Bye Bye Traffic Bots/Camping

Because none want to ruin little junior's chances for a scholarship by actually doing anything.

Slap a ban on the hardware, confirm the data, if the data is legit then file the appropriate paperwork with the authorities like you do for an adult getting onto the teen grid.

Simple, and once they do it more often effective. The kids enjoy not having to worry about being punished, because people will blame the company and not the innocent little kids... but there are already a couple topics on that that can be dug back up.

Lil Junior will just thumb his nose at the legal system, he isn't going to be fined or locked up. And when Mommy and Daddy dearest say they ok'd Junior to be on the adult grid? A slap on the wrist and he'll be logging back in a week later.
It'll never stick to a kid, and for an adult it'd be like a tar baby even if they were innocent.

There is the hardware ban in place

Plus they can and will be forced to at least do community service for it if LL actually pushes. It's not much, plus there is the fact they would run afoul of the cyberlaws used to smack hackers

If the parent's say they gave an okay, then they become run into problems. The TOS is based on the user, not if mommy and daddy say sure son commit fraud and here is my information to enter for age verification

I just think relying overly on the legal system to sort it out is like relying on the cops and justice system to protect us so much as to leave our doors unlocked

There needs to be better verification on accounts the anonomus account system is what lets all the spambots in to, SL is heading to become the 3D internet complete with infinite 3D junkmail for Viagra and Niaguaran money scams.

They got a system in beta and it will be in beta for a long time due to the fact it's an international company.

I think the legal system should be used, just like a person filing charges when a kid jimmies a lock to get into someplace they shouldn't.

I also expect parents to actually try some to manage and raise their kids.

I expect companies like LL to do reasonable steps to try and at least limit access (which they do as best they can with the developing systems)

When everyone starts relying on just one of them then the system will fail hard.

This thread does surprise me. Not the thread itself, but some of the reactions.

For ages we are all complaining about traffic and traffic bots. Now it seems they are going to get rid of traffic, and all some of you can do is whine about the fact the new search can be gamed as well. Unbelievable.

Well I got news for you: Every search system can be influenced. You may call it gamed, I call it influenced. For Google, there are companies specialized in optimising results, so those with the money for it hire these specialists. Unfair? Not at all in my opinion.

Paying for picks is another way of getting your rankings higher. So what? People with the money to pay for this, will do it and get a better result. And yes, I am one of them. Since I do not claim anything in picks that I do not sell, I don't see what part of this should be called cheating. I use the instruments that are given to me, nothing more then that.

The fact they are removing traffic for places search is a good thing. Try keeping that in mind, instead of finding new things to whine about people. SL is too nice a platform, to spend your time searching for things that do not please you.

Sure if they want to, but you are forgetting something that I pointed earlier. *There will be no new search results to climb up*.

What that means is that the Places tab results have existed in the All tab for months, and anyone who wants to influence those results, is already doing it. Do you really think that people who use bots aren't already influencing the All search results? Of course they are. People are not going to go to the lengths of using traffic bots and traffic camping, and ignore the new All search since it arrived months ago.

I do not envisage a new upsurge of what you and Kitty described. If it's going to be there, it's already there, folks.

hahhahah who is cry about this? Maybe your too quick to say crying because thats the only reason why you posting here? Its not about traffic its about how bad this new search is..........

Of course you can explain us all what is so bad about it?

And while you are going, you must be able to come up with a better system?

Marcel:

It was the same in the thread when LL asked for suggestions as to the future of traffic. It amazed me that, after all the negative posts about bots and camping, many people wanted the Places results to stay as they are. But there are different regular posters here, with different views, and they don't all post in the same threads.

Who are you talking to?

There you have it.................cheating? why would people think so? Its paid just like ads..................So i do agree with you......This should result in higher number of PICKS in our profile as well.........

In a certain way it is advertising, just more effective. But more picks seem not so relevant at the moment I guess. Some use them for social pictures, some present their favourite places, and some use them to advertise stores they like. And some stores they like because they get money from them. It is up to the people how they use their 10 picks.

Funny is that if you count the amount of people posting negative about bots and camping, there are not that many. By far most people do not care a bit, which is proved by the success of your store for example.

But by just using common sense, everybody should be able to see this new search system is better then the old one, since traffic is just not relevant in any way as long as bots and camping are there.

The new Search can be optimized (watching me getting above you in search, and a few days later watching you on the first place proves that ), like any search system. But the counting factors are a lot more relevant then a contest on who can run the most bots.

hehe. I had to react to it And it sparked a bit of interest in SL for me too.

A lot (most?) people were "complaining" about traffic because it was the direct cause for skewed search results. The new search introduces a handful of new ways to manipulate results in your favour so it's not surprising the focus shifted, but the underlying reason is still the same: abandoning one flawed system for another flawed one doesn't improve anything.

The fact that you're taking the place of stores that offer better products than you do is what makes it "cheating".

