Slap MessageBoards

Skateboarding => USELESS WOODEN TOY BANTER => Topic started by: tkp on July 11, 2023, 09:32:34 PM

Title: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on July 11, 2023, 09:32:34 PM
Update: The site is live at https://shoplurker.com (no username or password required)

Hey y'all, I've spent my free time building a site that allows you to search multiple skate shops' online stores at a time. The site currently supports limited searching of 510, Atlas, DLXSF, FTC, and Low Key.

Here is a short demo: https://i.imgur.com/fIXInmr.mp4

If anyone is interesting in trying out the site, which is located at https://shoplurker.com, reply in here and I will send a username and password.

The goal is to eventually open it up to everyone, but I've yet to see how well the server handles multiple users at once.

Shout out to Michele for the QUAX (Quality Assurance / User Experience) guidance along the way.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: swellbowed on July 11, 2023, 09:52:01 PM
This is awesome. Big props
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: GardenSkater77 on July 11, 2023, 09:53:45 PM
Love everything about it. It’s like Parade but transparent and w/o agenda.

Will you basically Craigslist the site? Who will pay for it to stay up?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: The Big Dawg on July 11, 2023, 09:55:03 PM
This is awesome, 510 and Atlas are great. Id love a username and password!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Allez_Jambon on July 11, 2023, 09:56:03 PM
Sounds cool. I'd like to know if there'll be a search option for sizes. I'm not sure how that'd work in.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: GershonSweaty on July 11, 2023, 11:53:30 PM
Love everything about it. It’s like Parade but transparent and w/o agenda.

Will you basically Craigslist the site? Who will pay for it to stay up?

What was the agenda I’m intrigued
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lhotse’s Pit of Death on July 12, 2023, 03:14:55 AM
To make money. Making money is seen as a suspicious offence on Slap.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: PatrickSkateman on July 12, 2023, 03:19:12 AM
Sounds dope. I’d love to take a look at the site and the code.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: pizzafliptofakie on July 12, 2023, 05:42:25 AM
Love everything about it. It’s like Parade but transparent and w/o agenda.

Will you basically Craigslist the site? Who will pay for it to stay up?


Curious if you could expand on this. I had no idea they had an agenda.


This is a cool idea, especially with Parade closing their site.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: BurgerCop on July 12, 2023, 06:55:22 AM
I'm in.
I was hoping something or someone could step in for paradeworld after they shut down.
This is pretty close.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: TwisT on July 12, 2023, 07:01:38 AM
Sign me up
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on July 12, 2023, 08:30:02 AM
usernames / passwords sent to those who requested them.

Love everything about it. It’s like Parade but transparent and w/o agenda.

Will you basically Craigslist the site? Who will pay for it to stay up?

it's running on one of the lower tiers of amazon servers available which is currently less than $10 a month, so i'll just cover it. no plans to ever charge for it.

Sounds cool. I'd like to know if there'll be a search option for sizes. I'm not sure how that'd work in.

that was the original motivation for the site as i was looking for a specific shoe in my size. unfortunately, not all of the shop sites return sizes in the first page of their search results. you have to click the individual product to get the sizes. writing the code for this extra click for every search result is doable, but it'd increase the amount of computing power and server resources.

Sounds dope. I’d love to take a look at the site and the code.

i may eventually release an open source version so people can run the site on their local computers, as that's how i initially developed it.

there's a lot of hacky things going on with the internet facing site that were built of of necessity to account for  rate limits, caching, and routing traffic to prevent request blocks. a locally hosted version doesn't require any of those.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: PatrickSkateman on July 12, 2023, 08:34:16 AM
usernames / passwords sent to those who requested them.

Expand Quote
Love everything about it. It’s like Parade but transparent and w/o agenda.

Will you basically Craigslist the site? Who will pay for it to stay up?
[close]

it's currently running on one of the lower tiers of amazon servers available which is currently less than $10 a month, so i'll just cover it. no plans to ever charge for it.

Expand Quote
Sounds cool. I'd like to know if there'll be a search option for sizes. I'm not sure how that'd work in.
[close]

that was the original motivation for the site as i was looking for a specific shoe in my size. unfortunately, not all of the shops return sizes in their search results. you have to click the individual product to get the sizes. writing the code for this extra click for every search result is doable, but it'd increase the amount of computing power and server resources.

Expand Quote
Sounds dope. I’d love to take a look at the site and the code.
[close]

i may eventually release an open source version so people can run the site on their local computers, as that's how i initially developed it.

there's a lot of hacky things going on with the internet facing site that were built of of necessity to account for  rate limits, caching, and routing traffic to prevent request blocks. a locally hosted version doesn't require any of those.

I’m building something similar as a little side project for an industry I’m certified in. It’s my way to F.I.R.E.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: smellsdead on July 12, 2023, 08:35:09 AM
super sick, sign me up please
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: shawngreg on July 12, 2023, 08:38:11 AM
awesome dude, i’m in
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: BurgerCop on July 12, 2023, 08:41:05 AM
Any tips on how to get the most out of your search?
As a test I just searched Girl and 15 products came up, 3 Girl decks, 3 Girl x Lakai collab shoes, and the rest were just items with the world "girl" in their description.

I could definitely see this being an awesome site with a little more refining, keep it up!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: PatrickSkateman on July 12, 2023, 08:43:53 AM
Any tips on how to get the most out of your search?
As a test I just searched Girl and 15 products came up, 3 Girl decks, 3 Girl x Lakai collab shoes, and the rest were just items with the world "girl" in their description.

I could definitely see this being an awesome site with a little more refining, keep it up!

