SEABED BOT INVESTIGATION

[MoonshipToBaja]

Sept 1 2017

I was investigating the seabed around 01:30am when I came across this rather strangely proportioned bot. It did not make any reply when IM'd. Its profile was a child's nursery rhyme.

About an hour after I took this snap, the bot disappeared - either withdrawn? Or moved on?

<MODERATOR: IMAGE WITH NUDITY REMOVED>

September 8th

 

 

The smaller, red humanoid shape was another bot that I came across at about 4.00am on the seabed. Its profile was that of a fake teenager, claiming to love parties. Just as I was about to take the snap, this tall woman came bounding over and pushed me. She was not a bot - however, she was quite verbally abusive and unpleasant.

More reports later.

Edited September 18, 2017 by Dakota Linden
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Community_Participation_Guidelines

[Cindy Evanier]

Curious as to why you think they are bots just because they don't reply or have a human avatar?  Sometimes I don't log off for hours because of rl distractions or just forgetting.  If you messaged me you wouldn't get a reply.   Or was there some other reason you say bots? 

Edited September 9, 2017 by Cindy Evanier

[Chic Aeon]

The red "humanoid" shape you see is mere because the rendering of that avatar is more than your "jellydoll" setting is allowing. It could be green or blue or maybe purple.  I doubt that the first was a "bot" either.  People frequently go to a very quiet place to let their inventory load or to work on things where there won't be much lag.

 

[ForrestChild]

I used to see a lot of "Tiny Empires" players in the waters when I lived in Shermerville. So maybe they're just playing that or another HUD based game.

[Claireschen Hesten]

If your snaps were taken in a water sim it's entirely possible the people were there to load/sort inventory they could have been too busy or AFK to respond to you or just not want to chat

[Zsigmond Alcott]

and why you starring at that woman's chest? Shame on you! 

<MODERATOR: IMAGE WITH NUDITY REMOVED>

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Dakota Linden
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Community_Participation_Guidelines

[Tari Landar]

I stand underwater all the time. Those are my favorite login sims, since they're usually empty and quiet, and keep me out of others' way if I go AFK, or, just generally keep me out of people's way.  Odds are pretty good I may ignore you if you speak to me in local, because I don't pay local much attention. If you send an IM and I don't answer, odds are pretty good I'm busy doing something else.

I'm definitely not a bot, lol.

[Klytyna]

4 hours ago, MoonshipToBaja said:

She was not a bot - however, she was quite verbally abusive and unpleasant.

That is not an uncommon response to some noob walking up to you when you are busy doing something  in some quiet out of the way, "I won't get bothered here" location, and starts with the whole annoying business ...

"Hi, i r spam ur im box, cos dis a nowere place an mi fink u be a bot, mi report u for beein a bot"

Last time it happened to me, I was on a pose stand editing my appearance and some muppet walked up, asked me if I was a bot and accused me of obviously being a bot in the same sentence, and their reasons for claiming I was a bot? I wasn't walking around bent at the waist like a constipated duck looking for a lost contact lens in the approved "doesn't have an AO' noob tradition.

Was I verbally abusive to the muppet in question, well not at first, I just said no i'm editing my appearance, but when they accused me a second time, I did make a spirited attempt to melt their ear drums with short anglo-Saxon words that "Americans are forbidden to hear on thew internet" (rated PG-European - Unsuitable for persons living south of the Mason-Dickson Line).
 

[Amanda Crisp]

[Chaser Zaks]

While I do know that some people just idle in the water because it is a quick place to go without loading a ton of stuff, it is more likely bots cluster themselves in one location like so:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Farumier/1/1/1

Sometimes here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shannavay/1/256/1

As for what they are? No one will know(probably, unless they specify why public)!

They are not violating the terms of service, and they are listed as bots(or LL would likely have kicked them off by now).

Taking the rational approach(AKA: not assuming they are spying on people), I'd say they are statistics bots that log grid activities, similar to gridsurvey.com(Except, they only have one bot and you rarely see it, at least I have rarely ever seen it).

