Most users online!!

[kml]

Just glanced over and noticed that the most users online is 728 and seems to be going up by the second!!!

[NickCantle]

I think it must be a flock of Googlebots, Yahoobots, Lycosbots, Altavistabots and all of the others!

It's at 901 now and steadily increasing by the minute!!!

[tufftie]

and hardly any of them looking at threads / posts - all looking at the main page..just looked down a few pages!!!

[Jez]

2 away from 1000!

[Jez]

1004 in a flash!

[tufftie]

and all viewing user profile now!!!

[NickCantle]

Nicely tracked! WAB is botheaven

[Jez]

In which case i'm putting my shades on too!

[NickCantle]

Woo! All get the shades out!

By the way, I wonder what it is that brings the bots in as a flood

[tufftie]

They multiply faster than rodents!!!

[NickCantle]

Errrr Naomi, where are the shades

[tufftie]

Oooops - going blind already!!!

[Jez]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

Woo! All get the shades out!

By the way, I wonder what it is that brings the bots in as a flood

By Flying penguin?

[mrs fish]

More and more when I google something to do with wildlife a WAB page will be top or almost top

[juliejam]

As already mentioned when looking for wildlife information through google is so nice to see Wildaboutbritain amongst the many others...Would be interested to know how many of the users last night were members...unfortunatly i was fast asleep when the final number was recordered as 1006..maybe in time more and more guests will sign up and join our team..


Julie

[kml]

I was fast asleep by the time the number stopped increasing but at the time of writing the post the number logged in as members was just 15!!Maybe more people will join up.I wonder if they are mainly from the uk? if so do you think the noises around their home in the loft or in the garden are making them search for what`s keeping them awake?It will be interesting to look at the members list to see if there has been a sudden influx of new members.

[NickCantle]

They aren't 'people' and they are unable to become members. At the point of 1006 users online, it was just Jez, Tufftie and I as members. The chances of bots joining up is very slim. For anyone that is unsure about internet bots, I've added the Wikipedia page on them below. One was to prevent bots joining sites and spamming/advertising is to employ a system that goes by the name of 'CAPCHA'. You'll all recognise it as having to put the numbers/letters in the box as the screen displays. Of course automated machines and systems can't perform such a task thus rendering membership impossible

Internet bots

Nick

[kml]

Just me being dim again then.

[NickCantle]

Not at all KML, it's just me being a geek I used to run a forum so it's something that it helps to be clued up on to prevent spamming/viruses.

Nick

[Monkster]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

They aren't 'people' and they are unable to become members. At the point of 1006 users online, it was just Jez, Tufftie and I as members. The chances of bots joining up is very slim. For anyone that is unsure about internet bots, I've added the Wikipedia page on them below. One was to prevent bots joining sites and spamming/advertising is to employ a system that goes by the name of 'CAPCHA'. You'll all recognise it as having to put the numbers/letters in the box as the screen displays. Of course automated machines and systems can't perform such a task thus rendering membership impossible

Internet bots

Nick

Originally Posted by tufftie

and all viewing user profile now!!!

Hi Nick

I just had a look on that 'Internet bots' link you gave and wondered if there was any need to be a bit suspicious as Tuftie posted that they were all on 'user profiles' at one point, as the link says:

* There are malicious bots (and botnets) of the following types:

1. Spambots that harvest email addresses from contact forms or guestbook pages
2. Downloader programs that suck bandwidth by downloading entire web sites
3. Web site scrapers that grab the content of web sites and re-use it without permission on automatically generated doorway pages
4. Viruses and worms
5. DDoS attacks
6. Botnets / zombie computers; etc


I think it was really good that there were some members on at the time and were able to see what all these people or bots were looking at ( I did wonder what a thousand people could all find fascinating at the same time) as it does seem a little weird.

As you might be aware, I'm still not sure it the bots are good or bad and if they have any effect here or not.
Any enlightenment is greatly appreciated
Suzanne

[NickCantle]

You get good bots and you get bad bots. If a website has sufficient security, no bot is a problem. I'm pretty sure the mods will back me up in saying that WAB is a very safe place. The information isn't easily accessible unless membership is acquired; in this case, it isn't. I really wouldn't worry about it Suzanne, it happens on every site on the web It's just a part of today's internet.

Nick

[Monkster]

That was a quick reply!
I was just a bit curious as I hadn't come across this before, there's certainly more to this internet lark than meets the eye.
It's good to know that the website security can protect the members though.
Thanks Nick
Suzanne

[NickCantle]

There is alot more than meets the eye! It helps when you've helped in forums I guess, but when it's beyond simple , I know zilch. Though I did once know HTML code, but that's a whole different kettle of fish

[andyc123]

That must have been a whole load of bots, tricksy little things and so widespread on the net today. As above though at least some of them are going about legitimate business!.... pity about the others mind!!

[NickCantle]

Well the previous record has just been smashed into next year 1,417 as I type this. Bloody Googlebots