Green Dots in Mini Map

I know the green dots represent other avatars in the sim--my problem is frequently the sims are mostly empty while my mini map indicates many green dots with many avatars/people in the vicinity. Why are there no people?
I have read the posted "FAQS" and looked at all my menus, particularly "Preferences" and cannot find an answer.
Do I smell bad? LOL
Morgaine

Sounds like you've encountered a nest of traffic bots.

Not necessarily, I have noticed that in my sim, too - a green dot on the map, the depiction indicating that it is the same level as I am (no up- or downpointing V), but no one's there. (I mainly noticed because there's NEVER anyone in my sim. ) Was scratching my head a few times already. Glad to see I'm not alone here.

What about yellow dots?

Yellow dots are people on your Friends list.

Ahh thanks

If you are using viewer 1.23.4 right click the green dots and bring up their profile. What is written there might help you figure out who they are and what they are doing

Hey, that's a real good hint. Did not know that.

Thanks a lot Argus.

They'll be up in the sky somewhere - traffic bots. Put on a flight assist device and fly up with mini map on. you'll find them sooner or later.

after you found them AND VERIFIED THAT THEY ARE TRAFFIC BOTS, file abuse report against the store owner.

This weekend I glanced up at my minimap and saw an avatar in my home sim, but when I opened the map to snoop out where exactly it was the big map told me I was the only avatar in the sim.

If it happens again, I'll try to take a screenshot of the two next to each other, minimap showing the avatar and big map showing no one.

Heh - wonder if it could've been a Linden. I didn't even think of that at the time...

Oh, another random thought for Morgaine - the minimap shows avatars at your height (camera height, actually) as dots, avatars above you as little arrows pointing up (^) and avatars below you as little arrows pointing down (v). There is a glitch, though, and sometimes avatars high above you will show below your level even when you are at ground zero. Is it possible that the avatars you were seeing on the map were around your current XY position, but at a much different height?

Prims can be positioned up to 4096 meters, and avatars can fly infinitely high (though it gets boring, I'm told).

Or someone could have a store or club build up in the sky. It's always interesting to fly high and boost your draw distance.

I think everyone above the old 768 building limit is shown as below you.
Did a few tests with friends flying up and they all appeared below me when they reach that altitude.

let me get this straight.....if green dots are just general avatars and you can right click them to check out their profiles, can you also right click your friends yellow dots for the same information? If so, it seems there's no point disabling knowledge of exactly where you are, if unchecked in friends contacts list. Anyway come to think of it, I've never seen a yellow dot on my main map...............ummmm will check that out

Yellow dots appear only on the minimap. Not no the world map.

I wish there was a way to see the dot on the map and then TP to it....is that possible? I have not quite grasped how to tell if the AV is above me just because of the v. Using the minimap, I can face my AV in the direction of the visitor, I wish there was a way to include height in that and not just direction so that I could move to wherever the visitor is located. This was a very useful thread for me...thanks,
BT

easy enough:

marker on minimap is ^ means the avi is above you but below 768m
marker on minimap is v means the avi is either below you or above 768m (it's a but, don't start asking)

I'm also seeing this: round dot, not a V. But no one visible. (In case the round dot was round because of a glitch, I de-rendered surface patch to see if the avatar was below, and flight-feathered up to about 800 to see if it was above, but...no luck).

I also Highlighted Transparent.

The weird thing is: why would this be a traffic bot, when it's on MY parcel!?!?!

addendum:
IIRC over a certain height all avatars show as being being below you (regardless of whether you are at the same height or not)

Did you right click the mini-map green dot to find the profile? [only works in RC and 1.23.4 SL viewers]

I have to confess that I haven't yet upgraded---but this is incentive to do so (tomorrow I'll try it).

The whole V or ^ or dot things is too flaky to be reliably described I think. All theories are negated at times by grid quirkiness.

Recently I was standing next to someone talking to them (at ground level) and they appeared as a "V" on my mini map.

The V and ^ dots are related to your camera height, not your avatar. Probably you had your camera just high enough.

The Map does not update as often as the mini-map. Green/yellow dots on the main map may persist after the avatar has left the area.

Also, in regards to the above and below indicators. Avatars over 2000 meters in the air will show as below you on the mini-map. Tested, repeatable, known bug.

The minimap info contains just one byte for each avatar. The altitude is rounded to the nearest 4 meters, to a maximum altitude of 1024m (256 possible values, 0-1020m or 4-1024m, not sure which). Anything above that appears at 0m as far as the minimap is concerned.

This may be something LL doesn't think is worth fixing.