Best Ways to Combat Bots?

When camp owners find out they have bots, its kinda a drag on them bc they're finding out that there's a less of a guarantee that the linden there shilling out is going to be spent in their location on their products, and not put into the pockets of a bot runner.

Of all the folks i know that camp with one or more alts, they use the money in world to fund their activities here...to buy clothing, shoes, skins, land, pay tier, etc. However, the idea that someone who camps should spend the money in the same location where they camped is pretty far fetched. wouldnt it be better to give out gift certificates and let folks buy things only in their stores? some folks do this with great success and it is a much more effective way to get money spent in a certain store. is the issue of giant fleets of bots scoring big bucks to pull out of sl and not spend any money at all in world one that folks really are aware of? i had not been so the concept is news to me....

I am curious where you pulled this number from. How do you know how much USD is pulled out of the game by bots? Can you provide solid facts to prove this number? Now I am curious, I want to see where you get your data from to make such a claim.

I have no problem with bots as long as they are not in my face, or messing with my SL experience.

(and for places that are stores that use bots, and cause a drag on the server/sim well they just end up losing my business, did not hinder my SL experience, as I would just shop elsewhere, but it sure did hinder theirs)

It is not like bots are invading my store, and hanging out harassing customers.

"Upon relfection, i take my post back"

If you have a rash of bots appearing on your land put a shop on it or rent it out, be thankfull for free traffic.
No point in combating bots, you're better off just raising awareness of the issues caused by mass botting, bots in themselves aren't bad.

Tegg,

I'm more concerned about bots ability to do just about anything in the game when it comes to taking away those lindens from real campers.

Elitedata,

I pray you roll out a few camping devices with that script soon

Rhaorth,

I got the numbers from taking the figures of two bot applications and giving then the value of 144 lindens per head per day and then let my business partner in mpl do the rest of the math, either way the number scared me to take action.

Jojogirl,

With bots camping, people like who i used to be, can easily commit fraud by controlling 5 or six camp locations and then taking the lindens out of game. This does a number on the market.

im just still not convinced the money goes out of sl and is a problem

"Upon relfection, i take my post back"

I dont like bots much... but wow dude sounds like you wana be the grid mommy lol
I think we have enough of those already.

"Upon relfection, i take my post back"

"Upon relfection, i take my post back"

The best way to combat bots is to enact change within the policies of SL.


Or lasers.

Wow, things must be slow. We haven't had a 'bots are taking over the world' thread in quite some time.

ok you explained how you came up with the number

now how did you determine that the money actually leaves SL?

How do you know they are not alt bots, helping someone cover tier on their main, or enabling their shopping addiction on their main, thus the money staying in SL

Actually now that I think about it, all lindens eventually are taken out of SL, eventually someone will cash out the lindens that I spent at their store, or spent at another store that was then spent at another store that the owner cashed out

Op posts asking for ways to 'combat' bots on his own land, then claims to know how to tell if a client is a bot, but won't say, then claims they (the bot users) are robbing us blind (actually they're just robbing camp chair owners blind =)...

I see a chain, it's getting yanked, but it ain't mine.

PS I only scored 39% human on the replicant test.... to my credit I've been in SL better than 4 years.

I know how to detect bots, but its not profitable to just give out the information to everyone, there's other people here that know how to do so as well, and anyone who's paid for a membership to the merchant's protective league knows the way as well.

I want to help completely eliminate bots from sl, but why should I do it for free, when it means that if I wanted to I could no longer run bots to make the profits for the mp3 player or the pair of shoes.

58% myself on the test

and a self-publicist attempting to drum up business from naive forumites by claiming an unproven expertise which sounds like a scam to me.

Pep (best of luck, sunshine - they, like you, may not be able to spell but they don't give their money away without a fight, unless you're selling shoes)

Ralphie.

1. SL is not a game and it is not a play environment. It's an environment which each person uses for his/her own desires.

2. Just like in RL, it's not your business what other people do in SL, any more than it's other people's business what you do in it.

3. On the whole, camping owners want campers for traiffc and it makes no difference to them whether the campers are people or bots.

4. There is absolutely nothing wrong, or even negative, about money leaving SL. That's largely what businesses in SL are for. Where on earth do you think all the money that's paid in for lindens should go?

5. This thread you started is a sham. You started by asking how to deal with bots on your land, and your are developing it into you offering a business service.

6. I can't think of anything you've written here that's actually right. You need to take a step back, look at SL, and realise what it actually is - especially that it is not yours to shape in your image, any more than the real world is yours to shape in your image.

7. Grow up and see reality.

Ephraim Kappler roars laughing: that's a great idea for some crazy quasi-RP.

"It seems you feel our work is not of benefit to the public?"
"Bots are like any other application, they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem."
"May I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure."
"Have you ever retired an avatar by mistake?"
"No."
"But in your position that is a risk."

Coming our way soon: Bot Runner!

Ah, but that's a different story . . .

Pep ( . . . relevant to a thread started by a Dick)

lmao, phishing expedition...
it's not that you want to get rid of bots, it's that you already know how to beat your own detection scheme and want to see what others are in use so you can defeat them too... and possibly eliminate your automated competition. all while making a nice little personal profit. sound business, poor ethics.

Are you saying they are able to recognize hand writing on textures on objects ?
That would require text pattern recognition

I guess the bot creator might be able to take it from text scanning software but it would be difficult.
Also unlike a human, the bot would have difficulty knowing which prim its supposed to be reading the texture from unless the bot testing scripted object foolishly gave away the information perhaps by it being a scripted prim where the writing was on and where the llsay came from

Where is your research to prove this. The majority of the store owners that I have talked to set up the camping simply to:
1) increase traffic numbers
2) make it actually look like people are there




This reminds me of the ads I see:

"I have this super secret way to make you a millionaire and I really really want to share it with everyone so that we can all be millionaires. So just send me this much money and I'll share my secrets with you".

I think this whole thing feeds into the "bots are evil" mentality. If sim owners were really into camping to just help new people, they would simply hand out the money or use something like a money tree and be done with it. They are using camping to artificially inflate their traffic numbers and it seems they get what they pay for whether its a bot or an av.

I also find the "i have a secret and im willing to help you if you pay" perspective rather distasteful. There are many of us here who help each other often, hand out our "secrets" for free, teach classes on how to do these things etc. To really contribute to the SL community, offering help for free is the best way to do it. Then if someone wants additional specific help and wants to pay you as a consultant, that is their choice.

just my two cents

Checking to see if the agent can go into Mouselook mode is the #1 way detecting a 'bot' - a non graphical client with the ability to run scripted actions.

So, if you want to know for sure, ask them to go into mouselook mode, check your scanner, and go from there.