Traffic Bots Against the TOS of LL?

Yup! Using plywood boxes to index the individual items available from the vendors would be a sensible and useful thing.
However, if such boxes add to ranking, then they absolutely will be abused, and there goes yet another 'good thing' subverted by the people_whose_lives_are_not_high.

Dwell - abused into meaninglessness.
Traffic - ditto
Picks - ditto
Prims - more of the same

It can't be assumed that -
It can't be assumed that an avatar on a parcel is a bot.
It can't be assumed that a pick is not paid for.
It can't be assumed that a prim on a parcel is a bogus ranking prim.


If LL won't stamp on the abuse, then the alternative is to remove the abused factors as ranking indicators, and never introduce a new factor without first ensuring that it can't be abused.





Spam does exist in SL.
Unsolicited electronic messages.
I get group invitations out of the blue - even sent when I'm offline.
I get messages when I pass some parcels without actually entering their boundaries.

I seriously think you need to think about doing something different other than SL.!

You're alternative solutions are not viable at all.

Fact is and a few have pointed this out already...LL has bought a Google styled search engine, which requires IBL's to create a ranking of results for any given chosen keyword. You can't simply dismiss parts of it because you don't like it...all LL can do is change the weighting of those IBL's.....and any of those IBL categories can be gamed !

LL had a system they were frustrated about because it was so heavily gamed,

So they bought a system that can easily be gamed.

Yep sounds like LL to me.

I seriously think you need to think about doing something different other than SL.!

You're alternative solutions are not viable at all.

Fact is and a few have pointed this out already...LL has bought a Google styled search engine, which requires IBL's to create a ranking of results for any given chosen keyword. You can't simply dismiss parts of it because you don't like it...all LL can do is change the weighting of those IBL's.....and any of those IBL categories can be gamed !

I don't think the OP has products., but if you mean why would any store use bots, it's been answered lots of times in the various bot threads. It's like asking, why would a business want to increase sales. Word of mouth abd classifieds doesn't reach most people who use the Places tab search or the All search.

i meant yourself Phil "with no disrespect intended" if you have a great product. then why resort to bots. wouldnt word of mouth....be enough to keep you busy, and from what i understand, alot of creators do very well with that approach. why get grouped into "that bot nonsense.

I think the simplest solution is an increased about land box, and a keywords section in about land.

Remove the spamming of prims with keywords to game search all.

Remove the picks from the rankings.

Remove the need for traffic period.

And make sure that the search all can not be gamed with html coding, especially since the means to include some of it can be used to link to scripts that can be run in the built in browser without any of the real security of even IE

Fact is that ... LL bought something not fit for the conditions.

I think that's probably quite correct.

For example, I have no idea if IBL ranking weight can be zeroed out altogether

But really, isn't it just that the reason LL keeps "traffic" as a metric and allows "trafficbots" to go largely unhindered is because if they actually kill "traffic" as a search metric it will result in their own concurrancy numbers dropping drastically?

I mean, that's the real reason LL doesn't bother to address this issue outright, isn't it? Those 20,000 trafficbots online at any given time aren't only good selling numbers for the people using the bots to maniuplate the search system for their own benefit, they benefit LL as well, by giving LL concurrency numbers that they can sell to investors.QUOTE]

I think Pie has a point but not in the sense that LL "want" to lie about the current amount of "accounts" but rather because they have already quoted various amounts of registered accounts - too suddenly loose all bots or alts accounts over the acceptble amount of 2 ( for example ) their "registered users" would drop significantly.
This would be seen to the outside "competition" as significant in a " LL are crumbling" and there are now various types of competition for LL that wasnt around 4 or 5 yrs ago.

These browser based VWs as pathetic as I think they are must have some interest and as such must effect LL's potential and existing business. Not everyone wants to create and make money. To some % of ppl SL is simply a social thing and you can socilise in any environment if its pleasing to the eye and has an user friendly interface ( another negative for SL - took me 3 mths to grasp it and I kept logging out swearing I would never log back in again )

The SL client is a thick one and constantly being updated and getting fatter by the month.

I have had 2 PCs since being with SL but I know for example my friend's laptop cant run SL its laggy as Hell.

I rememeber..back in the day... lol when you could actually run SL on dial up and it was listed as acceptable in the "requirents" on the SL webpage.

People have been forced to either leave SL or buy new PCs or upgrade their RAM, Graphics card etc etc etc. Its a lot to ask from customers when their experience is also being effected with constant updateds and add ons..

All decisions LL do are for their benefit as a business either to increase revenue, maintain success to the outside world and their competitors and protect themselves as a business financially and legally.

And no one can blame them for that, they are after all a business and have wages to pay, rent to pay, kids to feed etc etc.
It must be hard to try and be the " peoples people " whilst also trying to maintain a business.

They have grown faster than they expected...I thnk its dropped off somewhat since Sept 07. There used to be HUGE leaps in amounts of ppl registered now I suspect 80% are just more alts or bots..

