BOT places! List them here!

Which is how many long-time residents of this platform feel and why there is a general call to eliminate 'traffic' as a metric for Search functions altogether.

But the people lying by using camping bots to boost their traffic arent looking to scam seasoned residents; they prey on newer players who reasonably expect to get fair and honest results from the in-world search tool.

For every one of us who avoids traffic-gamed stores because we know better there are dozens of players every day who are cattle-run into bot-hells because they don't know Phil and those like him are lying to them about the popularity of thier products.

Not everyone shops based on popularity, but many many people will buy anything they think is popular. It's exactly the reason traffic-camping bots exsist in the first place.

LMAO. It's so much nicer being a liar than being stupid like you though, so I'm content with it. Why do I say you are stupid? Because your reasoning is hopelessly flawed and you are blissfully ignorant of it. But I know you can't help being stupid, whereas I can help what I do. I guess it's tough for you

Oops. I almost forgot to answer your questions...

1. Yes, my bots inflate my traffic numbers.

2. Yes.

3. No, I wouldn't be as high in the Places tab rankings without them.

4. Yes, lying to customers is the same as shitting on them.

And a few you didn't think to ask. Don't be ashamed though - even clever people sometimes forget to ask relevant questions :-

5. No, inflating the traffic numbers isn't lying to customers.

6. Because of the bots I bank lots of loverly money - real money - the sort of money that you can only dream about making from SL.

[short pause while you gnash your teeth and wish to hell that you could make money here]

7. Yes, I am deleriously happy making all that money.

8. No, I won't stop earning all that loverly money to please stupid people with stupid ideas - like you.

9. Yes, I do feel sorry for you. I'd hate to be that stupid.

Happy now? I do enjoy answering people's well-meant questions. I hope my answers were helpful to you

Not necessarily. He might be lying about how many people actually visit his store, but the popularity of a product is based upon actual sales in my opinion. How someone gets into a store is irrelvant if they don't buy anything. If a product is shit, then it shouldn't sell. That being said, if people wish to spend their money on shit, then that's the way the cookie crumbles, just as in RL.

I'm not necessarily defending Phil's business model, or his products,and I do traffic should be eliminated, but in the end, we decide where to spend our money. But I guess there are just as many mindless lemmings in Sl as in RL who can't think for themselves, but for me, if a store has a product I want at a good price, then the fact that it may be a bot infested hell hole is of little importance to me.

I don't necessarily avoid high traffic stores, I don't look at the numbers at all. I start at the top of my list and go from store to store, and when I find what I am looking for, I buy it.

At the risk of Phil calling me stupid too. Whats a bot? Is it those tiny robot things?

on behalf of campers everywhere:

traffic count = camping

camping = $$$

$$$ = paying LL for premium

paying LL premium = buying land

buying land = paying LL for tier

therefore, camping equals income for LL

Yes, it must be great being at the top of skin sales search on weekends and 10 out of 20 people responding to the advertisement can't get into your sim.

Don't worry about that. I reserve that sort of post for the offensive idiots who frequent this place. Not everyone here is an offensive idiot, but some are.

A bot (robot) is an avatar (account) that is programmed to run itself - no human operating it at a keyboard. They are used for various things, but most of them are traffic bots, which are placed on a parcel of land so that they are counting as traffic for the land. The reason it is done is because the Places tab search ranks parcels of land solely on traffic. The higher the traffic number, the higher the ranking and, therefore, the higher the sales - assuming products that people want to buy.

That's their problem, if it occurs, and nobody else's business.

Camping = income for a lot of people, banning camping is seriously getting into be careful what you wish for territory.

I don't like camping bots, they don't help with the flow of Linden dollars, however I don'tblame people for using them, if you boost your traffic you boost your visibility, which in turn boosts your number of customers if your product is good enough.

Those saying it's not fair, come up with a fair alternative. Picks already "aren't fair".

There's more to business than having a quality product, that's been proven time and time again over the years.

Is it safe to say that casinos and gambling provided considerably higher income for considerably more people? I don't remember the metaverse imploding when that was banned.

(I'm no premium but I pay a kind of TIER to my landlords, so I'll just coment that post assuming TIER=weekly rents, ok?)

If I would camp to pay my rents/TIER I wouldn't do anything else lololo Just want to coment since I thought that post funny

assuming 1kL$ for weekly rents (I pay a lot more) and a 2L$/15m camping rate I would need 125 hours (5,21days) per week to camp... hehehe

Simple concept in gambling, the winners are the casino owners. Gambling money tended to stay in gambling circles and the economic stats pretty much back that up.

Maybe but Ironically funny regardless, you can't help poke fun at someone that greedy to run 90 bots, I thought they only had 80 at the last count 6 months back, maybe they'll get greedier and run another 10 before they work out why sales aren't improving.

Pie is one of the 2 people who are in my ignore list, but since Brenda quoted his post:-

The first part was correct - we aren't looking to scam seasoned residents. The second part was just stupid - we aren't looking to "prey" on (or scam) anyone. You see, those of us who actually use our brains, unlike some who frequent this forum, know that people don't spend their money on things they don't like or want, so it isn't possible to "prey" on anyone in this way. If a store doesn't have desirable products, no amount of traffic will make them sell. It's easy when you use your noddle once in a while, isn't it

Dozens? You mean thousands. But this is where non-thinking people get it wrong, so it doesn't surprise me that you wrote it. Allow me to correct you.

