The Clusterflick bot
Clusterflick is a free listings site covering every screening at over 450 London cinemas. To keep it up to date, a bot collects listings from cinema websites and ticketing platforms twice a day, at around 4am and 4pm UK time.
What it uses
Factual scheduling information: which film is showing, where and when, the format, accessibility details such as subtitled or audio-described screenings, and the link to book. The bot saves pages as it finds them, but only those facts are used. Your synopses, marketing copy, images and prices don't appear on Clusterflick or in its published data.
What happens to the data
Every listing on Clusterflick links directly to the venue's own booking page. Clusterflick doesn't sell tickets. The listing data that powers Clusterflick is also published openly under a CC BY 4.0 licence, and other London film sites use it.
How it behaves
Each run fetches current listings from scratch, so if you change or remove a screening, Clusterflick reflects that after the next run. Requests are spaced out to keep load low, and the bot slows down where a site limits request rates. Some sites block automated requests, so for those the bot uses a standard browser, and its visits will look like ordinary traffic in your logs.
Getting in touch
If the bot is causing problems for your site, or a listing is wrong, email [email protected].
If you'd rather your venue wasn't listed, get in touch and tell me why.