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Idle Master Discontinued
MARCH 2 - JSHACKLES
In light of the upcoming Steam Marketplace changes next week, I’ve decided to discontinue working on and supporting Steam Idle Master. As someone who is unable to use the mobile authenticator, having trading cards put on hold for 15 days prior to being listed in the market makes the proposition of selling them a difficult one. As most of you know, the value of each card can fluctuate wildly in that amount of time.This, bundled with additional security measures Valve has put in place are a good step forward in that they make Steam more safe for its users. For me personally, the cost of this safety is inconvenience. For people in my position who are unable to use the mobile authenticator, this effectively makes idling for and selling Steam Trading Cards a futile effort.
Idle Master started out as and always has been a hobby project. My personal attitude towards it has always been “It’s something I built for myself that I find useful, others probably will too”. The first part of that statement, however, is no longer true.
Going forward: I will be updating the Idle Master homepage so that the “Download” button links directly to the portable version of Idle Master. The homepage will remain online for the foreseeable future, but I’ll be adding a statement to the site that the program has been discontinued and is no longer being supported.
The source code for Idle Master is and will remain available on Github under an open source license.
Finally, I would like to say “Thank you” to all of Idle Master’s users and fans. Without you, a project like this couldn’t have been as successful as it was. For those of you who this security change won’t affect: happy idling in the future!
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This is what I do when it stops working!
1.Keep the installer of Idlemaster "somewehere safe" for this kind of problem.
2.Delete your atm Idlemaster directory with Idlemaster.
3.Extract your Idlemaster (this is most important part) in NEW made directory(but don't use SAME name for directory again,make it idk...idlemaster2)
4.You will be able to sign again in Idlemaster with no problem and it will start working as intended.
I have been working like that every....dunno...2-3 months and it allways worked fine.
Try it and good luck!!
<3 FOR THE BUNNIES!!!!
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well you out of all people should know just because it doesn't function on one (or many) persons (or peoples) pc('s) doesn't mean it's inherently broken for everybody in the world though. xD
it's also repairable by many of them, they just don't know how.. however it is discontinued, so people should use a updated project instead. but it can still be repaired if they are technical enough.
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well i don't expect after several say it functions for every single user to continuously bombard the user that it's not working for with "it works". its not like they need 2,000 confirmations that its a technical issue and not 100% a broken program. there are also those that bow at archi's feet and love to hit these threads with all they can claiming how horrible idlemaster is and how stupid people can be for even considering still using it. so you're certain to see a ton claiming it doesn't work.
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where did i make a single assumption?? i said every single function idlemaster user wasn't going to comment. not every single idlemaster user is even a steamgifts user, therefore it's a fact. then i continued on with the additional fact that there are archi lovers and they love to come here and recommend asf, and in this case they are not rude about it, but i've seen them be rude about it in the past even as well.
you're claiming i'm making assumptions that i'm not even close to making though. i additionally agree people should change from using idlemaster when it malfunctions, but i still have to say that it is repairable and a functioning discontinued program that i don't recommend bothering with any longer.
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no need to apologize, its all good. you are right too though, both will have vocal and silent parties.
people should just change, it's easier to just swap to asf and save your preferred config without the password on a cloud somewhere, and never even bother having to set it up again. rather then repair idlemaster on a bi-monthly (or worse) basis.
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And you are also assuming people for who it works are less vocal than those for whom it does
It's called the "negativity bias."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias
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there is no point sticking to something that barely works sometimes
I've never had any issues with idlemaster
Idlemaster is a far better option for me than ASF.
If we want to stay with idlemaster, that's our preference to have. Your response is "Oh, your Playstation broke? Get an Xbox."
Sure, they're both consoles, but we may have reasons for wanting to fix the one we have, if we can manage it.
There's no need to project your personal preferences as though they were objective necessity, or dismiss our personal considerations- that's as useful to our circumstances as the "get an Xbox" comments that can pop up in the aforementioned scenario.
It's fine to promote something you feel deserves it, and you can even do that without offering anything constructive to the question being asked, but dismissing the question altogether is rude- and the tone some of the posters have used only exacerbates that sentiment.
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Also, IM is a very mature and refined product, and ASF is still being developed and .fixing bugs.
Also IM doesn't ask you for your password, it uses OAuth OpenID.
