# Lemmy Community Posts & Feedback Scraper (`thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor`) Actor

Scrape recent public Lemmy community posts from RSS feeds without an API key. Export post text, authors, points, comments, and feedback labels.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Inus Grobler](https://apify.com/thescrapelab) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.30 / 1,000 post delivereds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Lemmy Community Posts & Feedback Scraper

Scrape recent public posts from the Lemmy communities you choose, without an API key or login. The Actor reads each community's public RSS feed and exports one structured row per post. Use the results to monitor product mentions, questions, complaints, and feature requests in those communities.

### Use cases

- Follow public product or brand mentions in selected communities with keyword filters.
- Review recent community questions, bug reports, complaints, and feature requests.
- Export post metadata to JSON, CSV, or Excel for research and reporting.

### What you get

Each row includes the post title, available body text, author, community, publication time, points, comment count, source link, and a feedback category. Categories are simple English-language keyword rules and should be reviewed before making decisions. The original post URL is always included so you can verify the context.

The Actor reads public posts only. It does not collect private content, login-only pages, comments, or historical pages beyond the posts currently in each feed. A feed normally exposes about 20 recent posts; pinned posts may also appear. Repeated runs can be compared by `postId` to identify new posts.

### Input

Paste public Lemmy community URLs ending in `/c/name`. The Actor accepts 1 to 100 communities and reads up to 20 recent posts from each feed. `maxPostsPerCommunity` limits posts considered from each feed; `maxItems` limits rows returned across the whole run. A short feed or filter may produce fewer rows than either limit. `includeKeywords` and `excludeKeywords` are case-insensitive phrases searched in the post title and available body text. `feedbackOnly` keeps posts labeled `bug_report`, `feature_request`, `complaint`, or `question`; use keywords as well when you need feedback about a specific product. Sort options are `New`, `Hot`, `Active`, `TopDay`, and `TopWeek`.

#### Run in Apify Console

1. Enter one or more public community URLs, for example `https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted`.
2. Leave the sort as **Newest** for regular monitoring.
3. Optionally add include or exclude keywords and enable **Feedback only**.
4. Set the per-community and total row limits, then start the Actor.
5. Export the default dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Open **Run statistics** for failed feeds and counts.

Example input:

```json
{
  "communityUrls": ["https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"],
  "includeKeywords": ["docker", "backup"],
  "feedbackOnly": true,
  "maxPostsPerCommunity": 20,
  "maxItems": 20,
  "sort": "New"
}
```

### Output

Example output row:

```json
{
  "postId": "https://lemmy.world/post/123",
  "postUrl": "https://lemmy.world/post/123",
  "community": "selfhosted",
  "title": "Docker backup is broken after update",
  "bodyText": "Docker backup fails on startup.",
  "points": 15,
  "commentCount": 4,
  "feedbackType": "bug_report",
  "feedbackSignals": ["broken", "failure"],
  "matchedKeywords": ["docker"]
}
```

### Run through the Apify API

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor").call(run_input={
    "communityUrls": ["https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"],
    "includeKeywords": ["docker"],
    "maxItems": 20,
})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row["title"], row["feedbackType"], row["postUrl"])
```

### Limits

This Actor uses public RSS feeds, not Lemmy's API. Instance availability and feed formats can differ. An instance can disable or change its feed. The Actor reports individual feed failures in `RUN-STATS` and fails the run if every feed fails. A successful feed with no matching keywords can produce zero dataset rows.

Feedback categories are heuristic and currently tuned to English. They do not express sentiment scores or make claims about a product. Public post text is truncated to 20,000 characters in the output. The Actor follows no external article links and does not fetch comment threads.

### Troubleshooting

If a run fails or returns fewer rows than expected, inspect the `RUN-STATS` record for feed failures, posts seen, and rows written. An instance may disable its feed or return a temporary error. Verify the community URL in a browser, then try a different community or rerun later. If the feed succeeds but no rows match, remove keyword filters and turn off `feedbackOnly` to inspect its recent posts.

### Pricing

This Actor uses all-in pay-per-event pricing: **$0.0005 when a run starts, $0.004 for each community feed checked, and $0.0003 for each post delivered**. Apify platform usage during the run is included. A feed check is charged even when the feed is empty or unavailable; the `RUN-STATS` record shows how many feeds were checked and which failed. Repeated community URLs are checked once. The minimum selectable spending limit is $0.01, but your actual charge can be lower: checking one community and returning five posts costs about **$0.006**. A large run returning 1,000 posts from 50–100 communities costs about **$0.5005–$0.7005**. Set a run spending limit if you want the Actor to stop before more feeds or posts are charged.

# Actor input Schema

## `communityUrls` (type: `array`):

Paste one public /c/name URL per line, such as https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted. Each feed usually has up to 20 recent posts. A small fee applies for each feed checked, even if it is empty or unavailable.

## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional case-insensitive terms. Keep only posts whose title or available post text contains at least one term.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional case-insensitive terms. Drop posts whose title or available post text contains any term.

## `feedbackOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Return only posts classified as a bug report, feature request, complaint, or question. Classification uses English-language keyword rules.

## `maxPostsPerCommunity` (type: `integer`):

Rows to consider from each community (1–20). This cannot retrieve older posts beyond the public feed.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many rows in total, across all communities. The actual count can be lower when feeds are short or filters remove posts.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

New is recommended for monitoring. Other sorts change which recent items the feed exposes.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "communityUrls": [
    "https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"
  ],
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "feedbackOnly": false,
  "maxPostsPerCommunity": 5,
  "maxItems": 5,
  "sort": "New"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runStats` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "communityUrls": [
        "https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "communityUrls": ["https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "communityUrls": [
    "https://lemmy.world/c/selfhosted"
  ]
}' |
apify call thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,thescrapelab/lemmy-community-feedback-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/1UPsfZd0X4xQwwBUr/builds/kLudBSAXRRtrYoNAh/openapi.json