Brendens and Natalyas landing on sims and leaving

[nikita Jefferson]

I have been having the same problem for a while,i just started to investingate it, i thought at first avys were being ejected from my shop landing point, so i sent messages to them asking if they were ejected or left by choice, i got no answer back so i started investigating them when i saw then come and go

As some have said they all have a 2009 birth year, i have started banning them from the sim, hopefully that works

They come and go so fast my shop greeter visitor list does not pick them up, but i have a visitor list maker on a prim and that senses them so can check that and see who came while i was'nt online

'maybe we should start a list so everyone can start banning them these eare mine so far

Natalia Loxely
Selena Dimitriaski
Riley Zeitman
Selena Elton
Selena Zalivstok
Brenden Zalivstok
Brenden Kaventipovic

 

[nikita Jefferson]

I sat and waited for one to show, all i saw was a slight puff of white smoke, very faint then it was gone, lasted about one second

[Perrie Juran]

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nikita Jefferson wrote:

I have been having the same problem for a while,i just started to investingate it, i thought at first avys were being ejected from my shop landing point, so i sent messages to them asking if they were ejected or left by choice, i got no answer back so i started investigating them when i saw then come and go

As some have said they all have a 2009 birth year, i have started banning them from the sim, hopefully that works

They come and go so fast my shop greeter visitor list does not pick them up, but i have a visitor list maker on a prim and that senses them so can check that and see who came while i was'nt online

'maybe we should start a list so everyone can start banning them these eare mine so far

 

 

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Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope.

Creating lists here like that is not good.

Think it through.

Not to mention it may be a violation of the community standards here.

[nikita Jefferson]

They are not real avatars,they are bots,its not like we are naming real people, these bots are a nuisance and LL will not do anything about it so we have to protect ourselves

No one knows the purpose of them, maybe they are harmless but i pay for my sim, i allow people to come shop, i did not ok some idiot who created bots to do some whatever , the person obviously has some purpose in mind

Also others on these posts have named these bots

[nikita Jefferson]

Also i do not know if they affect traffic or not or if they have some effect on it,using singularity search i was alway locked on page one about 4 from top.

A little while ago i started moving up and down in search depending on my traffic.

I have over 3000 visitors but traffic goes from the highest of 700 odd down to 71 and up and down in varing numbers in that range

I have no idea if they have a negative affect on traffic, but my search position is at the mercy of traffic

[Dana Dielli]

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nikita Jefferson wrote:

...

'maybe we should start a list so everyone can start banning them ...

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 I'm not convinced there's any real threat yet, that would mandate me spending my time banning every Brenden or Selena that visits my sim. 

But one obvious problem I see with banning via land tools, is that so far I've seen over 100 names and I've only been looking for 2 days.   I only have capability for banning 500 avatars with Region Land Tools, and I need to keep some space available for banning the real "pita" types that occasionally show up.

I suspect there are literally thousands of these bots, not hundreds, and I'm not inclined to bother hunting them any further when LL fully supports the creation of free accounts without any real enforcement of any limits.

 

[Perrie Juran]

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nikita Jefferson wrote:

They are not real avatars,they are bots,its not like we are naming real people, these bots are a nuisance and LL will not do anything about it so we have to protect ourselves

No one knows the purpose of them, maybe they are harmless but i pay for my sim, i allow people to come shop, i did not ok some idiot who created bots to do some whatever , the person obviously has some purpose in mind

Also others on these posts have named these bots

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You are proposing creating lists and people adding to the lists and when you start getting innocent Ava's added to the lists it starts to become a problem. 

And as far as traffic is concerned, as I understand it an Ava has to be on your SIM for one minute before it is counted.

It's your right to ban any account you want to from your SIM, but LISTS suck.

If you want to do lists is your privelege but this Forum is not the place to do it.

I'm not fond of the Bots either but I'm not fond of lists too.

I remember Redzone all too well.

[Phil Deakins]

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nikita Jefferson wrote:

Also i do not know if they affect traffic or not or if they have some effect on it,using singularity search i was alway locked on page one about 4 from top.

A little while ago i started moving up and down in search depending on my traffic.

I have over 3000 visitors but traffic goes from the highest of 700 odd down to 71 and up and down in varing numbers in that range

I have no idea if they have a negative affect on traffic, but my search position is at the mercy of traffic

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If they stay for the tiny amount of time you said, they don't affect your traffic count. They cannot negatively affect your traffic count regardless of how long they stay.

Your numbers are curious though. You have 3000 visitors but a very low traffic count at best (700). You didn't mention the period of time those 3000 covered though. If you're getting 3000 visitors a day, or a week, or even a month, and you're only getting a traffic count of 700 at best, then you should be looking at why people don't stay.

[nikita Jefferson]

i guess if there are hundreds of these bots there is nt much point banning them, at least they don't count to my land visitor count, i have a counter up and they do not affect that because they come and go so quick.