Should be an easy Boolean fix.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Dustgod on July 12, 2023, 08:47:26 AM
This is great. Am I still able to get a username and password?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on July 12, 2023, 08:54:11 AM
Any tips on how to get the most out of your search?
As a test I just searched Girl and 15 products came up, 3 Girl decks, 3 Girl x Lakai collab shoes, and the rest were just items with the world "girl" in their description.

I could definitely see this being an awesome site with a little more refining, keep it up!

that sounds about right. shop lurker is pulling from the actual shop websites using their search tool, so what you see there is what you would find by going to each of the shop sites individually and searching for "girl".

the only difference would be when a search query has multiple pages of results on a shop site. shop lurker only grabs from the first page of results (kinda incentivizes people to use the shop site).
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: PatrickSkateman on July 12, 2023, 09:24:20 AM
Expand Quote
Any tips on how to get the most out of your search?
As a test I just searched Girl and 15 products came up, 3 Girl decks, 3 Girl x Lakai collab shoes, and the rest were just items with the world "girl" in their description.

I could definitely see this being an awesome site with a little more refining, keep it up!
[close]

that sounds about right. shop lurker is pulling from the actual shop websites using their search tool, so what you see there is what you would find by going to each of the shop sites individually and searching for "girl".

the only difference would be when a search query has multiple pages of results on a shop site. shop lurker only grabs from the first page of results (kinda incentivizes people to use the shop site).

I haven’t logged in yet, so I wouldn’t know, but are you using iframe?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Magnolia on July 12, 2023, 09:37:45 AM
You're doing the lord's work

I would love a code please
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Urtripping on July 12, 2023, 09:39:00 AM
This is so sick
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Baswell Cerry on July 12, 2023, 10:02:07 AM
Sounds like a pretty powerful tool you've got there.

Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: ApesPissed on July 12, 2023, 10:14:56 AM
Sounds cool I’d like to check it out
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: kmoe on July 12, 2023, 10:57:52 AM
would love to try this out
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: skunty on July 12, 2023, 11:01:14 AM
recently I wanted a pair of high/mid top cupsoles but theyre expensive and rarely on sale so I made a spreadsheet with 40 skate shops (chatgpt assisted with the list) and just searched each shop's sites for 6 models I was interested in, eventually nabbed some NB440s for 45+10 shipping from familia and they were only on sale in my size on 2 of the 40 sites.

shop list below:
skate warehouse
CCS
tactics
zumiez
active ride shop
35th north
furnace
510 skate
pharmacy
cowtown
SPoT
no-comply
emage
orchard
homebase
303 boards
PLA
Prestige
Uprise
Endless Grind
561 skate
labor
kinetic
pro skateboard
premier
black sheep
familia
satellite
embark
underground
kingswell
escapist
identity
nj skateshop
westside
35th avenue
continuum
nocturnal
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Grand Saber on July 12, 2023, 11:41:50 AM
Damn sign me up! I live in the bay so it make it easy for me to map out which shops will have what I need
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Huell Howser on July 12, 2023, 11:53:36 AM
Looks cool, much needed after parade is gone

Can I get user/pw plz?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: BRINK on July 12, 2023, 11:59:05 AM
Hey y'all, I've spent the past month and a half or so building a site that allows you to search multiple skate shops' online stores at a time. The site currently supports limited searching of 510, Atlas, DLXSF, FTC, and Low Key.

Here is a short demo: https://i.imgur.com/fIXInmr.mp4

If anyone is interesting in trying out the site, which is located at https://shoplurker.com, reply in here and I will send a username and password.

The goal is to eventually open it up to everyone, but I've yet to see how well the server handles multiple users at once.

Shout out to Michele for the QUAX (Quality Assurance / User Experience) guidance along the way.

This is rad. Might reach out to you down the line, as I do a lot of ecommerce work with skate brands and such ...
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Frank and Fred on July 12, 2023, 12:15:00 PM
That is a rad idea and I presume the idea is you will only include independent skater owned/ core shops?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on July 12, 2023, 07:50:42 PM
sent out more credentials to those who requested them.

Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Any tips on how to get the most out of your search?
As a test I just searched Girl and 15 products came up, 3 Girl decks, 3 Girl x Lakai collab shoes, and the rest were just items with the world "girl" in their description.

I could definitely see this being an awesome site with a little more refining, keep it up!
[close]

that sounds about right. shop lurker is pulling from the actual shop websites using their search tool, so what you see there is what you would find by going to each of the shop sites individually and searching for "girl".

the only difference would be when a search query has multiple pages of results on a shop site. shop lurker only grabs from the first page of results (kinda incentivizes people to use the shop site).
[close]

I haven’t logged in yet, so I wouldn’t know, but are you using iframe?

no iframes. one similarity between the current shops is they are all hosted on shopify, which returns "x-frame-options DENY" in the server response, which prevents embedding in iframes.

recently I wanted a pair of high/mid top cupsoles but theyre expensive and rarely on sale so I made a spreadsheet with 40 skate shops (chatgpt assisted with the list) and just searched each shop's sites for 6 models I was interested in, eventually nabbed some NB440s for 45+10 shipping from familia and they were only on sale in my size on 2 of the 40 sites.

shop list below:

damn, that's some dedication. it's probably not too complicated to use html + javascript to create a form that opens up the search term for each site in a new browser window or tab. if my memory is correct, this is how some of the original cheap airplane flights websites worked. if i find the motivation and time, i'll try and put something together like this.

That is a rad idea and I presume the idea is you will only include independent skater owned/ core shops?

thanks. that would be cool. for now, i've just focused on shops near me that i'm familiar with. i have a few others in my home state that i want to add. i've gotten some messages from people with shop suggestions.

Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: steele on July 12, 2023, 10:11:20 PM
Would love to check it out.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: weregoingunion on July 12, 2023, 10:46:08 PM
great work tkp & michele! really love how shoe sizes, prices, and shops are included in the search results before i click through & how it shoots me directly to the shop to better support them!

hell ya.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: PatrickSkateman on July 13, 2023, 04:50:14 AM
The site looks great.

One question:

Is there a way to have sold out items naturally excluded from search results, or is that just dependent on the individual shop’s site?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on July 13, 2023, 01:15:55 PM
Looks like I’m a lickle late to get in on the ground floor of this brill piece of work, but maybe I can catch it on the mezzanine: @tkp would you please drop some credentials in my DMs?
These are all the best spots around here, aggregated into one search. I have dreamt of this day.
Praise be upon you.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: thehogsniper on July 13, 2023, 02:46:09 PM
Oh hell yeah, hook me up!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on July 14, 2023, 10:13:54 AM
thanks for the feedback and comments everyone. they definitely make me look forward to opening this up to the world.

Is there a way to have sold out items naturally excluded from search results, or is that just dependent on the individual shop’s site?

that would be useful. it is dependent on the individual shop's site and (i assume) whether or not they have configured their site to display sold out items.

there's no option as a user on the shop websites to exclude sold out items in results, but it would be possible to put something that would allow showing / hiding them on shop lurker.

sent out more credentials to those who requested them.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: krookedjuice on July 14, 2023, 10:25:03 AM
this really does sound awesome would love a user / pw
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Jeffrey29 on July 14, 2023, 10:34:36 AM
Yo id like credentials
thanks guy
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Kombuch-A-Holic on July 14, 2023, 12:23:33 PM
awesome!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: KidCarl on July 14, 2023, 12:49:42 PM
LET ME IN!  ...Please.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on July 14, 2023, 10:01:56 PM
This platform is rad & I'm super into it.
Just pulled the trigger on an Atlas order by way of searching through Shop Lurker.
Totally works & I will be using it again! Thanks for the add.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: slapmyballz on July 15, 2023, 11:28:26 AM
Like to check it out, pls send me a username/ password.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Kombuch-A-Holic on July 15, 2023, 01:40:11 PM
Ok, I'm ready to give it a try. Ready when you are. lol Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: IUTSM on July 15, 2023, 07:21:01 PM
Sick idea. Id love some credentials. Please
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: toe_knee on July 22, 2023, 09:16:04 AM
Had a friend from No Comply in austin reach out to me so you could get ahold of him, said to hit him up on insta since he doesn’t have a slap account, you can DM him @pugwizard or if you want his email lemme know and I can get it for you
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: toe_knee on July 22, 2023, 09:20:02 AM
And I’d like a username/password as well 
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on August 17, 2023, 09:26:48 AM
hey y'all. figured i should provide an update on this as a good amount of people have used the site and provided some feedback which led to some additions:

- search suggestions with some of the popular brands / potential queries (shout out nam-chi van)

- sold out items hidden by default with the option to show them (shout out @PatrickSkateman,  noah at skate jawn, and michele)

- built a "precise search". the search that the shops use (provided by shopify) can return a lot of non matches if you are looking for a specific brand or product name. the precise search looks for an exact match versus a few characters of a query, which helps with pinpointing some search queries.

example of new additions:
https://imgur.com/a/zMGDAgM

still running through a few more tests before opening the site up to everyone. if anyone wants access for the time being, let me know.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: whaaaaat on August 17, 2023, 12:10:12 PM
Hey, I'd love access! Props to you for you putting in the effort, can't wait to see it.

Also, are you in SF with some relation to Satori? I may be misremembering but I think I picked that up somewhere along the way. I think we used to skate together occasionally when I lived in SF in the early 2010's - I used to skate the flat spot at 6th & Fulton in Golden Gate Park a lot and then Waller when it was first appearing there. Anyway, maybe that's not even you. In any case, stoked on what you're doing here!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: guyledouche on August 17, 2023, 09:29:59 PM
Are you doing this with Playwright or something? Regarding server resources, how bad does it get even when running it headless? I’ve also heard you could get page data by making a CURL request or something similar that just gets the page’s HTML content which you can then parse through. What else have you tried to get those nested results like shoe sizes?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: ChipSuey on August 18, 2023, 05:26:30 AM
I'd love to be able to check it out and test it a bit, I also miss Parade a lot and just saw this thread.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: TwisT on August 18, 2023, 06:44:25 AM
I actually just used Shop lurker yesterday to make a purchase. I was looking for a particular pair of shoes, and accepted that I'd pay full price, just had to find them in my size.

if you chose to expand it'd would be cool to sort shops by region, closer shops could be faster and sometimes cheaper on shipping. As you add more shops, filtering by region, could result in shorter search times.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on August 18, 2023, 11:27:12 AM
sent out more creds to those who requested.

show/hide sold out is currently disabled because i just noticed there was a bug with it when hiding specific shop results.

Hey, I'd love access! Props to you for you putting in the effort, can't wait to see it.

Also, are you in SF with some relation to Satori? I may be misremembering but I think I picked that up somewhere along the way. I think we used to skate together occasionally when I lived in SF in the early 2010's - I used to skate the flat spot at 6th & Fulton in Golden Gate Park a lot and then Waller when it was first appearing there. Anyway, maybe that's not even you. In any case, stoked on what you're doing here!

i am located in sf and did work for satori. first as a in house sales rep, then as the tm / photographer / videographer / editor / web person. haven't been with them for many years though.

definitely skated 6th and fulton back in the day and still skate waller.