I think having different log in islands...is not a good thing. Keep it simple..and consistant in training ppl...having them log into CSI sim to me is a disaster..its just too much info all at once.

But hey , what do I know? ...this is only MO.

I don't think the OP has products., but if you mean why would any store use bots, it's been answered lots of times in the various bot threads. It's like asking, why would a business want to increase sales. Word of mouth abd classifieds doesn't reach most people who use the Places tab search or the All search.

i meant yourself Phil "with no disrespect intended" if you have a great product. then why resort to bots. wouldnt word of mouth....be enough to keep you busy, and from what i understand, alot of creators do very well with that approach. why get grouped into "that bot nonsense.

Don't forget that there are very few people who are known to be against the use of traffic bots and camping, and they are here. They are not even in the majority here - they are very vocal on the topic, but that's all. I've asked customer strangers about my bots, and even taken some to see them, but not one has said anything against them. So don't think that the few very vocal people here are representative of SL users - they are not.

[added]
Also don't forget that nobody outside LL has any idea how many traffic bots are logged in at any given time, and LL probably has no idea either. So statements that 20,000 are logged in at any given time is just plain nonsense.

As for ratio of those who dislike the massive bot farms, you have no real evidence to support your idea that it's a small minority that is against them. The forums are not a good measure.

For a proper idea you'd have to get LL to poll the user base. But such polls would be skewed simply by the bots runners voting with the alts.

I think Pie has a point but not in the sense that LL "want" to lie about the current amount of "accounts" but rather because they have already quoted various amounts of registered accounts - too suddenly loose all bots or alts accounts over the acceptble amount of 2 ( for example ) their "registered users" would drop significantly.
This would be seen to the outside "competition" as significant in a " LL are crumbling" and there are now various types of competition for LL that wasnt around 4 or 5 yrs ago.

If you can still link to an external website with html code then you can link to far more malicious code than a cookie.

As for removing prims on land from search, can be done with minor code changes.

Keywords would be limited to a keyword input box, and it's simple to make keyword spamming verboten and warn on said page. (Add it to the AR options)

IBL are not a firm requirement for google search tools... that can be switched off and only keywords used. (which is what happens when they are used for internal search of data servers in a corporate environment)

As for ratio of those who dislike the massive bot farms, you have no real evidence to support your idea that it's a small minority that is against them. The forums are not a good measure.

For the most part many don't even know or understand how the systems are being gamed. It doesn't seem to affect them so they don't look behind the curtains to see who is pulling the strings.

And your tool description is accurate, and like a hammer these tools can and are misused by many. Just because it's legal to own a hammer does not mean it's okay to pull nails out of the competition's signs so they fall off the post

My view:-
LL never created SL to be a world that needs their supervision. They created, and continue to create, a 3-D enviroment - for the use of. What it gets used for isn't their concern, as long as it's legal. They have no intention of keeping it for themselves, and they work towards a WWG (World Wide Grid), which is not in their control. We tend to think of SL as a self-contained place that ought to supervised, but I don't think that that is what LL is creating or about, and I think that's why they involve themselves as little as possible.

People keep making suggestions as to why LL doesn't do something about things like traffic bots and camping. Things like keeping up the stats are often suggested, but I have another suggestion.

My view:-
LL never created SL to be a world that needs their supervision. They created, and continue to create, a 3-D enviroment - for the use of. What it gets used for isn't their concern, as long as it's legal. They have no intention of keeping it for themselves, and they work towards a WWG (World Wide Grid), which is not in their control. We tend to think of SL as a self-contained place that ought to supervised, but I don't think that that is what LL is creating or about, and I think that's why they involve themselves as little as possible.

You are correct. I can only go by what I know, and I know that only a minority of people who use this forum are vocal against traffic bots and camping.

But systems like search are run by LL, not the residents. If LL doesn't fix these things, then they may as well admit they're pointless because they do not work as intended. Since we are the ones paying for the system, I don't think it's out of line for us to expect them to develop and improve those systems that do not work as intended.

But systems like search are run by LL, not the residents. If LL doesn't fix these things, then they may as well admit they're pointless because they do not work as intended. Since we are the ones paying for the system, I don't think it's out of line for us to expect them to develop and improve those systems that do not work as intended.

However, in this thread alone, the number of people who oppose the gaming of traffic is far greater then the number of those that support it. I only counted 3 people who take a stance that it's ok, and more then 10 who express a dislike (at the least) of the practice.

So who's actually in the minority?

People who express a dislike, and people who defend the use, are both: The majority of the readers do not seem to give a damn. A few against, a few don't mind or are in favor, and the great majority really do not care. They keep shopping at the places that make the stuff they like, bots or not.

Ok but that doesnt make the people who are vocal against it any more of a minority then those who defend it.

Again, a handful of people use bots or picks camping, a handful of people speak out against it, and the majority could not care less.