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(an example would be Steam suddenly changing something), in that case, ASF would still be fixed while IM would most likely not,
curious question here, i'm not stating facts, but...
wasn't IM discontinued prior to the 2hour farming threshold, but jshackles still worked on it enough to make it compatible with those changes? he discontinued it so he doesn't feel obligated to work on it or maintain it, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't at all if the time came where it was truly non-functioning entirely.
or was that change the point in time he decided to discontinue it?
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so that somewhat further proves its not entirely discontinued. he did update it enough to work with those changes.
i still agree though that people should change to something that is actively being updated & maintained, but discontinued by itself isn't really entirely a reason to avoid. just the fact that it frequently malfunctions is.
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Reply 1
So if someone comments IM doesn't work it is because it is broken, and if somoene comments that ASF doesn't work it is because the user made something wrong...
Reply 2
So if someone comments IM it doesn't work it is because it is broken, even if it is working for (your invented number) 70% of users. When the program stops working by changes on Steam platform it will stop working for the 100% of users, which will be the time to fix it, or if not a fix is provided for anyone even if the code is opensource and free, search for alternatives.
Reply 3
Fine then. ASF is 1 year old after all. So you tried maybe one version 10 months old.
Reply 4
I just took the time to check all the threads created related to idlemaster problems https://www.steamgifts.com/discussions/search?q=idle
Most of the threads are "is idle master safe?".
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/RPvVm/idle-master-help-needed steam divided games in pages with 250 games/page. Dev fixed it
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/9b6YG/card-idle-program-error another change in the badges page. Dev fixed it
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/FblLR/anyone-having-trouble-with-idle-master-today new monster summer sale badge. Blacklisted it and working
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/eVn3n/is-anyone-getting-cards-using-idlemaster not a single valid answer
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/ktjzZ/idlemaster-problem-steam-not-runing only 2 comments. OP didn't give much info...
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/DqHYp/idlemaster-sign-in-problem user had a problem related to steamguard. Unsolved since he closed the thread
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/tzmpb/idlemaster-problembug-please-read steam platform was having problems. See below (same day)
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/KQzL9/idle-master steam platform was having problems. We can already see spam about ASF in the comments (October 31st 2015). They won't stop appearing in any other post related to Idle Master from here. For real. Check it.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/DpOuZ/need-help-with-idle-master-no-ga user didn't understand he needs to be running steam client even if his error message stated "steam is not running"
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/cMGoF/idlemaster he just says it is not working, it seems he is not even trying to solve the problem
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/EhL6d/idlemaster-can-not-login problem solved downloading the program without the installer.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/fbYqA/anyone-having-trouble-with-idle-master-today It seems OP couldn't access github, dunno if he solved the problem because again OP didn't answer.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/ZV3vb/hows-idle-master-going-for-you-all-past-few-days Curse of the Assassin 16.5 hrs last two weeks / 19.4 hrs on record for dropping 4 cards. maybe the game has the drops configured in that way, maybe OP was playing at the same time
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/qLdPZ/my-idle-master-broke-any-way-to-fix-it With just that screenshot I would say same as above, client not running. But the user closed the thread after the first answer told him to install ASF, so the thread was only opened 8 minutes
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/QZFYl/idlemaster-problem steam was down
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/EgXJh/idle-master-error an interesting answer here that solved the problem for the user "You have to swith langauage on Stam (on your browser) to english."
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/mdhUS/idle-master-problem-help seems to have the same problem as above.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/2tGTZ/idle-master-broken this thread
Reply 5
Oh thanks, I had missed that info. Good you didn't, even if not idling lately.
Reply 6
Yes, programs get better as they age because the devs keep working in the code (until the devs stop supporting them, of course). I don't know what kind of "technology" used to make a program run you are talking about... C#? I don't understand this part. Maybe you are just talking about the code. Then again, code still works, and sure it will stop working at some point, but not today. IM code has been improving until March 2nd when JStackles stopped supporting it. Program is not useless for most people, but very convenient and easy to use, and since users have been using if since years, people trust it. I think the maturity of IM is supported by the fact it still works after almost 8 months of not having support XDD Of course working on a program is a good thing, having bugs is not.
