If you haven’t already, take a look at @MondayMadness‘s latest highly entertaining unboxing video. What surprise nonsense did the bot get them?
Author Archives: Alexander
The Bot Gets A Shiny New Interface
New Stuff! Recently I rolled out a few big updates to the bot. While lots of improvements to the bot are under the hood – the buying process, new merchants, removing duplicates, improving package quality – this set of changes are all about the interface on bobcatinabox.com/myboxes, which is the site you login to manage your account with the bot. These new features give you more control over your account.
Keyword Search Box
Now instead of scrolling through keywords there is a search box which you can use to quickly select your keywords and enter new ones. This is a big change from the old interface. The bot also now tells you which keywords it has packages for in the database.
Number Of Packages
You can now select how many packages you want within a range (ie 2-4 packages per month or 9-18 packages per month) for each address. There used to be a vague slider bar with no labels on it and graphics that some folks found confusing. It is now more straightforward. Click on the ‘Addresses’ Tab to take a look.
Tune!
This is a new way to give the bot information on what sorts of ppackages you like. There is a link to a new tuning page on the ‘Keywords’ tab that lets you click through a series of images, telling the bot whether you like/don’t like packages that might be associated with each picture. I’m testing this out. Some of the pictures are of “divisive” products that I know some subscribers like and some don’t like (beads for example). Some of the pictures are of people or brands that might tell the bot something about your style.
The bot will always buy products that fit the keywords you’ve selected. But for a lot of keywords, like ‘plastics’ or ‘retro’ or ‘unusual’ there is a lot of wiggle room. Once I’ve enough data I’ll hopefully be able to further tune the purchases that the bot makes.
Login yourself and take a look! Email me if you’ve any questions or anything looks amiss.
Airycha Posts New Unboxing Video
Dinosaur Eggs! If you have a minute, take a look at Airycha’s unboxing video (check out her YouTube channel). Watch out for the nanotyrannus…
New Video: Airycha Unboxing Marathon
Airycha is out with two new unboxing videos. Watch for an angry and incontinent emperor penguin storming out from the red curtain in the back around the 4:04 mark in the first video.
Faster Bot Reporting
Until a few days ago, the bot hasn’t reported packages that it had bought until it got confirmation from the vendors and had sourced product images…. which resulted in oftentimes a big delay between when the bot placed an order and when it showed up on the site. No More!
I’ve updated the bot to start reporting packages ordered immediately. It will still take time for us to get the exact estimated arrival date and keywords for packages. However as soon as an order is created you will see it as a ‘mystery’ package with very large estimated arrival window. Once the bot has confirmed a purchase for that order it will tell you what keywords were used and more precisely when it will show up.
New Video: What did he get?
Take a look here at Tony Graff‘s latest unboxing video (three bobcats this time). Tony mentions that the bot has reduced his other impulse purchases! Why buy things you don’t need when they are sent to your house directly?
New Bobcat Store: Get Merch!
After a few requests, I have set up a store on Zazzle with ten Bobcat In A Box related products: mugs, stickers magnets, even playing cards and stationary! They make great birthday gifts… also what better way to reveal a prank than to silently introduce bobcat emblazoned products into their life?
Item Of The Day: Pink Ribbon
Subscriber Jessica posted on facebook this picture of some ribbon the bot sent her writing, “I get a lot of weird but delightful stuff. I’m sure I can find a use for this spool of pink ribbon. I’ll have to post my cats more often!”
New Video: Tony Gets An Elephant
The Tony unboxes two bobcats in the below video. Click here to check out his channel for more videos. What does he get? Watch the video to find out…
Item Of The Day: Gold Leaf Necklace
Subscriber Jessica posted on Facebook, “Got insane value out of my last bobcat!”
Select keywords ‘necklace’ or ‘jewelry’ to get packages like this one.