HisaDrug Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Ok, first of all, I've posted a similar thread a while ago. It was mostly my question about the nature of traffic count. This week I've been hopping around shops to find myself a nice jacket, n I noticed almost alllll shops have bots. They vary in terms of characteristics of their roles as well. Roughly speaking, here:- Greeting bot : who automatically IMs you to say hi welcome to the shop.- Group inviting bot : who automatically invites you to their groups.- Idling bot : who walks about the land bumping into n haphazardly pushing ppl around.- Asisstant bot : who constantly asks you if you need help when you walk past. - Rambling bot : who randomly babbles in local. e.i) "Great day isnt it!!" "Omgaa that's a cute outfit! Where did you get it?" - Monitor bot : who doesn't react but alot of inexplicable scripts going on. So, they are real avatars to begin with. They are sporadically located in each store to randomly pose in every 5 seconds, or they just stand frozen in one spot behind the counter or in the glass. Their profiles are so fake that there's no doubt in my mind they're born with a job. And I know they contribute a massive amount of traffic to the business. People say it's illegal to bring up such schemes to attract more customers, but it seems like almost every store---mostly the well known ones---uses this tactic. Moreover some of them have the empty rental boothes for others, obviously relying on the traffic itself. As a matter of fact, I've rented a small booth in a sim before where used to be explosively popular---traffic wise---and I found out that it was work of the bots. So if we dig a little deeper into this matter n if I'm so bold to suggest, isn't it kind of....wrong? even though it's semi-agreeable it's not that bad? Because it's misleading. I mean, traffic doesn't even matter when it comes to profit. Marketplace is the market where customers go shopping anyway. So why does traffic have to be a big deal or a tool to mislead others to rent their places or come to them? That's what I'd like to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lixena Lamourfou Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 While I am no authority on Second Life Business Ethics, I have an opinion that this is wrong. Years ago this was a problem and Linden Labs made some adjustments to how traffic would be calculated to counteract this type of unethical merchant behavior. Possibly this is an ongoing issue that the Lindens deal with behind the scenes and eventually they bots are identified and disabled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perrie Juran Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 HisaDrug wrote: Ok, first of all, I've posted a similar thread a while ago. It was mostly my question about the nature of traffic count. This week I've been hopping around shops to find myself a nice jacket, n I noticed almost alllll shops have bots. They vary in terms of characteristics of their roles as well. Roughly speaking, here: - Greeting bot : who automatically IMs you to say hi welcome to the shop. - Group inviting bot : who automatically invites you to their groups. - Idling bot : who walks about the land bumping into n haphazardly pushing ppl around. - Asisstant bot : who constantly asks you if you need help when you walk past. - Rambling bot : who randomly babbles in local. e.i) "Great day isnt it!!" "Omgaa that's a cute outfit! Where did you get it?" - Monitor bot : who doesn't react but alot of inexplicable scripts going on. So, they are real avatars to begin with. They are sporadically located in each store to randomly pose in every 5 seconds, or they just stand frozen in one spot behind the counter or in the glass. Their profiles are so fake that there's no doubt in my mind they're born with a job. And I know they contribute a massive amount of traffic to the business. People say it's illegal to bring up such schemes to attract more customers, but it seems like almost every store---mostly the well known ones---uses this tactic. Moreover some of them have the empty rental boothes for others, obviously relying on the traffic itself. As a matter of fact, I've rented a small booth in a sim before where used to be explosively popular---traffic wise---and I found out that it was work of the bots. So if we dig a little deeper into this matter n if I'm so bold to suggest, isn't it kind of....wrong? even though it's semi-agreeable it's not that bad? Because it's misleading. I mean, traffic doesn't even matter when it comes to profit. Marketplace is the market where customers go shopping anyway. So why does traffic have to be a big deal or a tool to mislead others to rent their places or come to them? That's what I'd like to know. "Bots per se, are allowed and have legitimate uses, but inappropriate uses are violations of this policy. Therefore: Using bots to "game" traffic is not allowed. You may not attempt to gain an unfair advantage in search results through the use of bots to inflate the traffic for a parcel. This policy applies to both mainland and private estates since both are represented in search. Enforcement Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results." http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Bot_policy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Jetaime Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 All bots must be registered as a scripted agent. If they are, their presence is not counted in the traffic count. There is no way for you to tell on your own if a bot is properly registered. