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Stories from Second Life
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The Problem With Bots
The debate over the use of bots in SL is a passionate one with many different points of view. Anyone can read the blogs at http://www.blog.secondlife.com (search for "bots") to see that for oneself. These pictures were taken by me and a trusted friend. When we discovered the bots on Echo Island I did not know that I would be reporting this story and I do not have my pc's interface in the pictures. You can trust me, however, that I am telling the truth and reporting facts in this report. I have no reason to make up something that is not true. The facts are as follows: 1) Echo Island - I stumbled upon these bots on February 29, 2008. The traffic count on that day was 57,000+. The bots in the black skybox were positioned over top of "Still Life" furniture store. Most of them were made on 12/15/07 and they all had empty profiles. This skybox also contained a rather large monkey that was holding a Pandora's Box. I have copied a pasted what was displayed in chat when I clicked on the Pandora's Box: 2008/02/29 14:22 Pandora v1.0: Echo Still Life Bots: http://www.slpandora.com. The bots in the white sky box were positioned over top of "mold" store which sells male and female shapes and skins. These bots were made in September and December 2007. As the bots that came before them, their profiles were empty. Today I tried to go to the skyboxes prepared to take better pictures this time and was immediately teleported back home with these messages: "[12:42] Have a Nice Trip: Access Denied 12:42 You have been teleported home by the object 'Have a Nice Trip' on the parcel 'ECHo Island - Organic Island Living with Beachfront Views.' 12:42 You have been ejected from this land." 12:42 Teleport completed from http://slurl.com/secondlife/ECHo%20Island/1/194/73. (Although I have my preferences checked to show the date with my logged time stamps, it is not doing so today. Figures.) 2) THEhood & Capital Mall on Robin Hood Island - I found a skybox full of bots at approximately 820 meters in the sky on April 3, 2008. Just as I was about to snap a picture of the bots I was ejected from the land. I was never able to get close enough again to attempt another picture of the bots. The green object under me in the picture is the skybox housing the bots. On that day, THEhood ranked at number 7 on the list of SL's most popular places with traffic count at 127,780. (Today they rank 5th on the list of most popular places). 3) Tropical Temptations on Temptation Island - These bots were discovered on April 3, 2008 by my trusted friend. They were hidden behind some kind of invisible box. It appeared as though he was looking at the sky but when he kept angling his camera around looking for the green dots that were showing up on his mini-map, he noticed that avatar names were partially emerging from behind their cloak of invisibility. With some difficulty, he was able to maneuver his camera view inside of the invisible box. These bots were all made on 8/13/07 and all profiles are blank. As you can see from the picture, they all belong to the group "TT Value Camper. Today Tropical Temptations rank 8th on the list of most popular places in SL. 4) Flawless Shapes by Kira in the Flawless sim - I found these "models" because of the green dots they represent on the SL map. I checked the profiles of 25 of the "models". 23 of them were made on 3/24/08 and two of them were made on 3/26/08. All profiles were empty. Today, the traffic count for Flawless Shapes is 62, 415. Bots increase traffic numbers and spare owners from having to pay campers to camp on their land in order to drive up traffic numbers. Increased traffic numbers result in businesses/places ranking higher on the Search tool. This in turn results in people being drawn to those businesses/places because the high traffic numbers lead one to presume that they are popular places (with lots of folks to meet) and that the products and services are actually purchased by large numbers of people because the goods offered are of good quality. I am closing this article with a few questions. What bots should be allowed? Should ANY bots be allowed? What about the "models" I found at Flawless Shapes? Do they serve a legitimate purpose? They do indeed model the shapes and skins that are for sale there. Is there a difference between these "models" and the obvious bots that have been found before them? What about camping? Camping drives up traffic numbers as well. What's your opinion?
- TAGS:
- secondlife,
- sl,
- bots,
- business,
- money
- GROUPS:
- Tech and science
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