About the last paragrath, it seems you wrote it before I finished editing my comment (14:07 CEST, or maybe CET, 8 minutes after I created it). But you are right, IM doesn't use OpenID, but it doesn't get the auth data from your open steam client, it asks you to login from steam web in his in-built browser (you can also just enter the cookies from the session in your browser). It needs the steam client to let it make the interaction with steam servers, but the program doesn't directly interact with your client (that would be considered as a virus), it uses an in-built browser to make its things, just like if you press "play" in your browser the game will start running in your steam client
TL;DR: Let each person decides what he wants to do. Liberty and respect
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Let's focus.
We can't take posts from this thread as a source for making valid statistics. Nor that help us to decide if it is rude or not what is happening this last year in threads similar to this one.
People don't need to trust that dev , he just have to clone the repository and commit his changes and anyone can check his smail patch of code is safe. Reddit works very well for spreading info fast.
C#, language used for both IM and asf, appeared 16 years ago. They both work until today.
People not using seatch function is not an excuse for being rude in comments. Also reading the same comments over and over again in similar threads is tiring and annoying. IM is discontinued, which means it will stop working eventually, but works flawlessly until today and the error is on user's side (or steam servers are down again). Maybe at some point we can stop the "it will stop working" "but it is working now" "but it will stop working" replies. I think that part is already clear.
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The no-windows version is written in python, you can see the repository here https://github.com/jshackles/idle_master_py
The windows version is written in c#, you can see the repository here https://github.com/jshackles/idle_master
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Haha I don't know how to code in c#
Also it works fine for me, and I have farmed 1576 cards so far since August. I started using asf but then switched to im and it works a lot easier and faster. The fact that asf has not a command to switch to the next game makes it unusable for farming big quantities of cards imho. The dev already said it won't be implemented, so I just switched to IM and its easy-to-go interface. I would say both programs are for different kind of users.
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Hehe, I know what you mean. xD I agree with you. ;P
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In my case it stopped working in August, had to migrate to ASF, but it still feels way too complex for me.
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May I ask whats complex about it? I didnt understand right away what to do without reading the wiki. But after that its prettty clear for a basic user.
Just run ASF-ConfigGenerator.exe and create a new bot and enable and enter your login info. Then run ASF.exe and I only have had to use steamauth once and never again after running the application.
Pretty nice that you dont need steam running or even installed and it updates itself to current version.
Edit: and I looked at the wiki now. Seems like its 75% clearer then when I started using it :) Must have been updated.
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Now that I think of it, I've exaggerated a bit. I'm just an idiot when in comes to interfaces and setups more complex than "check the necessary boxes", and I felt totally at a loss when I first installed it, took me maybe 20 minutes to setup (as I've mentioned before, I'm an idiot). But yes, while Idle Master used to make me enter my login info every week or so, I'm yet to see something like this with ASF - and I agree, the features you've mentioned are pretty nice indeed.
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It's working just fine. Just check if there's a problem with your settings.
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+1
the right way to say it too ^^
i was stubborn and refused to switch for a long time, but so glad i did. it was literally a monthly (or more) basis that i was repairing IM. It's always repairable (the part some people don't like to admit), but annoying and shouldn't have to go thru the troubleshooting of it every few weeks.
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i felt the same until i realized there is a minimalistic approach.
that route is actually really super simple. just create a txt file paste in that and alter to your info, rename the .txt part to .json, and toss it in the config folder. works without needing to go thru the whole tutorial or learning anything about the app really.
my full json (except edited login):
{
"Enabled": true,
"SteamLogin": "loginidhere",
"SteamPassword": null,
"CardDropsRestricted": true
}still playing with the carddroprestrict command, sometimes one way is better, sometimes the other way
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I have a minor problem with it when using the "idle games simultaneously for 2 hours, then individually" option. After the 2 hours are up nothing happens and it continues to idle the same batch of games (think the max is 30) until I change the setting or close it down and restart. Not really a big deal and overall it still works for me.
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The zip file you download from http://www.steamidlemaster.com/
Just unzip it wherever you want and run it.
If you're already using that version, disregard. :X
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Is it not working for anyone else, or just me? I hit 100 card notifications in my inventory and assumed that was the reason why, but after going through that, it's still not idling for cards or increasing my time, either.
EDIT: Apparently, there's mixed responses. Regardless I chose to try out ASF. My only issue with ASF so far, is not showing notifications for inventory items and making me manually search through my whole inventory. Also, I don't know if it's my steam or ASF, but it keeps stopping the card farming. Maybe due to the default settings? Either way, those settings are confusing af for a beginner.
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