Robots?

[Buckeyejake]

So what is a robot online?

 

[Okuma]

So what is a robot online?

"Robots" are more commonly called "crawlers," which are what search engines like google and yahoo use to index sites for their search engine results. They are on all sites but this particular software actually identifies them separately from regular users.

 

[Robert McWhirter]

I though bots were spam crawlers.

 

[Okuma]

I though bots were spam crawlers.

It's possible some of them are.

 

[Buckeyejake]

I'm not a computer genius so if I sound stupid it's because I am.

So why is it important we list this information on who is present on the website?

 

[Robert McWhirter]

I for one like to see who's on when I come on.

 

[Okuma]

I'm not a computer genius so if I sound stupid it's because I am.

So why is it important we list this information on who is present on the website?

Not important, just something that forum software has done for many years so it seems the norm now.

 

[Buckeyejake]

I also like to see who is on when I come on. Just didn't understand the robot listing.

 

[Lil4X]

'Bots usually give themselves away by mangling the English language in ways no ESL poster ever would. Lately we've seen 'bots that will either copy a line from an old post and tack on a link to their site, or post a few random words plus a link . . . They can be pretty sneaky.

 

[2.ooohhh]

I'm not a computer genius so if I sound stupid it's because I am.

So why is it important we list this information on who is present on the website?

It's a carry over from the early days of the BBS when there were limited numbers of slots(phone lines) on a server and chat often required both users to be online simultaneously.