Are you doing this with Playwright or something? Regarding server resources, how bad does it get even when running it headless? I’ve also heard you could get page data by making a CURL request or something similar that just gets the page’s HTML content which you can then parse through. What else have you tried to get those nested results like shoe sizes?

python handles the requests, php parses the data through regular expressions, and javascript assists in the display. no browsers (headless or not) needed. then again, maybe that whole flow could be considered a headless browser.

you can use curl to request data. it's a great tool.

as for nested results, some shops return shoe size in their main search results page. others don't and getting it would require another request.

server resources are a concern, especially when the site is available to the world. i added rate limiting to hopefully prevent abuse, and also spent a good amount of time attacking the server while monitoring server resource usage.

there is server side caching, which helps with speed if people are searching for the same thing within a 12 hour time frame.

I actually just used Shop lurker yesterday to make a purchase. I was looking for a particular pair of shoes, and accepted that I'd pay full price, just had to find them in my size.

if you chose to expand it'd would be cool to sort shops by region, closer shops could be faster and sometimes cheaper on shipping. As you add more shops, filtering by region, could result in shorter search times.

nice. more work could be done to improve searching by size, but i've yet to tackle that issue.

adding more shops and sorting by region / locating shops near you is part of the plan.

unfortunately speeding up the search time is difficult because shop lurker makes 1 request per shop chosen. so if you are searching 5 shops at a time, that's 5 total requests. there's also some stuff happening on the back end that ensures the requests actually succeed, which slows things down a bit.

this project has turned into bit of a never ending rabbit hole. thanks again to everyone who has taken a look and provided feedback.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Nosferatu on August 18, 2023, 01:26:16 PM
That is a rad idea and I presume the idea is you will only include independent skater owned/ core shops?

I’m building out a parallel site that only searches non-core mall stores.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on October 20, 2023, 02:25:57 PM
hey y'all, figured i''d provide an update on this.

i got the site up to a point of being able to search 30 shops at once, and added some things like saving items:
https://i.imgur.com/d64gLxR.mp4

unfortunately it takes anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds to request and process each individual shop's data, which isn't so bad when searching a handful of shops, but that time sure does add up when running 30 at once.

i'm rewriting a lot of the code to return and display shop data as it arrives, instead of waiting for all shop data to be available before displaying it. i'm not sure how much this will actually speed things up, but things are looking promising.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: ShitLuckSB on October 21, 2023, 04:41:32 PM
Cool. I would love to try it out..
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: powerhazard on October 22, 2023, 08:20:03 AM
Yeah I’d love to try it as well!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on October 22, 2023, 10:46:29 AM
sent creds to y'all.

while doing some testing late last night, i realized that the whole back end has to be re-engineered.

the site still works, but i've got a fair bit of work to do. once it's complete the site should be much faster as the current bottleneck will no longer exist.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Pappy Jones on October 22, 2023, 06:42:20 PM
Yo! I’d be psyched to get a username and password. I also work at 35th North Skateshop in Seattle and we’re interested in being a part of it.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: TwisT on October 22, 2023, 11:56:36 PM
I used shop lurker to procure a pair of ASICS like 2 months back

So thank you
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: somethingmustbreaknow on October 23, 2023, 12:04:01 AM
tkp the real mvp
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: BluffsideTank on October 23, 2023, 10:54:24 AM
This is sick. Would love to try it out.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: kelbywest on October 23, 2023, 11:08:54 AM
Sheeesh count me in.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on October 24, 2023, 11:34:17 AM
sent our more creds to those who requested.

been making some progress on this re-engineered build (aka version three), which will hopefully be the version that can actually be released to the public.

compared to the current version (the one people have been trying out), it's using a fraction of the code, with the capability to search every single item in the shops (instead of just the first page of results). i'm hoping total search time for 20-25 shops is only a few seconds, instead of the current 30 to 45 seconds.

during this rebuild, i noticed how massive ccs was. the amount of products they sell online compared to other shops is pretty obvious when collecting the product list:

https://i.imgur.com/sjq7SvW.mp4

on a side note, if anyone works for a shop that happens to run their own custom e-commerce solution, or something that hasn't been updated in a while, i've come across some "interesting" things. if you're looking for something that appears to be decently secure and stable, i'll go out on a limb and say you should use shopify.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 05, 2023, 11:45:06 PM
hello, an update on version 3. still have a few more things to tweak out, but it's kinda like the site went from clay wheels to urethane. well, not that rad, but you get the idea.

the biggest change is filters, with size likely being the most useful.

there's around 48,XXX products between 27 shops. running the site locally on my computer, it takes about 0.3 to 1.5 seconds to search all of those products. i'm assuming (hopefully not incorrectly), that search time won't increase too much when it's running on a remote server and accessible to all.

searching for a deck : https://i.imgur.com/0HTniNI.mp4

search for a shoe: https://i.imgur.com/yfwwMcn.mp4
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Robert Baratheon on November 06, 2023, 06:21:54 AM
I’ll take a login if thats still available
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: ProfessorJSS on November 06, 2023, 10:22:27 PM
Could I also get a login please?
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on November 06, 2023, 10:38:51 PM
Just checked it out again today.
Maybe not the fastest (yet) but the search results were pretty savvy.
I’m for sure looking forward to this being the platform those in the know use to get they goods on.
Definitely appreciate being able to search the inventories of shops I enjoy supporting.
Respect for the work you’re putting in to refine this.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 07, 2023, 08:41:34 AM
sent out more logins to version 2.