Artificially inflating the traffic figures is not "lying to them about the popularity of their products". It has nothing to do with the products, and it has nothing to do with sales of the products. It is only to do with traffic numbers and rankings. You see where you went wrong now? As a matter of fact, my products *are* popular, because they are very good. Non-thinking people (some would call them idiots) don't realise that people only buy what they want and, at the risk of being boring, no amount of traffic will make crap products sell. I make 4000-5000 US$ every month (nett) from my store. Do you seriously think that so many people would buy enough from me every month for me to bank that amount if my products were crap? Do you think at all? It's obvious that I can only make that sort of money if I my products are desirable. No amount of traffic will make that sort of money on crap items. Actually thinking about things can give you a more realistic view, and help to avoid coming out with stupidities like I quoted from your post.

I like it when you "seasoned residents" stay away from us and miss out on many good things. It makes me smile and laugh at you. I know you are representative of one or two dozen people (not of seasoned residents), so you are not alone, but you don't count. You are of no interest to us. Your vote with your feet is totally futile. You're such a tiny drop in the ocean that the only ones you hurt are yourselves. I hope you feel that your stand makes a difference, because it does make a difference - it makes me laugh at you - especially when I bank the cheque every month. Thank you for that

lol. That *would* be worth seeing.

There's something that never gets mentioned in these discussions - the number of real people in a popular store at any one time. It's very low. Popular stores don't get crowded out, as might be imagined. Popular stores have some people in them pretty much all the time, but that's all, and their genuine traffic numbers are what we'd think of as being low. Take a hugely popular place like Xcite, and count the number of people there at any one time. There aren't as many as might be imagined. Count the numbers in the most popular female clothing stores. My store isn't amongst the most popular stores in SL, but it's maybe one of the most popular furniture stores. It's hardly ever empty, but it's never crowded. The most people I recall seeing in it simultaneously is 12. 8 to 12 is quite frequent, but around the clock, it's mostly less than that, and occasionally empty. The point I am coming to is that a place can have 90 traffic bots and still have plenty of room for customers - assuming ownership of a private sim. If I had a private sim, I could have 80 bots and the sim would never be full.

True. There are some who will pay you to list them in your picks. Some may feel that is cheating, but because it's not connected to using bots, it isn't a sexy enough topic.

Is THAT the reason why some people like to have a go at me in this forum? It's because I'm too sexy. I never knew I'm not going to change though

Phil ....I have a drawer full of "Stay Sharp Knives" and "Miracle Slicers" that are now Dull and Broken that prove that Idiots will buy Crap!!! ....err.... did I say that out loud?

LMAO!

Yes but those knives *looked* good when you bought them. Crap furniture looks crap all the time.

An interjection:

In case there are people reading this thread (such as Bella) who are getting the impression that I am aggressive or insulting, I am not - not usually, anyway. But I do respond in kind (much more quickly these days) when someone insults me, as I have done in 2 posts in this thread. The first was addressed to Chris Norse, who decided to insult me by calling me liar. The second was written to Pie Psaltery, who is so bad that he has the distinction of being one of only two people in my ignore list. In his case, he invented false 'facts' for the purpose of being insulting. E.g:-

"But the people lying by using camping bots to boost their traffic arent looking to scam seasoned residents; they prey on newer players who reasonably expect to get fair and honest results from the in-world search tool."

1. People don't use camping bots to boost traffic. They use them to earn money by camping. It's the parcel owners who are trying to boost their traffic, not the camping bots. He doesn't know what he's talking about. but he slipped it in anyway, together with the word "scam", for the purpose of being insulting.

2. He accused people (including me) of preying on other people. An honest to goodness insult - and totally invented by him.

That's the sort of thing that I respond in kind to. They start it, and I respond. They are guilty of throwing the first stones.

In the past, I've debated reasonably with such people, but they still come on with their insults because it's what they like to do. So these days, I simply respond in kind, rather than try to debate with them, since they are only interested in being insulting. That's the reason for my aggressive posts. They are responses to the individuals who throw the stones.

Bots are nothing but a big mess up to SL!!
OfF course ppl that are in sl to make money love the bots, the had to pay in the past campers now the have the traffic free and can suck more money out of sl...There is hardly any camping still going on in SL which means many ppl dont make any money anymore, not just noobs, i know quite a number off ppl that made money from it and SPEND the money in SL again. This bots have done an dramatical cut to the money floating in SL.

And the bots that are used as camping bots at the very few camping spots left..again ppl that just take money out of SL....

Why are the still running?Iff linden would block right now the bot programs conected to SL the ppl online would drop from 60k to 40-45k...

You wrote that as though there is something wrong with taking money out of SL. There's nothing wrong with it at all. It's a part of SL, and it's what some people do in SL. Some people use SL to socialise, and some people use it to make money. It's all good. Personally, my only interest in SL is the money. If it weren't for that, I'd have stopped using a long time ago. I make furniture, I write scripts, and I make animations, but I don't do any of it for the sheer pleasure of doing it. I do it to sell the things for money - just like every RL manufacturer.