"""Fetch ALL comments on every AF post. Strategy: read alignmentforum_posts.jsonl (must already exist), then for each post issue `comments(view: "commentsByPost", postId: ...)`. Comments are written incrementally so partial runs can be resumed. NO start-date filter. Writes: data/alignmentforum_comments.jsonl Usage: python fetch_alignmentforum_comments.py [--max-per-post N] """ import argparse import json import os import re import sys import time from pathlib import Path import requests PROJECT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)) sys.path.insert(0, PROJECT_DIR) API = "https://www.lesswrong.com/graphql" POSTS_IN = Path(PROJECT_DIR) / "data" / "alignmentforum_posts.jsonl" OUT = Path(PROJECT_DIR) / "data" / "alignmentforum_comments.jsonl" MIN_WORDS = 20 def strip_html(html): text = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", " ", html or "") for esc, raw in [(" ", " "), ("&", "&"), ("<", "<"), (">", ">"), (""", '"'), ("'", "'")]: text = text.replace(esc, raw) text = re.sub(r"\s+", " ", text) return text.strip() def gql(query, variables=None, retries=3): for attempt in range(retries): try: r = requests.post(API, json={"query": query, "variables": variables or {}}, timeout=60) r.raise_for_status() j = r.json() if "errors" in j: raise RuntimeError(f"GraphQL errors: {j['errors']}") return j["data"] except Exception as e: if attempt == retries - 1: raise print(f" retry {attempt+1}/{retries}: {e}", flush=True) time.sleep(5 * (attempt + 1)) QUERY = """ query GetCommentsForPost($pid: String!, $limit: Int) { comments(input: {terms: {view: "commentsByPost", postId: $pid, limit: $limit}}) { results { _id postId postedAt baseScore af contents { html } user { displayName } } } } """ def main(): ap = argparse.ArgumentParser() ap.add_argument("--max-per-post", type=int, default=1000) args = ap.parse_args() if not POSTS_IN.exists(): print(f"FATAL: {POSTS_IN} not found. Run fetch_alignmentforum.py first.") sys.exit(1) # Load post IDs post_ids = [] with open(POSTS_IN) as f: for line in f: post_ids.append(json.loads(line)["id"]) print(f"have {len(post_ids)} AF posts to scan for comments", flush=True) # Resume: skip post IDs we've already pulled comments for done_posts = set() if OUT.exists(): with open(OUT) as f: for line in f: try: done_posts.add(json.loads(line)["post_id"]) except: pass print(f"resume: {len(done_posts)} posts already pulled", flush=True) todo = [p for p in post_ids if p not in done_posts] print(f"to fetch: {len(todo)}", flush=True) n_comments = 0 t0 = time.time() with open(OUT, "a") as f: for i, pid in enumerate(todo): try: data = gql(QUERY, {"pid": pid, "limit": args.max_per_post}) except Exception as e: print(f" ERR post {pid}: {e}", flush=True) continue results = data.get("comments", {}).get("results", []) or [] for c in results: # Only keep AF comments (since LW posts cross-post can have non-AF replies) if not c.get("af"): continue cid = c.get("_id") body = strip_html((c.get("contents") or {}).get("html") or "") wc = len(body.split()) if not cid or not body or wc < MIN_WORDS: continue f.write(json.dumps({ "id": cid, "post_id": c.get("postId"), "posted_at": c.get("postedAt"), "body": body, "word_count": wc, "base_score": c.get("baseScore"), "author": (c.get("user") or {}).get("displayName"), "doc_type": "comment", }) + "\n") n_comments += 1 if (i + 1) % 50 == 0: f.flush() elapsed = time.time() - t0 rate = (i + 1) / max(1, elapsed) eta = (len(todo) - i - 1) / max(0.01, rate) / 60 print(f" scanned {i+1}/{len(todo)} posts, " f"{n_comments} comments kept, ETA {eta:.1f}min", flush=True) time.sleep(0.2) print(f"=== done: {n_comments} AF comments >={MIN_WORDS} words -> {OUT} ===", flush=True) if __name__ == "__main__": main()