That over 3000 count is over time, the way i see traffic should work, it should be cumulative, if it is for example 100 and 10 avys show up and maybe only 2 stay the alloted time for an avy to be counted towards traffic then the next update should be 102., but it does not work that way.

I could go inworld, check my traffic and it could be 300 odd, then my search position goes down accordingly, tomorrow the count could be 90 and my search will follow that number accordingly.

It does not matter how long an avy stays even if it is the alloted time to affect traffic counts, it does not.

I use the singularity viewer and traffic does not show in search, but it does in the SL and firstorm searches, so if people judge the popularity of a shop in their decision to visit a shop then my low traffic count goes against me

[Phil Deakins]

Traffic is calculated as the number of minutes on the parcel. If I go to your parcel and stay for 7 minutes, your count for that day (displayed the next day) will be 7 more than it would have been.

Traffic isn't cumulative, for obvious reasons. It is intended to indicate the current popularity of parcels, and not how popular it used to be. So it's done on a daily basis.

In the main search, traffic is of little importance. It's only important in the old search that some 3rd party viewers still have, along with the main search. Even then, I think the default search system in 3rd party viewers is the main search, in which traffic is of little value.

[nikita Jefferson]

Thanks for the traffic info, as i was saying before, i watched my traffic every day and my position in search went up and down according to the more or less in traffic calculation,so traffic did affect my search position, if traffic was low i dropped in search, if it was higher i went up

 

I have banned 12 of those in and out bots and i have'nt seen any for a few days, but one thing that is very odd, and it might just be a coincident but since i banned the bots my search position had gone up and is locked and does not move, i use singularity and searching skins i am 2 down from another skin shop that has always been locked in first place.

As i said it might be a coincidence  but since banning those bots i have noticed a  change in search behaviour for the good

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

It sounds like you are using the old search, where traffic is the only ranking factor. It's not included in the LL viewer any more and I've no idea what percentage of people use that search these days, but a fair number probably do, so, imo, it's probably still worthwhile having a decent traffic.count.

The bots that are the topic of this thread cannot affect your traffic count or your rankings, because they don't stay long enough to do that, even if they are not registered as scripted agents (bots). So the fact that your rankings are now stable is no doubt just coincidence.

[nikita Jefferson]

You are probably right Phil, it probably is a coincidence  but even now i remain very good in singularity search, i prefer that viewer.

My " and outs "( bots) have slowed to almost non since banning them, i get the odd trickle. That being said my shop is 3000 ft up and the sim landing point is set there, i saw a notice from my island security system, one of the bots i had banned was ejected from my track which is 2000 ft up, so i checked the main security box on the island, seems 3 other banned bots were ejected from the land area ,so even tho they are banned with the sim land ban they can by pass the set landing point and land anywhere it seems.

yesterday I just happened to be at the shop landing point, my radar sent me a message he (a Bot) had entered the sim, my mysti hud listed the avy and and the greeter sent a greeting message,i was a couple meters from the landing point and no one was there, this one stayed about 15 seconds and left but was invisible.Banned that one yesterday and that was the one that was ejected today from my racing track by the land security today

[Perrie Juran]

 

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Phil Deakins wrote:

It sounds like you are using the old search, where traffic is the only ranking factor. It's not included in the LL viewer any more and I've no idea what percentage of people use that search these days, but a fair number probably do, so, imo, it's probably still worthwhile having a decent traffic.count.

The bots that are the topic of this thread cannot affect your traffic count or your rankings, because they don't stay long enough to do that, even if they are not registered as scripted agents (bots). So the fact that your rankings are now stable is no doubt just coincidence.

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Umm, the last time you and I dicussed this you insisted that traffic did still play a role, however a very minimal one.

And it's still listed in search.

[Phil Deakins]

Yes, as far as I know, traffic is still a ranking factor in the main search, but only a very small one. That's assuming that they did with the current system what they did with the GSA, and there was no reason for them not to.

 

An aside:

Do you remember how some of us said that the GSA was a poor search engine for SL, because the most powerful ranking factor (inbound links - IBLs) didn't really apply to SL in the way that it applies to the natural web? LL went and got a public domain engine to replace it, but it undoubtedly works in pretty much the same was as the GSA did, because the GSA was the way all engines came to work after Google showed the way to good results. So it seems reasonable to suppose that they incorparated traffic in the same way as they did with the GSA; i.e. by giving the top traffic places 12 IBLs, the next group 11 IBls, and so on down to 1 IBL, which left most places with no extra IBLs. That was the way that traffic played a small role in rankings, and I assume that's what happens now

[Skate Foss]

My sim too gets several Brendens daily and weekly. The Natalyas have slowed down. They all have May 2009 rez dates. I have no idea what they want or are scripted to do. But like others have stated, I pay for my sim, I have tenants that pay tier, I have the right to not have mysterious scripted objects rez on my sim. I'm very happy that this thread is here. Thank you to everyone who is looking into this. I have little faith in Linden Lab doing anything. I keep a list of Bots that have rezzed on my sim, if anyone would like to share any info, please contact me inworld. Thank you.

