Is the ESC Searchbot still alive?

Following the uproar over the Automated Burglary thread and supplemental threads some months ago things seem to have gone quiet on the activities of the Searchbot.

I went to the website that it used to be on: http://search.sheeplabs.com
and the site is no longer there. The archive engine says it was last updated in June 2007. Does anyone know if the 'service' has now been abandoned?

Don't know if that's the right url because I never used it, but if you just go to sheeplabs.com it redirects you to shop.onrez.com. Don't know if that matters or not as I've never been an "onrez" kind of girl, either.

A

Well, on Sheep Island they still have a kiosk where you can choose to opt in or opt out from the Sheep Bot's scans. And I used that kiosk recently to opt out with a new alt, and the kiosk acted as if the service was still active. So I would have to believe they are still collecting data with it, even though the display of that data is no longer readily visible on their public site.

yes it`s alive and using more bots as the shepard is banned from alot of places, they have a small army of them running around heh

See: http://onrez.com/about_bots/

Quote:
"To collect data for this upcoming service our bots are visiting locations on the grid to collect information only on items for sale and land that is included in Second Life Search. If you don't want your land or the items on your land included in Search OnRez results please ban the avatar Grid Shepherd. Your request will become effective in 24 to 48 hours."

According to this webpage, it's very much alive and active. They have apparently limited it to only scanning parcels that are listed in 'Search Places', as well as to only list items that are marked 'for sale'. (The earlier release listed all 'for sale' items on all parcels, even if it was in your skybox bedroom.) So apparently, if your parcel is not listed in Search Places, it supposedly won't bother you.

They still claim that banning Grid Shepherd from your parcel will prevent you from being scanned. But that has been proven to be a false claim in the past, as it can stand on some other parcel in scanning range, and it can't possibly KNOW if it's banned from your parcel, if it hasn't tried entering your parcel. You show me how they can detect, from outside a given parcel, that the item their scanner detects is within the borders of a parcel that the bot is banned from, *without* attempting to enter the parcel, and I'll believe banning it is effective. Until then, I very much doubt it. There is no LSL call that allows for that banned status to be determined, by any means other than attempting entry into every parcel. So it can't possibly be certain that the scanned item is or is not on a parcel the bot is banned from, unless it attempts to TP to the location of every detected item that it finds!

You can go to Sheep Island and manually opt out of their search, in which case it won't list that avatar at all. The kiosk is hidden on the second floor of a building near the North rim of the sim.

there is no opt out, i think i`ve cought 3-4 of their bots except the shepard, all reffering to their website in profile so it`s total BS

Why do you say this? I know I can right-click on any parcel that I can get my camera to and see who's on the ban list. No need to try to enter the parcel.

And how do you think the viewer draws ban lines around access-only parcels before you try to cross into them?

Basing it on past observed behavior of the Grid Shepherd Bot. I had it banned from my land, and after banning it, the bot recorded and listed things in my parcel anyway. It had listed the exact coordinates within my parcel, but the parcel name that it reported was where it had been standing, half a sim away from my land. It was not anywhere near my land when it recorded my items.

When I went to their kiosk and opted out, my items were removed from the list that anyone could, at that time, get from their search bot website.

Grid Shepherd is part of a group called "OnRez Bot Army", with 223 members. As far as I can tell, they are virtually all Bots. (Two real people are listed as "Bot Army Generals". If they all function as Grid Shepherd does, then how does banning just Grid Shepherd keep all the others out?

I think it more likely that that was a bug in the bot code rather than proof that "it can't possibly KNOW if it's banned from your parcel, if it hasn't tried entering your parcel."

It certainly can know, if the bot code is smart enough, that it's banned from a parcel without trying to move onto that parcel.

I haven't really had a need to play with these two functions in detail, but couldn't this be done using the LSL functions llGetParcelFlags() and llScriptDanger()? Both of those functions work off of a vector location - you don't need to be on the parcel in question.

Also, my understanding was that Grid Shepherd primarily leveraged libSL functions to operate, not LSL. If this is the case, it wouldn't surprise me if libSL was leveraged to check banlist status as well.

Of course, without access to peruse the code they're using, its all a big ol' unknown

I now have 5 of those bots on my ban list and only 1 real person. I often wonder what percentage of the active population are bots.

an good amount of that, then u have a crapload of alt "bots" who just stand around to increase traffic and a huge amount of campers

online figures are inflated, perhaps 30-40% real ppl?

Surely their web-site is going to be completely redundant once the new SL search hits?

I sure hope so... then maybe ESC will stop sending out those damned bots.

The bots are *not* currently active. The initial system was under "Sheep Labs" because it was very experimental, and we've learned a lot and gotten some great feedback from many people. The website interface to that search system has been closed for some time. We are reviewing approaches and design and learning about Linden Lab's new system. When we plan to re-initiate search bots, we will make it public on the OnRez blog and explain how they will work.

Thank you to everyone who has been giving us feedback, positive and negative.

Will you make your system opt in? Or will you force all of us to be in it like the last time?

I really, really hope you people do NOT release bots again. They sure as hell are not welcome on my land, nor is your sense of entitlement.

I am beginning to really dislike ESC.

Just a reminder checklist from the old days for dealing with sheepbots, folks:

!. Ban 'em, especially from islands.
2. Rename all your rezzed objects to something innocuous, like "chair," "table" or the ever-popular "object."
3. Set up decoys with contents that amuse you the most, like anti-ESC notecards.
4. Is it really wrong to orbit a bot? One thinks not.
5. Find ways to convey to ESC your feelings about being treated like sheep by a company that regards itself as the meatpacker. Be inventive.