List exports might not include all accounts in the list

[seanthegeek]

I used listmanager.py to export the list of accounts followed by MeidasTouch@mstdn.social (meidasTouch@mstdn.social.csv). When I used the same script to import that list into my US politics list, API errors were returned for 12 of the 50 accounts.

WARNING: Unable to add washingtonpost@mstdn.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add juddlegum@journa.host to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add DevinCow@mastodon.online to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add mehdihasan@journa.host to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add meidaslisa@mastodon.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add CREW@mstdn.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add pkrugman@mastodon.online to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add rexchapman@sfba.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add MuellerSheWrote@mastodon.online to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add KlasfeldReports@journa.host to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add JoyceVance@mstdn.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')
WARNING: Unable to add katiephang@mstdn.social to US politics: ('Mastodon API returned error', 422, 'Unprocessable Entity', 'Validation failed: Account has already been taken')

Further investigation revealed that these accounts appeared in the list web UI after a previous run, but for some reason are not listed in the list_accounts API call, so the script thinks those accounts need to be added to the list. This results in the API errors, because the accounts ate already in the list.

I will open an issue on the Mastodon project, and use this issue for reference.

[seanthegeek]

It turns out that information from this API call is eventually accurate, it's just delayed. This seems to be a caching problem somewhere. Investigating further with the infosec.exchange instance administrator.

[seanthegeek]

The issue occurs immediately after adding an account to a list, even if the list accounts API call hasn't been made recently, so it's not an issue of the API results being cached, but of a long delay in the accuracy of the data provided by the API call.

[seanthegeek]

Mastodon bug reported here mastodon/mastodon#22828

[seanthegeek]

Disregard. I forgot to paginate