Stuff they might log:

• Sim arrivals/departures
• Popular sims
• Sim map texture UUIDs

Or, they might be group inviter/notice/management bots but the owners have no where to place them, so what better place to put them where they won't impact other sims or hog sim agent resources where people actually are renting land?

One could say that they are the bots that go out and spam groups with "i need L$100 to finish pay my rent", but if you look at their profiles, they are clearly not that type of bot because they often make jokes about how they live in the water, instead of using the first result off google image results for "sexy girl". So that rules out that.

Bots that don't state their business are often misunderstood and seen as evil, but my bot SaltyAlt doesn't specify what he does(at least, he is vague about it), but he isn't evil, he just likes to look at things.

There are also the spinny bots, people say they copybot stuff or spy on people. But why would they spin if they needed to do that? My idea is that they are spinning so the sim sends them the entire LayerData(downloading the sim terrain) to do elevation statistics on the grid. They probably have no ill intent but people see them as evil just because they exist.

Don't get me wrong, sim/parcel owners have all the rights to ban these bots if they wish, but my point is, if they are not harming anyone, why bother with banning them?

Edited September 10, 2017 by Chaser Zaks

[Paul Hexem]

Drown victim is a fetish.

Or was that asphyxiation?

[Anna Nova]

If you don't like some avi, just de-render it and mute it.  This causes it to go away (even the tall ones with fat thighs).

To moan about what some avi is doing is the height of stupidity - or more likely you didn't discover de-render yet (right-click offending avatar, More, De-render)

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by anna2358

[Phil Deakins]

1 hour ago, Chaser Zaks said:

They are not violating the terms of service, and they are listed as bots(or LL would likely have kicked them off by now).

Not true. Bots do not have to be registered as bots ('listed' as you put it). Only bots on land that is set to show in search have to be registered. No other bots have to be registered.

Also, LL wouldn't kick off unregistered bots from land that is set to show in search unless someone reports them.  LL doesn't police them. So there's no way to know whether or not a bot is registered.

Edited September 10, 2017 by Phil Deakins

[Tari Landar]

The spinning avs are nearly always data gathering, hence why they spin, but move very little to none at all. Although a lot of those data gathering accounts don't even spin, much less move off their landing position. There are quite a few of them around too, or at least there used to be, I would assume that most are likely still around.  They don't tend to populate regularly empty sims though. 

Groups of avs staying put in one obscure place, have all kinds of purposes, the vast majority of which are harmless, no matter how much they might annoy some people.

Individual avs just simply standing there, aren't nearly as likely to be bots at all, they probably just don't feel like being pestered at the moment. Like when I login and immediately go to peacock(LL water sim), stand there forever, and seem to refuse to answer anyone that speaks to me. I'm not being a jerk..I'm busy, and this happens to be the least likely place I'll ever get in someone's way, since I've never run into more than 5 people, at most, on the sim at any given point(and never near one another). Sometimes I go here when I want to work on listings, search inventory, or look for something else to do. If I'm working on creating, I'll be in a mostly empty sandbox, not a water sim where I can't rez, and ignoring everyone around me then too. I'm really good at ignoring people, well, provided I have no reason NOT to ignore them(ie, answering customers, I do my best to not ignore those folks, as a general rule, because that would be rude, and counterproductive)

 

[Bree Giffen]

I tend to go into an empty ocean sim to check for any avatar problems, or check inventory, etc. It's a good place to go AFK because you're not expecting anyone else to be there. The OP might have come across a teen avatar trying to change clothes and if you were trying to take pictures the angry response from her friend might've been justified. 

[Callum Meriman]

Couple of give aways here, where the supposed bot is. On the sea floor isn't a good place to store them. Too easy for people and vessels to push them around (which is of course disrupting game play if you do it to a real person, so dont). 

Where the clever herders put their bots is at 6000M or so, that takes too long for most people to fly up to (ignoring gth 6000 here clearly)

There is no reason to put a bot in rez zones, so all the green dots you see in the rez zones in the corner of ocean sims, likely people who are afk or logout ghosts.

