Bye bye traffic bots

What the flock are you talking about?

I'm talking about "here I am in a 3d world, and I want to transfer a 16m parcel from one group to another, so I xelect it, sell it to myself, buy it from the other group, DONE". That's a frikken 3d transaction in a frikken 3d world.

If they MOVE land sales to the web that becomes some kind of frikken nightmare of logging in to a website and faffing around with an eBay auction system to select the parcel and whatever else is involved.

Or didn't you catch the "MOVE" part?

Is it me or is LL actually making an attempt to govern the land they are repsonsible for governing, a job which they have pretty much ignored for the last 6 years? Don't wanna get my hopes up but it is seeming to me, just slightly, in a round about way, that they actually give a sh*t!

That's cool.

Enemies, too.

But, then again, that is the nature of any controversial subject and participating about it publicly.

Pretty much yes thats how it will go.

I also think that mainland abusers with less than full sims will be more strictly dealt with than full and private sim owners. If only because any bots they do have are directly affecting the other tier-paying residents on the sim.

The best thing I take out of this is that LL are going to actively monitor bot use. As they are now doing with landcutting and inworld advertising on the mainland. And not just rely on the AR system before they act to enforce their own ToS. This a major improvement in attitude and an acknowledgement that they have a responsibility to us their customers to do so. Is all good.

Wow I now have an anti bot boner.

This is the best news I have heard in a long time

Is there a poll yet for betting on what concurrency settles out at in a post-traffic bot SL?

that is going to me very interesting to see.

I didn't take it seriously. I couldn't imagine that they'd actually remove the in-world land transactions, just because they made it available on the web, too. If that's really what they have in mind, yeah, very bad idea.

If they build a "transfer parcel" feature that doesn't require separate sale and purchase (as between groups), and make it accessible either by web or in-world, I see it as a win. (And again, yes, only by web would be a step backwards.)

I meant "no 3D context" to refer to landbots: if automated land purchase and sale is going to happen, I just don't see the point of having the automation jump through all the hoops and overhead of an in-world session complete with teleports. It's not as if the bots will enjoy the view.

You broke the rules there

hahahahhah =) Ive had that happen to me sometimes when Ive been inspecting an instore model up close. lol =) Nearly frightened the life out of me the first time it happened. Im a bit more aware now =)

I dont mind instore models at all. They work really well for me at times. Can examine a skin closely knowing how it will exactly look inworld for instance. Also to, Ive bought outfits that flow really well inworld because I saw it on an animated modelling bot. Bots are ok as models in this sense I think.

I do prefer though operator models (sales assistants) who readily and happily answer questions knowledgeably from prospective customers about the clothes and accessories they are modelling.

Absolutely.

The way it's been set up, I don't see it making the huge difference that it would have made had LL wanted ARs about traffic bot use. It sounds more like a gradual process to me. And, of course, quite a number of the pure traffic bots will be given other tasks to turn them into "good bots".

Maybe they will stage a sit-in protest =p =)

Phil, if they are legitimate models, or some other such use, there is no reason why you can't employ them as you always have.

I'd bet, though, that half of them go away entirely. The game for those with "task bots" will be staying under the radar of realistic traffic. I'd guess a 50% reduction in bot usage, what that translates out to for concurrency will be revealing.

I'll wager. Ballpark count online now - 70,000.

35,000 of those are bots. 15,000 are store owner alts camping, or window washing. Actual Users 20,000.

During the course of 6 months....half of the 35,000 might get busted. (optimistically)
17,500 bots left. 15,000 store owner alts camping, still in place.

The 17,500 that got busted...revert to alt camping and window washing. Now 17,500 bots in line to be busted.....and 32,500 store owner alts camping and window washing.

70,000 reported online....20,000 actual users. Works out fine.

ooops...forgot about about half of the ones that got busted coming back as a new user (or same user)....setting up the bot camp again....maybe less obvious.....spread those guys out....and milking it for a few months while the ones next in line get busted.....waiting their turn again.....which makes.....

78,750 online.....20,000 actual users. Much Better.

How do you distinguish bots that are intended to attract people by being green dots on the map from bots being used to boost search ranking by increasing traffic?

\o/

Is a conjecture and is ok that you do this. Taking this conjecture as a given though means that 1.0-1.5% of all actual users visit my place everyday. I simply find this figure difficult to reconcile with my own inworld experience.

Will people be getting their bots verified to use on the Adult continent?

And how many will be allowed to be owned by the same account?

I know we are only supposed to want stability and performance improvements these days but I'm longing for some COOL FUN NEW FEATURES personally. I can't make a good case for them being worked on, my wants not seeming to be something the world cares much about, but I'd really like the new features we get to be something more fun than bot bans and content segregation.

however folks using bots as models and such, they can tag them as a bot, thus not show up in the traffic results (eventually according to the blog post)

so yeah sure, have all the bots you want, to model furniture, clothes, wash windows etc, just flag them as a bot first.

(simple solution there I would think, if someone really wants to use the bot as a model etc and not to game traffic scores, then they will have no problems tagging the bot as a bot)

More interesting is a betting on the traffic around mid-July

1) Traffic gaming policy
2) Adult verification policy
3) 2nd phase of tier hikes ofr Homesteads to $125 p/mth
4) Summer ie.holidays, people spend more time outdoors

i'll tip it to be 58k on Sunday 12th July (2pm PDT -week's peak login period)

Is it ok to have some bots around just to try to give yourself the impression you have some friends?

"making friends" means something else entirely. well, perhaps just "partially".