If you look around, you'll notice that plenty are trying to manipulate search, but they just haven't caught on to the specifics yet (I just got two group invites from stores because the owner believes a large group will boost his ranking; or the fact pick harvesters haven't caught on yet that not everyone's picks count). It's just a matter of time before they wisen up and target the relevant bits.

That should be easy to prove or disprove: find me a parcel (don't really care to put my house in search), a keyword and 1-2 weeks.

If the new search is based on "relevancy", nothing I do should have any measurable impact whatsoever. After all, the parcel will be barren and not relevant to the keyword.

If it's just based on pulling the right strings the parcel will rank high for the keyword and the new search is just a big joke where relevancy has no meaning and simply does not apply.

Now you have my attention . Probably there are stores that have better stuff then I have. But tell me, how is it ever possible to create a search based on who has the better stuff? Impossible. Better is in the eye of the beholder anyway.
The fact that I optimized for search, and the stores that might have better stuff did not, doesn't make it cheating. People look for low prim furniture or for sculpted furniture, and find me. Guess what, it is what I sell as well.


What you seem to be trying to say, is that you can game the Search by using wrong keywords. And yes, you can. There absolutely no way to stop that, every search engine can be gamed. The only thing I say, is that the tools we are getting for the new places search, are more relevant then the former tools. But no system ever will be able to stop people putting sex in their keywords for example, just because they think it sells.

Now I do have a funny example to illustrate both sections above.

After optimizing my keywords and parcel description for the new Search All, I ended op on 2nd place for sculpted furniture, and 14th for low prim furniture. The latter still wasn't what I wanted, because more people search for Low Prim then for Sculpted.

So first I went to a few of the shops that were ranked above me. But used way more prims for their creations then I do. There were even shops that could hardly be called low prim sellers. Somehow they "cheated?" the Search All.

Reading Phils postings again on the subject, I knew the only thing I could do is get more picks. Okay, I might get slightly higher by optimizing even more, but picks were the thing. So I got me a reward system, and off we went. After a few days I was on 2nd place (untill Phil beat me again LOL).

Funny now is, that my Picks rewarding actually resulted in people being able to find what they were looking for, instead of being fooled.

Alltogether, I think we can conclude the following:

- For honest business people, the new tools are more relevant to get a good ranking. We no longer have to fake traffic to get a good result.

- For dishonest business people, the new tools can be abused. Give me a week and I am in the top 3 for Gorean clothing, while still selling low prim furniture. This could be achieved in the past, and can be achieved in the future.

- The only way to be successful, is to deliver. Paying thousands of linden a day to get Picks, does not make people actually buy your stuff. Getting in the top ranks is one thing, selling stuff is another. So each and everyone who cheats, will stop somewhere in the end. No Gorean master or slave will buy my stuff when they are looking for gorean styled things. No low prim searcher will buy a chair of 20 prims at a store that fakes to be low prim specialist.

Its a new form of explaning the future target buyers..........................Resulting in A increase of picks ( remeber when the game was less then 30,000 there was not many places in sl) But now many need more then 10 in their profile because the game is so vast in size.........I rather see more picks then groups.........

There isn't a search engine in this world or the other world that isn't susceptible to (rightly or wrongly) doing things to improve rankings, so pointing out that things can be done, and calling the engine "flawed" because of it, is a waste of time. That's just the way it is with search engines/systems. The beauty of the Google appliance is that it is a lot less susceptible than the traffic rankings. It's light years ahead of traffic rankings.

I disagree completely. Who says that one item is better or worse than another item? There isn't a search system in the word that can make value judgements like that. What would be cheating is getting top ranking for things that you don't sell. E.g. getting a top ranking for 'low prim furniture' when your lowest prim item is 15 or 20 prims or more.

Yes they are. It's what I've been saying. People who use bots are already doing it, as are others, and that no new upsurge of doing it will happen as a result of the new Places tab search. It's true that they haven't yet understood it all, but doing it is not new.

Perhaps you don't understand all the aspects of relevancy yet. The link text (from Picks etc.) is *very* relevant to the page that it points to. Your idea lacks a lot. You can do it to some extent, but not when there is actual, knowledgable, competition - as I said before. The reason it might work right now is because the knowledge isn't yet spread around - only some of it is in this forum. 3ring hit on it in another thread, when she thought that there are things that are being kept secret - she was right.

This doesnt make sence...................




This does...........anyone can ASSume like kitty did and who is to say what is better then others??????then again the whole search system seems buildt for nothing more then commercial islands and their promotions...........

Now the only thing to work out is how to get that information out of you...

Think in terms of shed loads of real money

There must be other ways... I will have my Sicilian friends contact you...

Oh good. I fancy a holiday in the Med

So in other words, it's fine for the search to be gameable as long as you can do it and others can't?

How can "knowing some secrets" possibly improve the relevancy of a parcel?

If, as you've claimed, optimising for search is actually doing customers a favour because it makes it easier for them to find what they want, then why would any part of how to do it need to be kept secret (not just by you but by Google)?