google [bot] creeps me out

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Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

i guess it is good that the forum is covered by google so that all the projects come up once someone types in the name of the book into the search engine, but everytime i see all these [bot]s creep around the online users list i get scared (i get some kind of matrix or computers take over the world visions). i guess they appeared after the major changes done around the forums and i thought id get used to them eventually, but i havent. is there anyone else who feels like me and is there a way to make them invisible, or am i completely off here and it is (for a reason unknown to me) desirable to have them displayed?

btw, the worst are the [spider]s but i havent seen one in a few days. makes me want to hit my computer screen with a shoe.

CK
aradlaw
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Post by aradlaw »

btw, the worst are the [spider]s but i havent seen one in a few days. makes me want to hit my computer screen with a shoe.
You mean like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcr2uWkJkzI

:twisted:
David Lawrence

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Carolin
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Post by Carolin »

exactly like that!

CK
Starlite
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Post by Starlite »

And this is even more scary:
In total there are 15 users online :: 3 registered, 0 hidden and 12 guests

Registered users: Google [Bot], Starlite, Yahoo [Bot]
looks around> Where did everyone go? <sob>
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
bobgon55
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Post by bobgon55 »

Starlite wrote:And this is even more scary:
In total there are 15 users online :: 3 registered, 0 hidden and 12 guests

Registered users: Google [Bot], Starlite, Yahoo [Bot]

How in the world did the bots become registered users?
GabrielleC
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Post by GabrielleC »

Exactly!!! I've seen this ever since I registered....if they have to show up as a registered user, is there a way to make them 'hidden' users??? This annoys me...though I've been learning how to ignore it by now. :P
~Gabrielle
Starlite
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Post by Starlite »

The bots have always been here but only since we upgraded the forum software did they start showing up as users.

I think google and yahoo bots are ok. They link to our fora and send people here who do searches. I think in general these bots are harmless and are actually a good thing.

Esther :)
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

The bots have always been there - they have just not been visible to regular users before we started using the new forum software. They even have their own user group, and there are currently 51 of them. ;) Without them being given the privileges allowed to regular members, they would not be allowed to crawl all the pages that they need to.

It's all done with a little file on the server called a robots.txt file, which tells them where they are allowed to go. So they may be creepy, but think of them as your creepy little friends. :lol:

Ruth
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RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

Actually, it is perfectly possible to hide a bot's online status by altering his preferences, as any user can do if he wishes. It's a question of politely asking the bot if that's what he wants, I suppose. :lol:

Is this something that a lot of people feel strongly about? (I can't think why, to be honest. It is, after all, only a collection of bits and bytes. It doesn't have legs.)

Ruth
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annise
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Post by annise »

I would sooner know that they do than have it hidden - it is part of the internet that we all use so isn't it better to know than to bury our heads in the sand ? It is easy to start thinking the internet is a private conversation , but it isn't.

Anne
Samanem
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Post by Samanem »

They're helping us - they're our messengers, gathering info to make sure people searching for things will find Librivox in their search engine results! No need to fear them, we should embrace them! They are our cuddly friends, warm and fuzzy! Bring more of them! Where are others? Can we do a search for more bots and invite them in? :twisted:

You can make it so bots are not allowed in your website, or at least you used to be able to, but that would be suicide for web traffic!
"I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening;
it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark." ~ William Tyndale (1494-1536)
|
RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

You can even help the Majestic12 bot in its work.
Majestic-12 is working towards creation of a World Wide Web search engine based on concepts of distributing workload in a similar fashion achieved by successful projects such as SETI@home and distributed.net.
It would be particularly appropriate for LibriVoxers and all of us who do not want to see the Internet dominated by huge corporations:
There are millions web sites out there, with billions of pages and so far only a handful of huge companies were able to create a search engine that can provide relevant information to the users. Big companies control the entry point to the data you seek, and neither you nor web masters who run the sites have a say in the matter.

Majestic-12 is developing a search engine scalable to billions of web pages that is based on support by the community.
Ruth
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GabrielleC
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Post by GabrielleC »

Oh, I wasn't talking about banning them - just maybe have their online status as 'hidden' by default...when I want to see who's online, I want to know about real people, not bots. ;)
~Gabrielle
RuthieG
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Post by RuthieG »

If they'd been hidden, I wouldn't have known about Majestic-12.* And they are a different colour, and clearly labelled.

Ruth

* Well, I would actually, because my magic powers let me see them even when hidden. ;)
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gloriana
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Post by gloriana »

It's all so BSG... when the bots start looking exactly like us, then you know we've gone too far... :D
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