Likewise any green dots at <128,128,0> They will be people who are afk or busy. That's where you end up when you type your favourite word into the map and hit enter. I get one always there in a sim I rent on the Blake Sea. Always at <128,128,0> her and her alts (from the similar profiles) so I leave her be.

Yep, there are a lot of bots for sure, I have three in world right now for group and estate work, but those people on the ocean bottom are mostly people or logout ghosts.

[Callum Meriman]

11 hours ago, Klytyna said:

I did make a spirited attempt to melt their ear drums with short anglo-Saxon words that "Americans are forbidden to hear on thew internet" (rated PG-European - Unsuitable for persons living south of the Mason-Dickson Line).
 

Nipples?

[Syo Emerald]

26 minutes ago, Callum Meriman said:

Nipples?

No, thats the one they aren't allowed to see! Hearing is okay, I guess.

[Qie Niangao]

The pictures suggest the coral seabed of Heterocera Atoll which reminds me of a bot story.

Off the east coast of the Atoll there are some very nice open sailing sims that really improve the experience for a bunch of us with land on that coast. It's not only that they're nice to sail in themselves, but also they're kinda essential for navigation to other Atoll waters. Problem is they're Homesteads, so they're pretty easy to fill with avatars if somebody makes it their goal -- and some bot-runner apparently did just that, presumably to harass one of the landowners for some obscure bot-runnin' reason or other. They'd stack up in a perfect vertical column, a dozen or so deep, starting at the ocean floor until the sim was full so no more could be added, then they'd start on the next adjacent Linden water Homestead.

My neighbor and I filed daily Abuse Reports for a while, then I got sick of it and filed a Support ticket, knowing eventually the Lab would need to respond one way or another. After the Lab started engaging it took a couple weeks and at least two Linden interventions to drive the bots away for good. Well, we presume "for good" as it's been at least a year since they last blocked our entry.

Those same water sims still get a few scattered "bottom feeders" but not in numbers that block entry and not seeming to lag even a capacity-crippled Homestead, so whatever they're doing we can sail right over them, no problem.

[Jeny Howlett]

2 hours ago, Bree Giffen said:

I tend to go into an empty ocean sim to check for any avatar problems, or check inventory, etc. It's a good place to go AFK because you're not expecting anyone else to be there. The OP might have come across a teen avatar trying to change clothes and if you were trying to take pictures the angry response from her friend might've been justified. 

Theres an underwater spot ive been using for years to afk or change clothes. Its near an old infohub. 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Jeny Howlett

[BilliJo Aldrin]

I usually log in onto a LL water sim. Its easier to rezz fully there than on land a lot of times.

While I'm there friends might tp in, or I might start answering IMs.

I could be there for an hour or more.

If u show up to investigate me, rest assured that while I probably won't say hi unless you invade my personal space, I've already checked out your profile.

[JoeDex]

Well this explains why the water behind my house is so popular. I thought it was hot chicks checking me out, but nnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooo. Humble 1 - Ego 0

[Syo Emerald]

14 hours ago, JoeDex said:

Well this explains why the water behind my house is so popular. I thought it was hot chicks checking me out, but nnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooo. Humble 1 - Ego 0

You can still imagine, that there are shy but naughty mermaids taking a peek into your bedroom window from the ocean.

- Your world, your imagination -

[Pussycat Catnap]

These are Tiny Empires players. They litter the ocean floors of SL because other than people who use the oceans for what they are there for - sailing - they don't bother anyone.

And there aren't enough sailors to file ARs when these folks cause enough lag to crash us... because 90% of the time... they actually don't.

They're just kind of annoying like having a guy standing around outside your favorite hangout 24/7 would be...

 

I do wonder why you had one of them jump into attack mode on you like that. Maybe she was a noob who thought you were one of the bots... Her AV and yours BOTH look like bot AVs... which are often either unrefined or wearing the fashions of 3 seasons ago...

 

Basically... they're a harmless nuisance. Move on and ignore them.