Just checked it out again today.
Maybe not the fastest (yet) but the search results were pretty savvy.
I’m for sure looking forward to this being the platform those in the know use to get they goods on.
Definitely appreciate being able to search the inventories of shops I enjoy supporting.
Respect for the work you’re putting in to refine this.

yea, the site is too slow. right now the way it's built is like walking into each skate shop and asking "do you have this?" and waiting for a response. the new format is walking into one shop that already knows what every one else has.

as for the work being put in, thanks. i got laid off a few months ago, well the corporate message was "we are having a reduction in force". instead of doing the responsible thing and touching up my resume, building shop lurker into something that people might actually use seems like the better move.

if not, oh well. it's been a fun journey and there are probably other data sets the concept can be applied to.

another v3 update: now you can just choose a deck size, no need to enter in search term. this will carry over to searching for shoes as well.

https://i.imgur.com/KfiGvlI.mp4
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 11, 2023, 09:53:29 AM
4 months to the day, the site is getting closer to be able to be released to the public.

yesterday i set the new version up on the smallest and least powerful internet facing amazon web services server.

the first thing i searched was all 8.5" decks available from 27 skate shops. it returned 320 decks and took 0.2 seconds.

(https://i.imgur.com/smsgubA.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/VnNoZ3F.png)

once i do some more testing and make sure the site is updating itself properly, i'll grant everyone access again who already has a username and password.

i still have no idea if this is a thing that will actually get much use, but i've definitely enjoyed using it to get exposed to lots of different deck art.

edit: turns out there's way more than 320 8.5" decks across those shops.

this is more like it:

(https://i.imgur.com/f3k09DS.png)

still short a few shops who tag their decks in a different way as compared to what i'm observing is "normal", but nearly 1000 more results discovered with only half a second increase in time.

(https://i.imgur.com/LY1mGln.png)
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: opesorry on November 12, 2023, 12:24:18 PM
Seems amazing, I don’t buy skate gear online often these days but would definitely use this!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 13, 2023, 12:02:38 PM
Seems amazing, I don’t buy skate gear online often these days but would definitely use this!

i still prefer walking into a shop, catching up with whoever is working, and spending some time checking out the board wall, shoe rack, and any new books or zines.

if anyone is still paying attention to this, i just enabled version 3 for those who have a username and password. feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.

it's a quite different from the previous version and there's thousands of more results.

it's not completely finished, but it should work for now.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on November 13, 2023, 12:16:28 PM
Wow, it’s a big diff; watching this evolve so far has been rad.
I think you are filling a need in the community by bridging the physical gap between actual retailers & buyers.
Looking forward to using this again next time I’m in need. 
‘Course, by then it may have evolved even further.
I’m stoked to have this tool at my disposal.
Thanks for the effort/thought you’ve employed to build it.
Turns out losing that job may have sucked for you, but gave skating-at-large an effective retail search tool. 
Serendipity.

Edited for spelling.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Kook Me Amadeus on November 13, 2023, 12:20:47 PM
I’d like to try it!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: RichardBarkley on November 13, 2023, 02:43:16 PM
Can I have a login
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 14, 2023, 10:54:47 AM
sent out more logins

turns out now you can actually login with your (edit: previously sent) usernames and passwords, so if you tried and failed in the past 24 hours, my bad. forgot to change a file to allow everyone in.

edit: thanks pugmaster for catching my wording slip up
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: davy on November 14, 2023, 11:13:46 AM
this looks awesome, cant wait for public release!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tzhangdox on November 14, 2023, 11:14:47 AM
Would love a login please
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Kook Me Amadeus on November 14, 2023, 02:13:20 PM
Whoa, this rules… it works so well.  Insanely useful!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: pugmaster on November 14, 2023, 03:48:28 PM
sent out more logins

turns out now you can actually login with your usernames and passwords, so if you tried and failed in the past 24 hours, my bad. forgot to change a file to allow everyone in.

I attempted to log in with my SLAP username and password but was unsuccessful. I did not ask you previously for a log in.  If I can get one, it would be very appreciated!

Thanks man +1
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 14, 2023, 04:12:24 PM
Expand Quote
sent out more logins

turns out now you can actually login with your usernames and passwords, so if you tried and failed in the past 24 hours, my bad. forgot to change a file to allow everyone in.
[close]

I attempted to log in with my SLAP username and password but was unsuccessful. I did not ask you previously for a log in.  If I can get one, it would be very appreciated!

Thanks man +1

oh damn, i screwed up my wording. should have said:

"if you were previously sent a username and password, now you can actually login with those usernames and passwords."

just sent over you and tzhangdox some logins that should work.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: notinternetfamous on November 15, 2023, 07:52:28 AM
i'd love a login please :)
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: halfcab4cutie on November 15, 2023, 04:59:23 PM
may i gain access to this beautiful creation please?

thanks
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: gub on November 15, 2023, 06:33:24 PM
tkp, could I please have a login also
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on November 20, 2023, 12:01:43 PM
a few days ago i sent out logins to those who requested them.

just added the capability to save items:

https://i.imgur.com/p70vbTn.mp4

each item is saved with the sizes returned in the search results. if one of those sizes, or products were to sell out, that will be reflected during the updates which happen throughout the day:

(https://i.imgur.com/fpOK6IB.png)

note: those items in the image above aren't actually currently sold out in the real world, i just adjusted the shop lurker product database for testing.

price changes are also included in the updates.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on January 16, 2024, 04:38:19 PM
hello, it's been a while so i figured i'd provide an update on this project.

getting closer to releasing the site to all. been doing a good amount of fine tuning to ensure things run the way they are supposed to.

currently up to 40 shops, well 41 if going by name and not shared ownership.

if you haven't tried the site out in a while, the search has been improved so it may be of more use.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: JM on January 16, 2024, 06:20:22 PM
Hell yeah @tkp . You the real deal.

