Are there guidelines for reasonable API use? I got IP banned... 😢

Hi there

I’ve been slowly downloading a lot of games from the OGS api. This morning though, I found myself IP banned.

I’d like to continue with this project, but I want to make sure I’m playing by the rules. I’m making a game explorer and hope to also do some fun ML things that I hope to benefit everyone.

My script has a backoff algorithm for respecting the rate limit. Should I interpret the IP ban as just a need to give the server a break (hoping the IP ban is temporary here :sweat_smile:) or am I doing something wrong?

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I think this thread here would be relevant here in terms of rate limits on downloading games, and there could be some overlap of interests

Someone else might come along knowing more about the ip ban/rate limit.

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In particular Can we get an SGF database dump? - #6 by anoek

I am not aware of there being an automatic ban - I think this one would be for @anoek

You may want to PM him with your affected IP.

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Yeah PM sent.

All sorted :grinning:. Seems like it was just a tactical ban rather than a policy. For future reference the sgf endpoint seems to be the issue, so maybe try to avoid hitting that one hard like I was. The “moves” are there in the game data (eg) so sgf is really just a convenience.

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