Exactly what is a bot?

On the Web, LL gives this definition of a bot: "The Viewer you use to access the Second Life® world (and the fact that the Viewer code is open source) allows for the creation of custom Viewers that can log in without a human operator and perform the same actions as any normal avatar inworld. Avatars controlled by these custom, automated Viewers are called "bots" (a contraction of "robot"."

Reading posts and blogs, and conversing with residents, I get the idea that the usual meaning is much broader; it seems to include any account that is logged on for some length of time with no one attending to it.

If I have one instance of a non-graphical client logged on camping and I am AFK, is that a bot? It certainly does not conform to the definbition above, since it does require human intervention to log in, but many residents seem to consider such things to be bots. If I have a dozen instances, are they bots? Two dozen?

What if I am doing the same thing using one or several instances of the LL client? Are they bots, or is the LL client, by definition, never a bot? If I leave my account logged on with the LL client during interruptions by rl that can last up to many hours, might I be considered a bot?

I really would like to understand this better. I have read a lot, and I am still unclear. Personally, I think most of the camping "bots" are not "...custom viewers that can log in without a human operator...," but are nongrahical clients that are not automated at all.

I think this is an important issue. If LL is going to restrict the use of "bots," I want to understand excatly what constitutes a "bot."

..on what the meaning of the word "is" is.

I could give you my personal definition which is that any avatar not controlled by a human is a bot.

To get a sense of the popular definition though you have to make a number of false assumptions
1. No avatar ever switches between bot and non-bot
2. No avatar logged in through the official viewer or any of the substantially similar open source viewer builds are bots.

Basically you end up with something close to the idea that all avatars that are logged in through openmv based clients are bots regardless of how interactive the interface is.

Edit: As for an official LL definition of what a bot is - you have the KB that's probably close enough but they won't let themselves be pinned down to something like that and will use whatever definition is expedient at the time. The problem, of course, is that Jack is to familiar with the general SL population and the way they speak and so he used the term without thinking it needed a precise definition because he is aware that everyone has a gut feel of what a bot is.