Who are these people?

Uptosnuff

Uptosnuff

Member
Location
Great Plains, USA
Right now there are 95 people total on this site. 13 members, 82 visitors. Do you ever wonder who they are? Do they find us interesting? What percentage of them will join the site do you think?
 

Frim what I understand, there are some visitors to the site who are either not signed in, or not registered users. There are also some "bots" but I do not recall why they are here. Maybe @Matrix or @SeaBreeze can explain why the bots are here.
 
Sassycakes said:
I'm sorry but I don't know what a "Bot" is ?
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This is how Wikipedia defines a bot "
An Internet bot, also known as a web robot, robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone."
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My question was meant to be a little more esoteric than asking a factual question. I have been a member of a few other discussion boards and have always been a bit surprised at the number of viewers (visitors) vs the number of members on a site. There are really only a very few number of people actively participating in threads compared to the number of anonymous viewers. I have threads that number in the thousands of views. Hence the question.
 
Members vs Viewers: "Viewers" are people looking at the website without logging in. .... and as for the thousands of views .... when people google stuff randomly on the Internet, if you post something, and it matches 'key words' in their search, they could click on the link where your post is ..... or not. :)
 
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They come to watch the monkeys dance and IMO we put on a pretty good show!

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Sassycakes said:
I'm sorry but I don't know what a "Bot" is ?
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The only thing I know or heard about bots is related to music being posted on the SoundCloud web site. When you post a song on your SoundCloud web page it will state how long the song has been posted, and how many plays it has gotten. I guess some folks have used these "bot programs" to artificially boost their number of song plays. Making the song seem to be way more popular than it really is..

When we first started posting our songs on SoundCloud, I was getting some spam email through my SoundCloud account regarding using bot programs.
 
Sassycakes said:
I'm sorry but I don't know what a "Bot" is ?
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Bots are software written by programmers to perform certain tasks.

A google bot will index our content and put our discussions in their search results.

A spam bot will try to register new accounts and create spam posts without human's involvement. That's why many sites want to verify you as a human. When a spam bot can automate the whole process of registration and posting, it can create hundreds of spam posts within minutes.

There are all kinds of bots. Sometimes guests vs viewers can be in the 1:1000 range, then I will block some IPs to make it return to a reasonable rate.

Xenforo has separated known Bots from normal visitors.

Bonnie said:
Members vs Viewers: "Viewers" are people looking at the website without logging in. .... and as for the thousands of views .... when people google stuff randomly on the Internet, if you post something, and it matches 'key words' in their search, they could click on the link where your post is ..... or not. :)
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Exactly, when you Google something, you may land on a forum discussion, you become a visitor/guest/viewer on other forums. Sometimes you may not be aware that you are on a forum.
 
I didn't know that either. I just turn it on in the morning and occasionally take a peak now and then during the day and evening. I really don't care how it works as long as it works. I just thought my computer was being nice to me.
 
Lc jones said:
I visited for a while and I observed that people were not attacking each other on this site and appeared to be a kinder and friendlier bunch which led me to decide to register.
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I'm glad you did. That was one of the reasons I decided to join too. This is a very active site with a lot of good advice, opinions, views and good people.
 
Uptosnuff said:
My question was meant to be a little more esoteric than asking a factual question. I have been a member of a few other discussion boards and have always been a bit surprised at the number of viewers (visitors) vs the number of members on a site. There are really only a very few number of people actively participating in threads compared to the number of anonymous viewers. I have threads that number in the thousands of views. Hence the question.
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There are plenty of people that like to read and follow a thread even but they have no interest in posting.

When they join they get a big welcome from everyone and then are never seen again.
 
I used to slip in here as a guest back when SF had a “Political” section. There were some good debates, but also some people crossed the line and got their self banned. I don’t know if you can come back after you’re banned or not.
 
911 said:
I used to slip in here as a guest back when SF had a “Political” section. There were some good debates, but also some people crossed the line and got their self banned. I don’t know if you can come back after you’re banned or not.
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shame isnt it. i mean the passion is there but it just gets out of hand. I feel like we are hiding our real selves on here now. speaking in secret code. but politics would just make us label each other and not bother to look beyond that.
 
It’s tough to argue politics and come out on top. I have seen a conversation on an issue that was political turn ugly in a hurry. I have little interest in politics.
 


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