[LlazarusLlong]

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Skate Foss wrote:

 I have the right to not have mysterious scripted objects rez on my sim.

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Is this actually true?

[Rhiana Innis]

This has been happening to me too over the last couple of months, all have the names Selena, Natalia, Brenden and Heaven, some have same last names, all of their rez dates are may 2009, all have blank profiles, I have reported many of these to LL and they do nothing about it, they have shown up at my home, one showed up an hour after I moved land, they show up at my club, at random clubs i've visited and at yardsales, I've IM'd many and they never respond. Just wish I knew whattheir purpose was. Am happy to see it's not just me and a couple of my friends this is happening to, but LL really needs to do something.

[Sloane Cobalt]

I had noticed these Brenden avs landing on my homestead on the visitor tracker, and finally got fed up enough that I just estate banned them.  Tonight Brenden Hammand landed on a roleplay sim I frequent for almost a full minute, longest I've ever seen one stay in one place.  Got a screenshot of its little default av face and everything, no idea why it stayed there for so long though.

 

[22:14:53] Brenden Hammand entered the region (186.23 m).
[22:15:45] Brenden Hammand left the region.

[Brooklyn Trallis]

Brenden Nandahar

He'll stay for an hour if I leave him alone - when I TP to him, he leaves after a few minutes.  

Always at around 3000m up, never moves.  

It's killing me, I wanna know this poor guys purpose.  He's pretty depressing, just sitting there.  And he insists on visiting several times a day.

[lolalab69]

Okay I just posted a question

"Who sees all the 'Brenden' guys landing all over the place every few minutes? Anyone know what they are?Just curious."

 

I was referred here to this General Forum and OMG W O W lol. So I aint paranoid then lol. well that's sorta comforting to know.

Hmmm so yeh looks like Brenden's been around a long while then. I started taking note of the names in Oct 2014.

Someone told me they may be 'copy bots' or Linden staff? But yeh they have never done me any harm that I know of and they don't IM me but yeh. they keep popping up near my home and work and.. everydamnwhere.   

These are the ones I noted on NC....Brenden Metaluna, Brenden Kaventipovic, Brenden Kaliopov, Brenden Chingseng, Brenden Wrexan, Brenden Caiben, Brenden Lowtide, Brenden Zalivstok, Brenden Nandahar, Brenden Hammand, but have not noticed the Natalyas as yet.

 

[SteveHazuka]

I get them too.  Ive reported them to LL but no response.  They pop in and out never answer IM's and my bann list is filling up with them

 

[Gwador Merlin]

I've checked the search ingame for the "Brendens" and the others.

There is a huge number of "Brendens" without profile, i have found several hundreds of them!

Seems not all are from 2014, there are a lot of 8 or 9 years old ones. Technically it will be impossible to ban all these avatars, the ban list is limited.

This tells me one thing: Supporting such a huge number of bots costs a fortune. I can't believe this is just done for joy or hobby. Someone has a business and earns money.

I will try a simple trick:  As it was said these avas rezz at a hight of around 3000 meters. I'll rezz a huge megaprim cube (256x256x256) centered at that hight and put a simple "teleport home on collision" script inside. Let's see if that helps.

Those searchbots definitely take ressources and collect unkown data. As long as  i don't know exactly what these bots are doing i definitely don't want them on the sim i pay for.

[Qie Niangao]

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Gwador Merlin wrote:

Supporting such a huge number of bots costs a fortune. I can't believe this is just done for joy or hobby. Someone has a business and earns money.

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It's certainly possible that some business uses these bots, but this deduction is flawed. There can be countless many account names without it costing anybody anything, and they could even keep quite a few of them logged-in simultaneously on a single machine using a "headless" (text only) bot program. Hence it absolutely could be just a hobby; we simply don't know.

The point of having so many account names to cycle through might be to defeat any attempt to ban them all a priori. That doesn't prevent detecting and banning them as they arrive, but we don't know what they're doing; any damage may already be done by the time they can be detected.

The mystery to me is why they're all named "Brenden-" or "Natalya-" something. I suppose it could be merely an epic failure of imagination on the part of our botter.Or,... could it be intended for our discovery, part of a devious plan to drive us all crazy?

[Parhelion Palou]

The Brendens you're looking for would all have rez dates in May 2009. So far I've found (first name & number of bots using that first name):

Brenden - 10

Heaven - 2

Natalia - 5 (I haven't seen a Natalya)

Riley - 4

Selena - 5

All of the above have rez dates in May 2009 and empty or near-empty profiles.