Create site that allows anyone to use this checker

[banool]

The problem with this checker is only those with coding knowledge can really use it. This puts those without that knowledge at a disadvantage when trying to find a campsite, which is unfair and counter to open source.

I need to make a site that lets anyone use this. It would have a form for entering the site and dates that you want, and allow you to receive notifications when the sites become available.

[banksean]

Neat project! I find the existing campsite websites' UX is pretty terrible, and agree the reservation system has some serious shortcomings. Researching the problem is how I found your repo.

Some ethical questions if you go this route though:

• Do the sites' TOS allow bots in the first place?
• How would you cover expenses of running this service?
• What would you do with leftover proceeds if your funding source covered operations?
• Would you be obligated to offer to help the parks integrate this feature into their system first, rather than start by building it from the outside (if the goal is to help all people reserve campsites more efficiently)?
• Consider some points from this article: https://www.kqed.org/news/11450483/cant-get-that-camping-spot-it-could-be-bots

I don't have answers, but figured it's worth mentioning.

[banool]

Regarding your points:

• Probably not, but people are doing it now, and only those who are code-literate are able to do this.
• I would probably just cover it myself.
• N/A. If there was an external funding source, the remainder would go to charity (as do all the proceeds from any of my side projects).
• I can't imagine reaching out to a government agency to offer feature integration would go very well.
• The intent of having such a site would be to alleviate this issue. Currently tech savvy folks are beating out regular folks, offering the script up as an easy to use site would help everyone use it.

Thanks for raising these. The ethics of the script have been tricky for me to reconcile. I figure if I make it private, then there is no chance for anyone else to get in beyond those who already have copies of it. Furthermore, this has already been forked countless times.

I figure the only way out at this at this point is for recreation.gov to lock down their API / site.

[banool]

I would prefer either option over what we have now. Having a tool that only some people can use is unfair.

[ntogasa]

Hi, I recently forked this project and inserted it into a Django project so that non-coders can use it. It does not have notifications set up yet but it does allow for people to find campgrounds and search many at once.

https://github.com/ntogasa/campground_scavenger

[grantiago]

😆 that website is called https://recreation.gov