python 
from steemtools.blockchain import Blockchain
from steemtools.base import Account, Post

b = Blockchain()

curr_block = b.get_current_block()
st_block = curr_block - 28800

# creating two lists, one will display results with duplicates
# the second list will be the clean one, without the duplicates
# removing duplicates could also be done with the set() function

postlist1 = []
postlist2 = []

# 'replaying' the blockchain for the timeframe established above
# filtering by comments (blogposts and comments)

for event in b.replay(start_block=st_block, end_block=curr_block, filter_by=['comment']):

    post = event['op']['permlink']
    author = event['op']['author']

# the meat of the code
# looking for blogposts from users with their first post in the last 24 hours

    if post[:3] != 're-' and len(Account(author).get_blog())==1:

        try:
            if Post.time_elapsed(Account(author).get_blog()[0])/3600 < 24:
                print(Post.get_url(Account(author).get_blog()[0]))
                postlist1.append(Post.get_url(Account(author).get_blog()[0]))

        except:
            continue

# removing duplicates

for item in postlist1:
    if item not in postlist2:
        postlist2.append(item)

# writing the final results to file

with open('newauthors.txt', 'wt') as f:
    for line in postlist2:
        f.write(line+'\n')

f.close()
```
You can get this code from my [github](https://github.com/CristiVlad25/stuff/blob/master/newauthors.py) as well. Use it at your discretion. 

If some of you guys want to get to curating right away, I ran the algorithm a couple of hours ago. Here's the output file:

```
https://steemit.com/health/@auky/the-basic-concept-of-post-partum-hemorrhage
https://steemit.com/spirituality/@nathanhoskins/gnosis-the-knowledge-of-insight
https://steemit.com/politics/@worldwidewojnar/how-america-has-changed-since-9-11
https://steemit.com/technology/@snails/digital-dementia-virus
https://steemit.com/vaccine/@sal1/vaccine-morass
https://steemit.com/news/@moveup/hello-self-driving-cars-goodbye-4-1-million-jobs
https://steemit.com/entrepreneurship/@tygers/why-delegating-responsibilities-is-crucial-for-your-business-or-tygers-magazine
https://steemit.com/photograpy/@jeffborba/photographing-at-home
https://steemit.com/money/@gravity9/in-the-news-bitcoin-technology-block-chain-energy-and-the-electricity-revolution
https://steemit.com/marcopolo/@marcopolo/creation-of-the-new-marco-polo-coming-soon
https://steemit.com/life/@mktom79/if-you-don-t-know-where-to-start-just-start
https://steemit.com/ethreum/@bruteforce/ethreum-minier
https://steemit.com/dance/@elfede/a-dancer-s-story
https://steemit.com/yocoin/@cryptoking619/pay-your-bills-with-yocoin
https://steemit.com/story/@kovalkovich/my-first-flight
https://steemit.com/education/@saynt01/give-education-not-policy
https://steemit.com/bienvenido/@tenet/comenzamos
https://steemit.com/trip/@fer7rules/my-experience-planning-a-trip-to-copenhagen-denmark
https://steemit.com/introducemyself/@msendyart/hello-steemit-visual-artist-endy-introduction
https://steemit.com/hobo/@hobogus/no-regrets
https://steemit.com/zero/@cmc613/baked-pasta-fake-out-1-0-servings-at-195-calories
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@fess/hi-steemit-i-m-fess-life-love-magic-and-traveling-journey-in-a-life-itself-this-is-my-blog-where-i-will-share-stories-from-my
https://steemit.com/writing/@pentingharterman/altitude-fair
https://steemit.com/airpods/@mrtobias/wireless-earbuds-why-do-people-fear-they-ll-fall-out-or-apple-s-airpods-are-on-the-right-track
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@barcisz/introduction-mindfunk-included
https://steemit.com/equality/@dragana/in-response-to-kate-upton-s-ig-post-and-those-who-have-an-issue-with-colin-kaepernick-s-protests
https://steemit.com/chile/@chile-dog/fear-distrust-and-anarchy-in-chile
https://steemit.com/voluntaryism/@gnosis474/let-justice-be-done-though-the-heavens-fall
https://steemit.com/spanish/@alfredozofio/lo-que-no-te-han-contado-de-la-edad-media
https://steemit.com/art/@digitalart/sharing-digital-art-on-steemit
https://steemit.com/ilovebuttsex/@copycat114/leafy-wants-to-die
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@vaughnpierre/will-the-july-2016-bitcoin-block-halving-set-off-another-bitcoin-bubble
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@andreaalexandria/andrea-alexandria-detoxification-educator-now-on-steemit
https://steemit.com/introduction/@thejdah/intro
https://steemit.com/story/@liamobtv/introduction-and-ama-ask-me-anything-about-living-and-working-on-an-ayahuacsa-retreat-centre-in-the-amazon-jungle
https://steemit.com/rant/@raptorpc/my-first-rant-ever-hope-steemit-can-handle-me
https://steemit.com/cn/@harambeisgod/the-beauty-of-chinese
https://steemit.com/wildwill/@wildwill420/music
https://steemit.com/technology/@jeragon775/some-food-for-thought
https://steemit.com/story/@honeywish/the-rainbow-and-the-witch-part-1
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@gaby64/end-the-blocksize-debate-with-gigabit-internet-access
https://steemit.com/new/@kbailey01/6xb4as
https://steemit.com/aquarium/@reefzone/hello-world
https://steemit.com/dating/@joeghaleb/a-letter-to-an-ex-girlfriend-that-was-never-shared-not-even-to-her-until-now-but-only-to-all-of-you
https://steemit.com/multifamily/@mrbrandondsmith/commercial-real-estate-market-updates
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@seansclevername/hello-creators-of-all-types
https://steemit.com/poetry/@itsallgoneleft/long-day
https://steemit.com/government/@sanfords/a-design-for-a-social-network-to-replace-government
https://steemit.com/funny/@lil.missy/this-hundred-year-old-tortoise-had-so-much-sex-he-actually-saved-his-species-from-extinction
https://steemit.com/photography/@ronvalentino/love
https://steemit.com/poetry/@insession/fruit
https://steemit.com/awesomenyl/@simple-mhe20/introduce-yourself
https://steemit.com/runescape/@dethykins/runescape-how-you-can-make-a-living-playing-a-game
https://steemit.com/entrepreneur/@nickcownie/why-it-absolutely-sucks-to-be-an-entrepreneur
```
I'm always looking forward to getting my hands dirty with code, so if you have suggestions for others statistics and analytics, please let me know!
___
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___
[Cristi Vlad](http://cristivlad.com), Self-Experimenter and Author