SpareRoom Listing Age Highlighter

WHAT IT DOES

This userscript helps renters quickly identify the freshest listings on SpareRoom and similar rental sites. It scans the page for listing dates or "days ago" indicators, calculates the age of each listing in days, and applies a color-coded highlight based on how long ago it was posted. Green highlights indicate fresh listings (0–3 days), yellow for recent (4–7 days), orange for older (8–14 days), and red for stale (15+ days). The script can also sort listings by age, hide listings older than a user-defined threshold, and display a badge showing the exact number of days. It can detect "bumped" or reposted listings and flag them with a special tag, so you know if an ad has been deliberately refreshed to appear newer than it really is.

WHERE IT RUNS

The script works on SpareRoom UK listing pages and similar room/rental listing sites. It runs entirely within your browser, reading only the visible content of the current page. It does not track your browsing history, access other tabs, or send any data externally. All settings—age thresholds, hide preferences, and display options—are stored locally in your browser using GM_setValue.

HOW TO USE

After installation, open the panel by clicking the tool's icon in the BotGentz sidebar. Choose your age threshold preset—default thresholds are 3 days (fresh), 7 days (recent), 14 days (old), and 30 days (stale). Select how to highlight listings: "Badge" shows a colored tag with the age in days, "Left border" adds a colored border, and "Background" applies a tinted background. Choose whether to hide listings older than a certain number of days, sort listings by age (newest first or oldest first), show the exact posting date, or flag bumped/reposted listings. Click "Scan and highlight" to apply your settings. Use "Clear highlights" to remove all visual changes and restore the page to its original state.

THE TECHNICAL MECHANISM

This script uses text pattern matching and DOM traversal to detect and analyze listing ages. It scans the page for elements that contain date-related text using common class names like .listing, .result, .property, and [class*="listing"]. For each element, it extracts text and applies a cascade of regex patterns to detect the listing age: "X days ago" (direct age), "X hours ago" (converted to days), "X minutes ago" (0 days), "Today" (0 days), "Yesterday" (1 day), or absolute dates like "15 Jan 2025" or "2025-01-15". The parsed age in days is compared against user-defined thresholds to determine the highlight color. The "bumped" detection looks for keywords like "bumped", "reposted", "updated", and "re-listed" in the listing text. The script applies CSS styles directly to the listing elements—either adding badge spans, modifying borders, or adjusting backgrounds—and can reorder DOM elements for sorting. All processing is local and does not rely on external APIs.

THE PANEL

The panel is draggable anywhere on the screen and remembers its position between sessions. It can be collapsed to a small floating bubble to minimize distraction, and expanded again with a single click. The panel's width can be adjusted, and pressing the Escape key closes it instantly. All settings—threshold preset, hide threshold, highlight style, sort order, show exact date, flag bumped, and auto-scan—are persisted locally using GM_setValue, so your preferences remain intact across page reloads and browser restarts.

PLEASE NOTE

This userscript requires the free BotGentz extension to function. The script is designed for SpareRoom UK and similar rental listing sites; it may work on other sites with similar date formats but is not guaranteed. The age detection relies on common date patterns—some listing pages may use different date formats or show dates differently. The "bumped" detection is keyword-based and may produce false positives or miss some reposted listings. Always verify the date information manually for critical decisions. No data from your browsing is stored or transmitted anywhere—all processing occurs entirely in your browser.