This is great shit. I hope you can leverage it into a good gig, or build it into a good business somehow for yourself.

If it doesn’t work for skating, maybe there’s another business that has more market share that could use this kind of web-crawling. (Whoah. Flashbacks. “Web-crawling”)

Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Eastcoast skater dude on January 16, 2024, 07:12:54 PM
wonder how many ppls information you got gg dweebs yal got key logged
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on January 16, 2024, 07:35:25 PM
wonder how many ppls information you got gg dweebs yal got key logged
Naw, dog: you got it wrong.
TKP been on the level since dropping in from the top of the extension.
They good.


EDIT: nice to see the platform continues to evolve.
Sounds like checking out your latest refinements is a perfect excuse to spend a little of the skate budget.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on February 14, 2024, 06:05:54 PM
hey everyone, the site is now open to the world.

hopefully everything works as intended, but there may still be issues here and there. feedback is welcome.

shout out to my partner michele for spending a copious amount of time on this with me. her ideas and code helped make the site what it is.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on February 14, 2024, 06:19:17 PM
Just took a stroll around the new/updated/public site & it’s working real nice, I gotta say.
Searches yielded accurate results that can be sorted based on my specification.
As smooth & easy a site for skate commerce as I’ve yet used. Props to you (& Michele) as you have built something that is both functional  AND very, very useful.
For me… it’s as though you’ve filled the Parade niche better than they ever were able to do.
I salute you for your work.
THIS is my go-to skateboarding e-commerce site from this day forward.
Thank you for your service.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: kookdusoleil on February 14, 2024, 06:42:25 PM
hey everyone, the site is now open to the world.

hopefully everything works as intended, but there may still be issues here and there. feedback is welcome.

shout out to my partner michele for spending a copious amount of time on this with me. her ideas and code helped make the site what it is.

Really, really cool. Thank you to you and your partner for this.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: JM on February 14, 2024, 06:57:40 PM
Whoooooooooooaaaaah.

This is very, very cool.

Now no one has an excuse anymore that they can’t support small, “local” skate shops!!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Lou Strux on February 14, 2024, 08:09:34 PM
And, I might add, just in time for Skate Shop Day “24, so that thems what gots no solid local shop can still support a solid local shop somewhere else.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on February 16, 2024, 10:21:50 AM
thanks for the comments y'all. it's good to hear from those who are finding use in the site.

still have more shops and features to add. for now, it seems to do the job.

finding obscure products has been one of the unexpected use cases. perhaps it's the childhood nostalgia, but looking at the different types of skate wax in shops brought me back to the days of using it for the first time on a street spot.

(https://i.imgur.com/2wCEfqh.jpeg)
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: CossRooper on February 20, 2024, 02:36:35 PM
you’ve filled the Parade niche better than they ever were able to do.
I salute you for your work.
THIS is my go-to skateboarding e-commerce site from this day forward.
Thank you for your service.

This and this !!! i was missing Parade so bad, i'm so hyped to be able to support local shops over the web while still finding the exact shit i'm looking for.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: overwaxed on February 20, 2024, 03:05:32 PM
thanks for the comments y'all. it's good to hear from those who are finding use in the site.

still have more shops and features to add. for now, it seems to do the job.

finding obscure products has been one of the unexpected use cases. perhaps it's the childhood nostalgia, but looking at the different types of skate wax in shops brought me back to the days of using it for the first time on a street spot.

(https://i.imgur.com/2wCEfqh.jpeg)

This is so so so sick! I'm a dev turned sales engineer, so if there's anything I can do to help (lots of connections for free SaaS and Cloud stuff) hit a brother up!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: The Big Dawg on February 20, 2024, 03:26:56 PM
I wanted to wait until I actually got the board to post this, but thanks to Shop Lurker I got a free Girl board. Last week I checked Shop Lurker when this thread got bumped and typed in “deck” and filtered the results by price - lowest to highest. There was a Girl Rowan Davis board from Identity Board Shop listed for $0.00. I went through with the purchase and paid $5.99 for shipping, but didn’t know if I’d actually get the board. I checked the board through Shop Lurker again and it was now sold out. Fast forward to 30 mins ago and the board just showed up. No receipt, no packing slip, just a board in a box.

Major shout out to tkp for Shop Lurker, saved my frugal ass $70.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Cuban_Lynx on February 21, 2024, 04:18:41 AM
Dude, this is amazing! Late to the game, but just found some boards I’d been searching all over for.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Jim and Dan on February 21, 2024, 05:34:56 AM
Same boat as Cuban_Lynx, this is fucking fantastic! Did a couple searches just now and the functionality is great, saves me a ton of time looking through every shop I can remember (and some I can't). Very much appreciate your efforts and hope that this project just keeps expanding and being supported.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Rick Trapasso on February 21, 2024, 05:59:39 AM
Great stuff here @cossrooper

Thank you for your service
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: 144p on February 21, 2024, 07:04:12 AM
Thank you for doing this, big ups.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: weregoingunion on February 21, 2024, 05:17:45 PM
amazing work! thank you!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Szechuan on February 21, 2024, 05:30:31 PM
Just copped 2 pairs of blazers with it! So sick thanks TKP and Michele!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: opesorry on February 22, 2024, 07:24:42 PM
This is incredible, thank you for this!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: CossRooper on March 01, 2024, 09:11:38 AM
just found a good deal on a Real hoodie, thanks @tkp and partner :)
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on March 01, 2024, 11:20:48 AM
glad to read about people finding deals.

thanks for the donation @CossRooper , that's going straight into server costs.

there are a couple things in the works:

- sort results by distance. this will allow you to enter in an address or get your current location, and show results from the closest shops first. the "support your local" filter.

