Would the last one to go please switch off the lights

Following on from the Ghost-town thread last week, and the report where Jack Linden said there were 32,000 regions in total, and the various threads about the number of bots that are logged in, I thought I would do a bit of local investigation.

Last night when I logged the total number of avatars logged in was around 52,000 (and of course this includes the bots). Immediately I wondered if the true number of real avatars was more like 32,000 and hence just 1 person per sim across the whole of SL.

From the private sim I live on I could see a total of 26 sims on the world map, where the zoom level was at the minimum where I could still see green dots.

I teleported to every region that had green dots on them.

Now this may come as a complete shock to you, but in every sim with green dots (9 of the 26 sims), every green dot was a bot, not a single live avatar to talk to.

I was even amazed that 17 of 26 sims had no-one on them at all.

Now, before we get into any long discussion on this, it would be interesting if a few others on the forum conduct a similar experiment (in case I live in a strange part of the world map) and confirm or refute this piece of non-scientific research.

I really think, from the numbers of avatars I used to know, and how popular so many places used to be, that the population of SL is on a serious decline. And if that is the case, would the last one to leave please switch off the lights.

THAP

I did this a few weeks ago. I even tp'd to some of the more popular places that I encountered when I first arrived in SL. I had the same experience, all bots. Not one single live person and this was from tp'ing from one side of the grid to the next. Where are the days when everywhere you went you ran into someone that wanted to talk? To the flamers, don't give me that SL is way too big or has increased landmass. That is insignificant to the fact that gaming the traffic stats has become the norm.

It got a bit depressing in the 3 hours I was exploring to realize that it's more important to log in numerous alts to increase traffic instead of actually trying to market a good product. The sadder fact is when you tp into a place you know is using alts to game traffic, you are immediatly bombarded by those stupid "greeters" with all kinds of group invites, notecards, landmarks, etc. These get an instant mute from me, I hate them. I'd rather be greeted by a store owner and invited to a group by a real person.

anyways, sopbox off for now! =)

well, on the flip side... people will TP onto my sims and I always try to say hi and they dont respond.. poof away or rezz a car and all the other icky freebie crap they have...

Waiiittt, you're surprised that almost every green dot on the map is a bot? (checks forum birth date and post count) Okay, yeah, you'd be surprised.

The use of bots is one of the most contested things in discussion... errr.. well, not right now, that's openspace stuff now. But, if you run a search for bots you'll find heated discussions all over the place.

I meet people in SL every time I log in. I guess it depends on the amount of effort you put into SL too. I get invited to a lot of openings, art events, new amazing sim builds and sometimes I have to go back the next day because you can't move for the number of avatars there and yes they are all real, 15 "hellos" at once before anything rezzes confirms that.

Get out of your prisons, explore, say hi to everyone and everything, I find even inanimate objects talk to me now and that's scary LOL

It's one of the things that makes it difficult to be ethical. As many know, I'm part of an island. We do promote the things we do and sell there, but we attempt to do it honestly. We employ no 'bots, house no camping. About the closest we get to any sort of automation to increase our use is having a single lucky chair. I do have signs promoting our update group, but it does not spam you. It's pretty low-key, even. It lets me know when someone wants an invite, and I manually send out the invites when I log in. Really, we try to keep things going by having good, worth-their-price products and events that people really want to attend.

As a result, we don't make a lot of Lindens, nor do we have the highest traffic numbers – but we can feel like we're at least ethical in our dealings. I'd like to think people appreciate that, too.

I wonder if there'd be a good way to code a bot to recognize bots to some reasonable confidence level (e.g., older than a few days but wearing no attachments), and collect some comprehensive stats. Of course, sampling should also work well, but we know there are significant clusters of live players, such as at parties and on mainland.

It would be interesting to know how many logins are bots. I'll try a few random samples myself, when I get the time.

Yes, I see these to... I was at a venue... and they had 2 object greeting people... People were responding top it was very silly..

LAZY LAZY LAZY IMHO

I Am Not A Bot

Tarina sometimes I respond to bots if I'm not fully rezzed and am not sure if they are actual people greeting me...I would rather look silly than be rude

I have a few lucky chairs at my place, and I find nothing wrong with these myself as they honestly have to have an active person behind the ava to see when their letter is called....
I tried camping for L$, but added a sctipt that booted them after a few minutes if they did not respond to a menu prompt...
And I always got a response from people who were sitton on the chairs if I were to walk by and say hi......

