How are they hiding these traffic bots?

i can see a skin maker or shape maker using them to show their shapes on model bots..i mean how many times have people bought a shape or skin from a picture only to be disappointed by photochopped pics?
models i can see..
maybe a bartender for looks rather than the flat texture bartenders..filler spots for atmosphere to add to the effect of things..

i do think there are some uses for them.

i just don't see how anyone thinks hooking up a bot to a tip jar and trying to fool people is good business..more fly by night hit & run tactics than anything.
use a donation jar rather than tip jar..at least then they are being honest.

Bordello bots, if they existed would probably fall under the definition of "professional". hmmm..... Anyone interested in a business model for SL??????

Skin demos, shape demos, clothing demos, attachment demos, etc.

There really isn't any need for models at all, there is a need for creators to offer decent pre-sale service by providing demos of everything they sell.

A model adds no more value than any camper/bot does, it just happens to be dressed better.

I like to find them too. Occasionally I come across a creative bot runner who thinks he's/she's hid them well, but I am PERSISTANT!

Here's one. I find the "blah blah is ALIVE" hilarious. Yeah, right.

so making it easier for a customer adds no more value?having both options is no more value?
give me one linden for my demo is better than looking at a model or mannequin?
i don't think it is bad business to use these for things like that..
i mean people use floor models for their products all the time.
why limit a skin or shape or clothing creator? because they may get a few points in traffic?
i don't think that is abusing the system to be creative in your store..

you get to see the texture or shape up close before spending a dime or putting anything in your inventory or by the strange chance accidentally buying the product instead of the demo because of lag or a misunderstanding of putting the right image in the scroll box to buy that certain item..

it's when you use them for traffic and tricking people into thinking there is a human at a keyboard behind the avatar for money.
i am against the exploits as much as anyone but there are good uses for them.

if it makes it easier for your customers it's a good thing..if it is tricking them into thinking something else is there it's a bad thing..thats my outlook.

They are called

Hobots


That is all.

Mort, go away.

It wasn't a viewpoint - it was humour.

So childish Phil

I agree with you here and as i said in another thread

"We run 6 bots on our 2 Sims. 2 handle the 2 separate group invites and also ban spammers etc from the land and 4 model outfits in the store. The reason being they can only handle 10 changes of outfit each. The Modeling Bots are clearly marked as such and the 2 group bots we have under our Telehub with 3 big notices on the wall explaining what they are.

I don't give a pig ears about traffic number count and i wish they would do away with the numbers as they are misleading. All of our group members know about them"

i would also say that people will have to get used to them as they are here to stay for the foreseeable future i would imagine and serve a good purpose when used correctly. I also said that on the mainland where people over use them i totally agree you should only be allowed to use the amount for the amount of land you own, ie: own half a mainland Sim u can use up to 20 Bots and if people want to use lots of them they should buy their own Sims.

Just my 2 cents

ya i agree totally that doing away with traffic would stop the need to use them for that reason..
i just think LL loves the numbers that show up in population..
it does the same thing a sim owner does using them for traffic..it fools the public into thinking it is more occupied than it really is..hence LL is doing the same exact thing by using the traffic system lol

Problem is our sim would be pretty pointless with no real people on it lol. I think being upfront with the BOTs is a good thing we don't hide the fact we use the ones we do but i wont put any others in as we have no use for them. I will just be glad when traffic numbers as a metric is gone totally

Yes, that sim's botbox is especially bizarre. They dropped all the avs into a little skating rink thinger, and the bots tend to collect in little pockets along the walls. They appear to fly every so often, I guess to simulate movement and/or to keep from idle-disconnecting.

Brobots before hobots.

LOL

Wildfire, that is some sort of freaky.

I recently quit a club because I suspected they were using bots. I would watch, the same people showed up at my event, they were usually in the same clothes, and no one spoke. And there were 20+ people there! One night I played Richard Cheese for one hour of my two hour event and not one person made a comment. I quit that club and found out at that time that so did four other dj's for the same reasons.

I think the bots are a good idea for the purposes that you stated. And it's a shame they are abused, but I find one thing about the group invite bots that drive me nuts. If you don't want to be a part of the group, every time you go there you have to hit ignore or decline on all the invites. I own a studio on a sim where the sim owner has one of those group invites. I am at my studio every single day and everytime I go there, I have to hit decline on that invite. Sometimes it only asks me once a day, sometimes it's every time I land there. It drives me crazy and I don't like the idea of my cleints having to be bothered with that, especially since the invite is not related to my business, and it shows up on the land I pay rent on every month. I've tried flying over and muting the bot, but it doesn't work. If these bots must exist, there should be an option to mute, rather than just accept/decline.

I have to agree. There are some genuinely good uses for bots. Spam isn't one of them. Why not just make the group open enrollment and put up a sign about it? Those who want to join can do so, and those that don't won't get spammed every time they go there.

Our BOTs don't ask every time you land you have to click the sign to get the invite, they never automatically invite as i to agree, i hate spam like this They also control the group and ban people/spammers from the group/land should they start spamming the groups and members on the land thats why we use them as we can't be online 24/7 tho sometimes running the sims it seems like it we have found people sending in Bots and then the Bots spam everyone on the sim with a group invite for their groups lol and yes ive AR'd them when caught.

But as in all things people will abuse the system and thats a shame but i suppose thats just human nature, greed and ego's for a lot of these people. I will always do what i can to ensure that our visitors get a good time on the site and we are seeing our figures improve each day but thats because of word of mouth and the fact we spend time at our sims to talk with people not because of our Bots

Try AR'ing the bot... a group invite should be by request, not forced on someone automatically. Group invite bots should work by the customer clicking on a sign to ask to join.

It's not so much the bots but the mass usage of them.
People hide them for a reason, they know they are cheating.
40 Avatars crammed side by side in a box arent't what SL accounts were designed for.
Bots modling etc that's creative as long as it's not too many of them.

1. People don't hide them. They are there in plain sight.

2. Why "as long as it's not too many of them"? If they are models, they are models.

Plain sight at 700m in an invisprim box with security sytem to eject anyone getting to close or hidden under a false floor in the bottom of a pond?
Who are you to speak for all bot users to say they never hide them?

Are you telling us people can't can't have too many of them if they are models?
So if a small store in the same sim as your store uses 40 bots for as models for each of it's 10 clothing products in 4 colors, it's not too many of them because they are models?

Alright - some people don't hide them

Alright (again). They can be overdone. I'd thought that you meant something along the lines of a few are ok but no more, because of the traffic numbers.