- still have a lot of shops to add. will start adding more once the distance option is complete.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Cuban_Lynx on March 01, 2024, 12:49:07 PM
Just found that Bones Brigade Series 15 I couldn't find anywhere, thought of this site and found them right away. Thanks again!
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: planman on March 01, 2024, 01:07:49 PM
Wow dude great job! This is super sick, definitely will be my go-to for online purchases.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on April 08, 2024, 01:52:25 PM
hey everyone, there are a couple new additions to the site.

https://i.imgur.com/bTkxyBj.mp4

- you can now sort results by distance from a location (manually enter an address or geolocate yourself).

- there is a map (https://shoplurker.com/map) of the physical locations of shops that are currently searchable as well as a few that are not. this will be an ongoing work in progress, as there are hundreds of shops out there.

- a few new shops have been added to the index since the last update. still have a lot to add.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: GauchoAmigo on April 09, 2024, 05:53:45 PM
Hey y'all, I've spent my free time building a site that allows you to search multiple skate shops' online stores at a time. The site currently supports limited searching of 510, Atlas, DLXSF, FTC, and Low Key.

Here is a short demo: https://i.imgur.com/fIXInmr.mp4

If anyone is interesting in trying out the site, which is located at https://shoplurker.com, reply in here and I will send a username and password.

The goal is to eventually open it up to everyone, but I've yet to see how well the server handles multiple users at once.

Shout out to Michele for the QUAX (Quality Assurance / User Experience) guidance along the way.

This is absolutely incredible. You really should have a "donate here" button in the corner of your homepage. I want to give you money for the money you just helped me save.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: CossRooper on April 09, 2024, 08:15:52 PM
This is absolutely incredible. You really should have a "donate here" button in the corner of your homepage. I want to give you money for the money you just helped me save.

Killer update!! The distance filter will help me find stuff that will ship to me fastest. Badass.

+1 for donate button request 🙂
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: pugmaster on April 09, 2024, 10:24:09 PM
For real...

@tkp should add some ads or something to provide compensation for all the work he put into it. Great concept and execution with continual updates.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: nocomplylover on April 10, 2024, 11:46:04 AM
user and pw ? pls
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on April 25, 2024, 03:26:08 PM
appreciate the support.

user and pw ? pls

no username and password is necessary. just head over to https://shoplurker.com
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: No1hypocrite on April 27, 2024, 10:32:08 PM
bumpiń this hella useful tool, really appreciate u putting this site together man 🫡
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Cuban_Lynx on April 28, 2024, 06:33:37 AM
I've been using this almost weekly now. It's been really helpful for nerds like me who are always trying to track down rare boards and big shoes.

I know there's only like 2-3 of us out there, but if I could make one request it'd be to add size 15 to the filter. I think it stops at 14.5 now.
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: JM on April 28, 2024, 08:40:10 AM
Hey speaking of rare decks, there’s a shop that doesn’t have a good online store, but they’ll have decks sitting in there for a long time because it’s not the popular shop in town.

For example, they STILL had a gold Ishod skate shop day deck last weekend.

They had a signed Daewon Thank You deck for almost a year (finally sold when someone was smart enough to buy it and take it to the Mullen/Hawk speaking engagement and got their signatures). 
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: tkp on April 29, 2024, 07:04:34 AM
I've been using this almost weekly now. It's been really helpful for nerds like me who are always trying to track down rare boards and big shoes.

I know there's only like 2-3 of us out there, but if I could make one request it'd be to add size 15 to the filter. I think it stops at 14.5 now.

size 15 (https://shoplurker.com/search.php?shop%5B%5D=303boards&shop%5B%5D=35thnorth&shop%5B%5D=510skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=561skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=activerideshop&shop%5B%5D=artsandrecstore&shop%5B%5D=atlasskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=blacklistboardshop&shop%5B%5D=blacksheepskateshop&shop%5B%5D=breakfreeskateshop&shop%5B%5D=calsk8&shop%5B%5D=cassetteskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ccs&shop%5B%5D=continuumsc&shop%5B%5D=coureurgoods&shop%5B%5D=crushedskateshop&shop%5B%5D=dlxskateshop&shop%5B%5D=easternboarder&shop%5B%5D=embarkskateshop&shop%5B%5D=everydaysfc&shop%5B%5D=familiaskate&shop%5B%5D=filterskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ftcsf&shop%5B%5D=furnaceskate&shop%5B%5D=geometricskateshop&shop%5B%5D=hapaboardshop&shop%5B%5D=holisticskateshop&shop%5B%5D=homebaseskateshop&shop%5B%5D=humiditynola&shop%5B%5D=identityboardshops&shop%5B%5D=impactskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kcdcskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kineticskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=laborskateshop&shop%5B%5D=lighthousesb&shop%5B%5D=lowkeysanfrancisco&shop%5B%5D=moceanskateboards&shop%5B%5D=moneyruinseverything&shop%5B%5D=njskateshop&shop%5B%5D=nocomplyatx&shop%5B%5D=orchardshop&shop%5B%5D=pharmacyboardshop&shop%5B%5D=plaskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=plusskateshop&shop%5B%5D=prestigeskateboards&shop%5B%5D=proskateboardshop&shop%5B%5D=prosperskateshop&shop%5B%5D=recessrideshop&shop%5B%5D=satelliteboardshop&shop%5B%5D=seasonsskateshop&shop%5B%5D=skate-works-myshopify&shop%5B%5D=slappysgaragesd&shop%5B%5D=theoryskate&shop%5B%5D=upriseskateshop&filter_shoe%5B%5D=15.0&page=1&lat=&lon=&sort=&search=) has been added
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: JM on April 29, 2024, 09:01:37 AM
Expand Quote
I've been using this almost weekly now. It's been really helpful for nerds like me who are always trying to track down rare boards and big shoes.