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonGklugelstein Alter Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Enforcement Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results." Except when it is done by someone who owns a bunch of land or when the shop is operated by a LL employee or a friend of a LL empoyee.. There are many things that go unenforced, some that would land people in jail were this the real world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marigold Devin Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: Enforcement Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results." Except when it is done by someone who owns a bunch of land or when the shop is operated by a LL employee or a friend of a LL empoyee.. Oh come on now, how do you know this ? That's just rumour and speculation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marigold Devin Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Perrie Juran wrote: HisaDrug wrote: Ok, first of all, I've posted a similar thread a while ago. It was mostly my question about the nature of traffic count. This week I've been hopping around shops to find myself a nice jacket, n I noticed almost alllll shops have bots. They vary in terms of characteristics of their roles as well. Roughly speaking, here: - Greeting bot : who automatically IMs you to say hi welcome to the shop. - Group inviting bot : who automatically invites you to their groups. - Idling bot : who walks about the land bumping into n haphazardly pushing ppl around. - Asisstant bot : who constantly asks you if you need help when you walk past. - Rambling bot : who randomly babbles in local. e.i) "Great day isnt it!!" "Omgaa that's a cute outfit! Where did you get it?" - Monitor bot : who doesn't react but alot of inexplicable scripts going on. So, they are real avatars to begin with. They are sporadically located in each store to randomly pose in every 5 seconds, or they just stand frozen in one spot behind the counter or in the glass. Their profiles are so fake that there's no doubt in my mind they're born with a job. And I know they contribute a massive amount of traffic to the business. People say it's illegal to bring up such schemes to attract more customers, but it seems like almost every store---mostly the well known ones---uses this tactic. Moreover some of them have the empty rental boothes for others, obviously relying on the traffic itself. As a matter of fact, I've rented a small booth in a sim before where used to be explosively popular---traffic wise---and I found out that it was work of the bots. So if we dig a little deeper into this matter n if I'm so bold to suggest, isn't it kind of....wrong? even though it's semi-agreeable it's not that bad? Because it's misleading. I mean, traffic doesn't even matter when it comes to profit. Marketplace is the market where customers go shopping anyway. So why does traffic have to be a big deal or a tool to mislead others to rent their places or come to them? That's what I'd like to know. "Bots per se, are allowed and have legitimate uses, but inappropriate uses are violations of this policy. Therefore: Using bots to "game" traffic is not allowed. You may not attempt to gain an unfair advantage in search results through the use of bots to inflate the traffic for a parcel. This policy applies to both mainland and private estates since both are represented in search. Enforcement Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results." http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Bot_policy Its quite an old entry in the wiki now, and people still contact me from time to time about their concern over bunches of bots reappearing in certain places. Although LL do say we don't need to file an abuse report for violations, LL will still look into abuse reports submitted about bots/alts/lucky chairs/sploders, etc., when use to game the traffic, even if they're just being used to make the place look populated on the world map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HisaDrug Posted July 3, 2013 Author Share Posted July 3, 2013 VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: Except when it is done by someone who owns a bunch of land or when the shop is operated by a LL employee or a friend of a LL empoyee.. There are many things that go unenforced, some that would land people in jail were this the real world. Yeah, if that's the case sure. But again, they're completely made up avis just for traffics. Their profiles speak for themselves as though they are one person with multiple accounts. I guess it's hard to say they're violating the TOS on the premise they could be emplyeed or real ppl with jobs, but those sims with high traffic where no one ever walks around in the place usually have the boothes out for rent n advertisement vendors up to make money off something that is somewhat dishonest. That's what. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenbro Utu Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 HisaDrug wrote: VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: Except when it is done by someone who owns a bunch of land or when the shop is operated by a LL employee or a friend of a LL empoyee.. There are many things that go unenforced, some that would land people in jail were this the real world. I guess it's hard to say they're violating the TOS on the premise they could be emplyeed or real ppl with jobs, Or, as pointed out, they could be registered as scripted agents, in which case they DO NOT add to the traffic count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finden Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: Enforcement Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results." Except when it is done by someone who owns a bunch of land or when the shop is operated by a LL employee or a friend of a LL empoyee.. There are many things that go unenforced, some that would land people in jail were this the real world. You can see good examples of this at the LONDON CITY sims LONDON CITY: Victoria / London Adult LONDON CITY Regent's Park and Soho 30+ bots on each... LL is monitoring traffic right? the conspiracy theorist in me is waiting for this post to b \e deleted. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcservices1 Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 trust me i got hell from those owners when i hired one of their x staff members and she told me exactly everything about them using those bots. this is 3 year long story to tell if asked all true they are pushing their luck. and today they are still geting away with it. they have a security guy in LL that helps them get away with it. i reported it at the first of year. and i thought they were gone but yet they returned. back with their old tricks. do not trust traffic, it is all rigged, and inacurate. i rather have great friends that help out and have fun than battle it out just for traffic that laggs up my region's quality is way beter than traffic. have a nice day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys Goode Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Not all the fashion model types are bots. I know several people who have built up nice wardrobes by agreeing to wear someones cloths, and keep their avatar logged in and posing, with no need to interact with the customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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