So there ARE some honest people out there and you really need to account for them

I dont use bots in my store.. (I just figured out a bot is an alt you created for stationary modeling/camping whatever etc.. ) Nothing wrong with using avatars to show off your clothes... Its so many prims some of these outfits and wearing them on display is such a better option than rezzing them and taking huge bulks of prim allowment.

and as someone said, there are plenty of people online and plenty of oppertunity to meet tham...


Everyone has their own reason for being on SL, and some don't want to be a social butterfly and are quite happy with casual contacts and a few close friends..

LL says they "estimate" that about 10% of us are bots. "Estimate", because according to LL there is no good way to distinguish a bot from a real person. What they mean of course is that there's no good *automatic* way.

The informal, hands on, labor intensive surveys conducted by a number of residents seem to consistently indicate a much higher percentage of bots than LL's official estimate.

Based upon the experience of this resident, I would not be at all surprised to find out that at any given time, the number of bots and afk camper alts logged in total at least 75% of the usual 'currently logged in' values.

Now I know that this is a silly question. (Forgive me - Ive led a very sheltered life). How can you tell if it is a bot and not a normal avi who just happens to be busy or AFK for a while?

Even sillier question. What exactly is a bot? I always thought is was an alt left somewhere to make a place look busy. (or left for some other reason). Am I wrong?

Bots are automated avatars, generated to fill commercial venues, to bump up the traffic figures and get higher placements in search results. You can sit at home, with the bot software, and create a small army of them and have them all logged in.

How do you know one? Well, they tend to be 'camping', ie they are sitting, dancing ceaselessly on the spot, cleaning windows, sweeping floors, etc. They do not reply when you speak to them, and the biggest giveaway, their profiles are generally totally blank (thinks, now that profiles can be searched by scripts, a good way of estimating the bot population is by sampling, and looking at the number of avis with blank profiles).

Rock

Sixteen bots, all sitting in a row...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skelldagger/3015027241/in/set-72157606438046486/

Usually, real live campers would feel a bit daft sitting on top of each other, as in this example. They would also not cram together in cubes of shoulder-to-shoulder avatars. They are frequently ruthed, often created on the same date, sometimes wearing camping tags and sometimes not. Usually their profiles are completely empty, save perhaps the group to which any tags they're wearing belong. The bot owners try to make them look more real by giving some of them prim attachments such as hair and shoes (often high-bling stuff) and changing their clothes.

You'll also see them there for days, weeks, months on end. Same avatars in the same poses in the same places. There are eleven camping bots above a store in my home sim. Sometimes the owner will shunt their bot boxes around a bit so the clusters appear in different places on the map, but the names are always the same. Here's a nice picture of five of them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skelldagger/2741568506/in/set-72157606136582038/

ETA: Not all bots are like this. Some, such as greeters in store and roleplay sims, have legitimate uses. Some are used as models in clothes stores (these will often, but not always have the word 'bot' in their title, or their profile will state they are a bot). Other good uses for bots include those such as Phil Deakins has outlined on this forum: he has a few logged in on the beds that he sells, so potential customers shopping alone can try out poseball sets on the beds that require two avatars to activate them.

I can see this number being the correct one.

LL "assumes" only 10% are bots because honestly, it can't tell the difference between a bot connection and a regular connection. I'd say the 10% are those that admit to using bots and have noted them somehow as bots.

Well, he SAYS they're bots...

It depends on where one hangs about. I rarely see bots, but I tend to frequent historical themed sims, and when I go wandering, it's to see something specific such as an art exhibition.

He also says some of them have been given tips. Hmm. He could have invented a new form of camping...

LOL

One reason you might not see bots is that they are often clumped together and tucked away somewhere somewhat hidden. I've seen photos of bots up in skyboxes, down in caverns, basically out-of-sight that requires a little searching to find.

Can I have your lightbulbs?

I was watching "World without Peple" again on the History Channel this weekend and said how much it reminds me of SL.........

Even the flying cats?

Easyway is to count avatars logged in 24/7, even if they are campers they might as well be counted as bots. I talked to one resident a while ago who insisted her 10 campers running on Sleek weren't bots because she logged in on them to chat to people sometimes.
Many of us noticed the Ghost Town effect long ago, but many wouldn't believe.

It's just got worse now because seeing bota are deemed as an acceptable business practice by LL, all the people morally opposed have given up and running their own to join the bot arms race.

Welcome to Botting Life.