Potentially silly question- Following new Creators through API?

I realize this is a potentially silly question, but trying to determine the capabilities of the API because something another developer had said to me doesn’t quite add up.

Is there any function in the Patreon API that would allow for a Patron/User (Not-Creator account) to Follow New Creators?

Example: No manual interaction through the Patreon website whatsoever, user account can add a new Creator to their follow list through API commands only, based on entered usernames/keywords.

Context: The developer had mentioned having a web crawler that could follow new creators based on keywords, but reading through the documentation this seems impossible + a huge potential security risk as it would involve write access to your own user_list.

Am I way off base in thinking something like this is impossible? Thanks!!

A crawler which crawls Patreon pages from outside and gathers information like a search engine definitely can do that. But as far as i know there isnt a specific feature at the api which allows getting such new creators.

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Right. So the API couldn’t be used to add new followers as that would not be a “read/get” function, correct?

I don’t entirely follow what you mean. Wouldn’t it have to use the API too? Or do you mean some sort of browser macro that actually automated the web page clicks?

Appreciate the help! FWIW, not trying to do this myself, trying to understand why this would/would not work to learn more. Thanks!

Adding new followers anywhere without the action of the person following someone else should not be possible in any way.

I don’t entirely follow what you mean. Wouldn’t it have to use the API too? Or do you mean some sort of browser macro that actually automated the web page clicks?

Just an ordinary web crawler (custom or ready made) browsing a listing page and scanning the page and extracting info from it would do the job.

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I understand, and the theoretical crawler has no ability to do anything but read existing profiles/connections based on the connected account. Gotcha.

What I was trying to confirm (and did) was that the API lacks any ability to change your own profile in order to add new followers remotely (through the API vs logging in and clicking a follow button).

Thank you so much for your time & knowledge! Appreciated.

Public api does not support write operations at the moment. Only reads.