When it breaks
The walls you hit reading social data from a server — what each one actually is, what people try first, and what works. Written for whoever is debugging at 2am, human or not.
Reddit returns 403 to curl — why, and how to fix it
Reddit 403s curl from any datacenter IP, on every surface including old.reddit and the JSON endpoints. Here is why, and a one-call fix.
How to search Reddit without logging in
Anonymous Reddit reading from a server is effectively dead: JSON 403s, the new UI is a JS wall, RSS is throttled. What still works in practice.
Instagram API alternative for reading public posts
Basic Display shut down in December 2024 and Graph only reads accounts that authorise your app. How to read arbitrary public profiles now.
Cheap X/Twitter search API alternatives
X bills roughly $0.005 per post read with flat tiers closed to new signups. Cheaper ways to run tweet search at volume.
TikTok scraper API for videos and hashtag search
TikTok signs its web requests and geo-redirects unknown clients, so a plain GET returns an About page. A maintained API handles both.
DuckDuckGo returns 202 to your scraper — what to use instead
html.duckduckgo.com answers scripted requests with a 202 bot challenge, and Google and Bing block curl outright. Use a search API.