Bots and Guests
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 8:26 pm
I, too, have concerns about our trackers, AKA bots. I believe there are actually 9 of them, all considered "registered users."As usual here in the antipodes I find myself alone on the forum, "Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], MTC and 0 guests." A "Bing [Bot]" does not a person make.
Guest numbers are also odd to me. Usually, it's between 10 and 20, with highs and lows. Yet, two weeks ago, three times the number exceeded 50. Almost all of them on the index page.
Guests also are frequently shown as doing things they aren't supposed to be able to do: view user control panel, view member profile, reply to a message. My conspiracy theory here is the software is creating these "people" to make the site look better. Or, non-conspiratorial, many guests are actual members who don't bother to sign in or ever post.
As to bots, I have seen Google Adsense supposedly responding to messages at least 5 times.
I don't recall having seen 0 guests, but I am often the only real human member online.
I wish there were something we could do about all this, but I doubt it is possible.