Wow, bots are fast

I am standing on some land I am "contemplating" selling. I have never sold land before, so I timidly opened up the sell dialog to have a look. I didn't set anything, do anything, did nothing. I closed it, and someone teleported into my land. It even said "bot" as the avatar's group.

How is it that just my opening up the sell window made a bot come, ready to buy....ready to snap up a mistake I might make in selling?

When I sell, I'm doing it through the forums. I didn't like that feeling one bit.

Is this behaviour reproducible?

I wouldn't know how another resident (a bot) would be able to notice that you open that window. Bots are real world SW programs, not telepathic demons.

It is a Second Life "feature."

Well, that IS my question. How did they know I had even opened up the land sale window?

I'm telling it exactly as it happened.

People complain all the time that a bot snatched their land out from under them as they are filling in the boxes....maybe something really is going on. Others say it's not possible, that the person had to make a mistake, etc. But now I'm beginning to wonder.

wished they`d have the guts to do it on islands for some good ol` fashion payback

Idunna DeCuir, is this behaviour reproducible?
Does your parcel include the region coordinates (128,12?

Please answer both questions to help us determine that this was just a coincidence (as I suspect it was. The bot might have been there the to buy nearby land.) Correlation does not imply causation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

I don't know specifically how it would be done, but taking a guess, just like bots listen for other events, it might be possible to listen for the opening of a dialog box. It may be possible to listen for putting a check or unchecking the dialog box. Any communication whatsoever between your computer and the Second Life server could be an event that a script could listen for. Or it could be just a coincidence too. Hard to tell, but bots-hearing-what-you-think-is-private is something that fits perfectly into the overall atmosphere of Second Life.

I don't know if it's reproducible as I haven't tried....kind of scary you know.

And no, it is in the middle of a sim.

I just sold the land to myself, I had deeded it to a group I had made. I'll see if I can reproduce it.

That sounds far-fetched to me.

Right does it include the coordinates (128,12, the dead center of the region?

I was selling mainland and there was a message that came across my screen that said "no land for sale here, return home".

I only opened the sale box, configured it incorrectly, so I clicked the X to start over again fresh, and that is when that message appeared and a small avatar tp'ed out quickly.

Far-fetched technically, no, not at all. Far-fetched because you trust Linden Labs to put a little bit of security into the server software to make sure certain events cannot be heard by scripts? Well, that depends on what you think of Linden Labs, I guess. It shouldn't be possible. But it wouldn't surprise me that people find security holes in the software and then exploit them to their advantage.

No, it hasn't happened again (I've tried a few times.) As far as I remember I did the following:

Clicked the "about land" and then "sell land" buttons.

In "sell land" I clicked "Select One" button (I had never opened it before) but I didn't select either, just was looking at the options.

Then I closed that window, and before I had even closed the "about land" window is when the bot showed up, about 1 m from me, and then a second later was gone.

There is one 16m2 plot for sale that borders my land, that's all.

My current location is Granville 58,81,88

I just tried it, both with a parcel including the region centre point and with others. In no case have I been able to find another resident TP'ing in within the minute or so after opening the window.

Seems to have been a coincidence.

C'mon, let's not demonize these bots, folks! Some of them may have ethically challenged people running them, but also bots are mere mortal avatars, y'know?

Okay, you're almost there... Now, does your parcel include the coordinates 128,128?

Bots do not need to be standing in a parcel to buy it. They just need to be in the same Region. This particular bot might be programmed to land in the center of the region, or wherever your parcel is, to execute the purchase of a nearby land. The nearby land does NOT need to border your land, and it may have already been re-sold since the incident, so there is no way to tell just by looking at the current map now.

Actually, the sheer effort it would take to make intercepting information (like contacting an internal service to fill a dialog box) possible prevents this by nature. Scripts run in VMs, streams to viewers follow different isolated paths (and not all from the sim), and the like. Most of this for bandwidth efficiency. In all likelyhood, a bot simply would not be able to get at it, and not because anyone's interested in security on the back-end.

Furthermore, if this kind of information could be intercepted, then there would be far more attractive information available than just knowing what dialog boxes you've opened recently.

Idunna, the strategy you've assigned to this bot in your working theory of what happened doesn't make sense... suppose the bot owner somehow knew you had just opened a dialog box, but hadn't completed the entry yet. He would program his bot to tp directly onto your parcel at that moment, thereby spooking you? How is that supposed to increase its chances of buying a mis-priced parcel?

Your questionAnswer: it can't. it was just a coincidence. If you don't like strangers popping into your parcel, there are parcel settings available in About Land that can prevent it.

Adz, I was just explaining what had happened, nothing more, nothing less. It's not about unwelcomed company, and I have no need to set up banlines.

I was just explaining what had happened, and thought it might be something interesting to others.

I can accept that it was probably a fluke, but you got to admit it was a weird one, considering I had never even thought of selling before.

Fine, let's chalk it up to a coincidence.

And no, 128, 128 is not in the land borders.

Idunna , I'm sorry i was defensive. I have to remind myself not to make posts in the morning. In these forums, bots have been accused of all kinds of nasty things, and typically it takes pages and pages of heated discussion before the accusers start to stand down or at least reduce their arguments to just the supportable parts, if they ever do. That makes me a little sensitive to irrational accusations and calls for drastic action. But, all of that happened before you got here, and none of that is your fault. So, sorry if I jumped on you a bit.

I sold some land last night, and played with the price until I noticed four Avis tele in. I quickly canceled sale and raised price. They assumed I had bought the land and re-tagged it and one quickly purchased. I wish I had a log of the chat.

Essentially, one said "The girl beat us to it"
"Oops, I got it, good work girl"

I then had a short conversation with them (after all they were working) and it was obvious that they were not bots, but residents. Iy was kinda' fun actually. They displayed a keen sense of humor as they pretended to be bots "Must buy land, must buy land..."

Hmm How do they tell the difference between mainland and Islands anyway?

In the viewer, as a human, you can filter land search by Mainland only. The bots can do that too.

That hits the nail on the head. The bots mimic something humans were already doing long before there were land bots. Reload the mainland search every 2 seconds, tp to any parcels below a certain price, buy. Its a simple protocol. Several humans arrive at the same time because they are all using this technique.
If it weren't for bots, the title of this post would be, "Wow, land-swoopers are fast". I swear it would be.

Ah memories of First Land: Looking up land in search for the latest sim out, tp-ing in quick, finding a plot for sale, frantically going though the buy process almost holding my breath until at last I have the about land box open with my name at the top - happy days LOL

.. and then 10 minutes later, being offered the neighbouring plot for 2000l they'd just bought for 512 .... and a further 20 minutes the spinning ad box going up with the price at 3000l

Seems incredible that was little under a year ago .. now the place looks quite a nieghbourhood .. doesn't hold a candle to Caledon but I've seen worse .. much, much worse!