Reddit Comment Scraper

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An Apify Actor for scraping comments from Reddit posts using browser automation with Playwright.

Features

• 💬 Scrape comments from multiple Reddit posts
• 📊 Extract comprehensive comment data (text, author, score, timestamps, etc.)
• 🔄 Automatically expand collapsed threads and "load more" sections
• 🌳 Capture nested comment structure with depth levels
• 📦 No authentication required for public posts
• 💾 Data saved in structured JSON format
• 🌐 Browser automation bypasses API restrictions

Input Parameters

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

Example Input

{
"postUrls":[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abc123/interesting_discussion/",
"https://old.reddit.com/r/python/comments/1def456/another_post/"
],
"maxComments":200,
"expandThreads":true
}

Output Fields

The actor extracts the following data for each comment:

Comment Information

• comment_id - Unique comment ID (e.g., "abc123xyz")
• comment_name - Full comment name in Reddit format (e.g., "t1_abc123xyz")
• author - Username of the comment author (or "[deleted]")
• text - Full comment text/content

Engagement Metrics

• score - Comment score/karma (upvotes minus downvotes)
• awards_count - Number of awards/gildings the comment received

Links

• permalink - Direct link to the comment
• post_url - URL of the parent post

Metadata

• depth - Nesting level/depth in the comment thread (0 = top-level)
• parent_comment_id - ID of the parent comment (null for top-level comments)
• is_op - Boolean indicating if the author is the Original Poster
• is_edited - Boolean indicating if the comment was edited
• is_stickied - Boolean indicating if the comment is stickied/pinned

Timestamps

• created_utc - Unix timestamp when the comment was created
• created_at - ISO 8601 formatted datetime (e.g., "2025-10-14T12:30:45")

Example Output

{
"comment_id":"abc123xyz",
"comment_name":"t1_abc123xyz",
"author":"example_user",
"text":"This is a great discussion! I totally agree with your points about...",
"score":42,
"awards_count":2,
"permalink":"https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abc123/_/abc123xyz/",
"post_url":"https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abc123/interesting_discussion/",
"depth":0,
"parent_comment_id":null,
"is_op":false,
"is_edited":true,
"is_stickied":false,
"created_utc":1728912645,
"created_at":"2025-10-14T12:30:45"
}

Usage

Local Development

1. Install dependencies:

   pip install-r requirements.txt
   playwright install chromium

2. Set up input in storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json:

   {
   "postUrls":["https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1example/"],
   "maxComments":100,
   "expandThreads":true
   }

3. Run the actor:

   $python -m src

4. Check results in storage/datasets/default/

On Apify Platform

1. Push to Apify:

   • Login to Apify CLI: apify login
   • Initialize: apify init (if not already done)
   • Push to Apify: apify push

2. Or manually upload:

   • Create a new actor on Apify platform
   • Upload all files including Dockerfile, requirements.txt, and .actor/ directory

3. Configure and run:

   • Set input parameters in the Apify console
   • Paste Reddit post URLs
   • Click "Start" to run the actor
   • Download results from the dataset tab

Technical Details

Browser Automation

• Uses Playwright with Chromium browser
• Scrapes old.reddit.com for better compatibility and simpler HTML structure
• Implements anti-detection measures:
  • Custom User-Agent headers
  • Disabled automation flags
  • Browser fingerprint masking

Features

• Automatic thread expansion: Clicks "load more" and "continue this thread" buttons
• Smart extraction: Handles nested comments and preserves thread structure
• Depth tracking: Captures comment nesting levels
• Parent-child relationships: Links comments to their parents
• Error handling: Gracefully handles deleted comments and missing data

Comment Expansion

The scraper automatically:

1. Clicks "load more comments" buttons (up to 10 per attempt)
2. Clicks "continue this thread" links (up to 5 per attempt)
3. Makes up to 3 expansion attempts to maximize comment coverage
4. Waits for new comments to load after each expansion

Performance

• Headless browser mode for efficiency
• Optimized page load strategy (domcontentloaded)
• Configurable wait times and timeouts
• Parallel processing of multiple posts (sequential with delays)

Limitations

• Only works with public Reddit posts
• Cannot scrape private or restricted posts
• Browser automation is slower than direct API calls but more reliable
• Hidden scores show as 0 (when "[score hidden]" is displayed)
• Maximum 10,000 comments per post (configurable)

Dependencies

• apify>=2.1.0 - Apify SDK for Python
• playwright~=1.40.0 - Browser automation framework
• beautifulsoup4~=4.12.0 - HTML parsing library

Troubleshooting

Timeout Issues

If you encounter timeout errors:

• Check if the post URL is valid and accessible
• Increase timeout values in the code if needed
• Verify the post has comments

Missing Comments

If some comments are missing:

• Enable expandThreads to load collapsed comments
• Increase maxComments limit
• Some comments may be deleted or removed by moderators

"[deleted]" Authors

• Comments from deleted accounts show "[deleted]" as author
• This is normal Reddit behavior
• The comment text may still be available or show as "[removed]"

Use Cases

• Sentiment Analysis: Analyze community opinions on topics
• Market Research: Gather user feedback and discussions
• Content Moderation: Monitor discussions for moderation
• Academic Research: Study online community interactions
• Data Analysis: Build datasets for machine learning

License

This actor is provided as-is for scraping public Reddit data in accordance with Reddit's terms of service.

Notes

• This scraper uses browser automation to access Reddit's public web interface
• Always respect Reddit's robots.txt and terms of service
• Use responsibly and avoid overwhelming Reddit's servers
• Consider implementing additional rate limiting for large-scale scraping
• The actor works best with the Apify platform's infrastructure
• Posts with thousands of comments may take longer to scrape