I know there's only like 2-3 of us out there, but if I could make one request it'd be to add size 15 to the filter. I think it stops at 14.5 now.
[close]

size 15 (https://shoplurker.com/search.php?shop%5B%5D=303boards&shop%5B%5D=35thnorth&shop%5B%5D=510skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=561skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=activerideshop&shop%5B%5D=artsandrecstore&shop%5B%5D=atlasskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=blacklistboardshop&shop%5B%5D=blacksheepskateshop&shop%5B%5D=breakfreeskateshop&shop%5B%5D=calsk8&shop%5B%5D=cassetteskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ccs&shop%5B%5D=continuumsc&shop%5B%5D=coureurgoods&shop%5B%5D=crushedskateshop&shop%5B%5D=dlxskateshop&shop%5B%5D=easternboarder&shop%5B%5D=embarkskateshop&shop%5B%5D=everydaysfc&shop%5B%5D=familiaskate&shop%5B%5D=filterskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ftcsf&shop%5B%5D=furnaceskate&shop%5B%5D=geometricskateshop&shop%5B%5D=hapaboardshop&shop%5B%5D=holisticskateshop&shop%5B%5D=homebaseskateshop&shop%5B%5D=humiditynola&shop%5B%5D=identityboardshops&shop%5B%5D=impactskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kcdcskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kineticskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=laborskateshop&shop%5B%5D=lighthousesb&shop%5B%5D=lowkeysanfrancisco&shop%5B%5D=moceanskateboards&shop%5B%5D=moneyruinseverything&shop%5B%5D=njskateshop&shop%5B%5D=nocomplyatx&shop%5B%5D=orchardshop&shop%5B%5D=pharmacyboardshop&shop%5B%5D=plaskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=plusskateshop&shop%5B%5D=prestigeskateboards&shop%5B%5D=proskateboardshop&shop%5B%5D=prosperskateshop&shop%5B%5D=recessrideshop&shop%5B%5D=satelliteboardshop&shop%5B%5D=seasonsskateshop&shop%5B%5D=skate-works-myshopify&shop%5B%5D=slappysgaragesd&shop%5B%5D=theoryskate&shop%5B%5D=upriseskateshop&filter_shoe%5B%5D=15.0&page=1&lat=&lon=&sort=&search=) has been added
There’s a size 15 court purple dunk out there if that’s what your looking for ;) it always shows up when I search “dunk”
Title: Re: Shop Lurker
Post by: Cuban_Lynx on April 29, 2024, 09:38:51 AM
Expand Quote
I've been using this almost weekly now. It's been really helpful for nerds like me who are always trying to track down rare boards and big shoes.

I know there's only like 2-3 of us out there, but if I could make one request it'd be to add size 15 to the filter. I think it stops at 14.5 now.
[close]

size 15 (https://shoplurker.com/search.php?shop%5B%5D=303boards&shop%5B%5D=35thnorth&shop%5B%5D=510skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=561skateboarding&shop%5B%5D=activerideshop&shop%5B%5D=artsandrecstore&shop%5B%5D=atlasskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=blacklistboardshop&shop%5B%5D=blacksheepskateshop&shop%5B%5D=breakfreeskateshop&shop%5B%5D=calsk8&shop%5B%5D=cassetteskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ccs&shop%5B%5D=continuumsc&shop%5B%5D=coureurgoods&shop%5B%5D=crushedskateshop&shop%5B%5D=dlxskateshop&shop%5B%5D=easternboarder&shop%5B%5D=embarkskateshop&shop%5B%5D=everydaysfc&shop%5B%5D=familiaskate&shop%5B%5D=filterskateshop&shop%5B%5D=ftcsf&shop%5B%5D=furnaceskate&shop%5B%5D=geometricskateshop&shop%5B%5D=hapaboardshop&shop%5B%5D=holisticskateshop&shop%5B%5D=homebaseskateshop&shop%5B%5D=humiditynola&shop%5B%5D=identityboardshops&shop%5B%5D=impactskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kcdcskateshop&shop%5B%5D=kineticskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=laborskateshop&shop%5B%5D=lighthousesb&shop%5B%5D=lowkeysanfrancisco&shop%5B%5D=moceanskateboards&shop%5B%5D=moneyruinseverything&shop%5B%5D=njskateshop&shop%5B%5D=nocomplyatx&shop%5B%5D=orchardshop&shop%5B%5D=pharmacyboardshop&shop%5B%5D=plaskateboarding&shop%5B%5D=plusskateshop&shop%5B%5D=prestigeskateboards&shop%5B%5D=proskateboardshop&shop%5B%5D=prosperskateshop&shop%5B%5D=recessrideshop&shop%5B%5D=satelliteboardshop&shop%5B%5D=seasonsskateshop&shop%5B%5D=skate-works-myshopify&shop%5B%5D=slappysgaragesd&shop%5B%5D=theoryskate&shop%5B%5D=upriseskateshop&filter_shoe%5B%5D=15.0&page=1&lat=&lon=&sort=&search=) has been added
Sick, thank you so much!