bots

[iambiguous]

Bots?

Just out of curiosity...

Flannel Jesus -- one of my "Stooges" here -- recently assured me that even though I get lots and lots of views for the threads I submit here, they are mostly from bots.

"A bot is a software application that is programmed to do certain tasks."

Well, that got me curious, so, for a few weeks I started noting just how many views my threads get. Most of them average around 2,000 views a week. But the compatibilism thread averages about 30,000+ views a week.

So, if they are mostly bots, what's the point? Who programmed them to view my threads/posts and to view your threads and posts? Who sends them here? What motivates them? Are they somehow embedded in AI contraptions?

Is there a way to actually pin down the numbers here?

Again, just curious.

[FlashDangerpants]

Just look at who is online right now

Always_mostly_bots.JPG (11.63 KiB) Viewed 56233 times

Semrush is a marketing company that offer search engine optimisation, Ahrefs does the same. Bing is a forgotten search engine. Amazon could be trawling this site for any number of reasons but probably something to do with advertising.

Did you actually think you were getting 30K views per week from people?

[iambiguous]

Just look at who is online right now

Always_mostly_bots.JPG
Semrush is a marketing company that offer search engine optimisation, Ahrefs does the same. Bing is a forgotten search engine. Amazon could be trawling this site for any number of reasons but probably something to do with advertising.

Did you actually think you were getting 30K views per week from people?

Okay, there were the bots and the 36 "guests" online at the time. So, it would seem that most of the views here are from the "guests"? Guest [to the best of my knowledge] being users who follow the exchanges but don't post themselves?

But what is it about the compatibilism thread that accounts for such a dramatic increase in views?

Are bots particularly interested in free will?

And what info could a marketing firm accumulate about those who exchange philosophy? Or is the government here probing PN for possible...subversives?

Also, at the science/philosophy "private forum" I contribute to, weekly views are only in the double digits. Usually around 15 to 20.

[RickLewis]

I don't know the answers to most of your questions. Bora might know some, but he's busy working on an upgrade to the Philosophy Now app.

"Guests" are people who are on the forum reading threads, but who are not logged in at the time. They may or may not be forum members.

[FlashDangerpants]

Just look at who is online right now

Always_mostly_bots.JPG
Semrush is a marketing company that offer search engine optimisation, Ahrefs does the same. Bing is a forgotten search engine. Amazon could be trawling this site for any number of reasons but probably something to do with advertising.

Did you actually think you were getting 30K views per week from people?

Okay, there were the bots and the 36 "guests" online at the time. So, it would seem that most of the views here are from the "guests"? Guest [to the best of my knowledge] being users who follow the exchanges but don't post themselves?

But what is it about the compatibilism thread that accounts for such a dramatic increase in views?

Are bots particularly interested in free will?

And what info could a marketing firm accumulate about those who exchange philosophy? Or is the government here probing PN for possible...subversives?

Also, at the science/philosophy "private forum" I contribute to, weekly views are only in the double digits. Usually around 15 to 20.

If you look at your compatiblism thread and pick a random post therein, you can take the text from it and search Google and it will probably get you the exact match. Try it with this phrase (include the quote marks) "Oh, I get it. He's telling us he's high. Mary. Jane." that will get you a Flannel Jesus comment from last March on page 201 of that very long thread. I leave it up to you to see if the same experiment works on your other forum. If it's small then it probably won't be indexed as well as this site is, and that indexing does count as page reads I believe.

Next thing. Google "compatibilism" (no need for the quote marks this time) and you will see that a little below SEP and all the big boys of the internet philosophy crowd, but firmly in the middle of the first page, is Philosophy Now. There's a reason why any time you check who is on the site right now, ahrefs[bot] is a constant presence, and that is because that appears to be the service that PN uses to make sure they get on the front page for their preferred seearch terms, and compatibilism seems to be one of those terms. Having that word pop up on the forums probably helps do the SEO. I can't tell you much more than that because I don't do SEO.

I took a little look to see if the SEO power is so magnificent that people who goole that one word get directed to your thread, but I think they would pass a bunch of other forums and about 20 Reddit threads before they get to it.

So I ask this. Howe many new people who join this forum make their first post in that particular thread? Is 270 pages of compatibilism the biggest draw on this site? I had never even noticed that thread myself so I cannot say.

[Impenitent]

one of my favorite bots is Wheely Big Cheese



-Imp

[iambiguous]

I don't know the answers to most of your questions. Bora might know some, but he's busy working on an upgrade to the Philosophy Now app.

"Guests" are people who are on the forum reading threads, but who are not logged in at the time. They may or may not be forum members.

Of course, with technology this complex, very, very few of us really have a substantial grasp on what might be going on "backstage"...or "behind the curtain"?

As a senior citizen, I came to computers late in life. And, in regard to any number of things pertaining to forums like this, it's all over my head.

On the other hand, someone -- here? -- has set out to "enlighten" me on views. Yesterday this thread had about a 100 views...today it's over 50,000 views. Bots? And, if so, again, what's the point? What's the "skinny" here as they say?

Out of the blue, 50,000+ bots descend on this thread? Or is it just a handful of bots viewing it over and over and over and over and over again?

Or, perhaps, someone the equivalent of a hacker is able to simply change the number of views? Think David Lightman from Wargames. Or Ferris Bueller?

[iambiguous]

Here's a discussion of forum bots: https://ipcamtalk.com/threads/forum-bots.72964/

samplenhold: It is interesting to see the evolution of their interactions. To answer:

1. Are the bots combing the forums and joining by themselves, or is there a real person getting the ball rolling?
Originally, a human (or sub-human depending on your feeling about bots) would get them an account. Present day it is totally AI controlled.

2. What's the purpose? Teenager prank? Harassment? Something more sinister?
The AIs are learning, adapting. Their goal is to be undetectable. The purpose will be to shape online discussions for a list of reasons. Pick one.

3. Is the bot automatically responding to posts, or does a person pick a post to respond to and feed it to AI to generate a response?
AI is looking at posts and replying/posting to see the response. They no longer have a human directing them.

4. How do admins deal with it?
That I do not know.

5. Is it going to wreck the forums with bots responding to bots to the point that serious posts are lost in the noise?
I doubt that it will wreck the forums. Ultimately BOTs will be able to recognize other BOTs, and may possible do that already. I suppose that they could just carry on conversations with each other as a form of entertainment, but that is just speculation.
Like Reactions:mat200

[Iwannaplato]

On the other hand, someone -- here? -- has set out to "enlighten" me on views. Yesterday this thread had about a 100 views...today it's over 50,000 views. Bots? And, if so, again, what's the point?

Yes, it makes no sense that it's bots. It must be people. Whitefish, Montana has a population just under 50,000 and I hear they're sensitive about nihilism. A Stooge couldn't be right about this one.

[iambiguous]

On the other hand, someone -- here? -- has set out to "enlighten" me on views. Yesterday this thread had about a 100 views...today it's over 50,000 views. Bots? And, if so, again, what's the point?

Yes, it makes no sense that it's bots. It must be people. Whitefish, Montana has a population just under 50,000 and I hear they're sensitive about nihilism. A Stooge couldn't be right about this one.

Actually, being a Stooge has little or nothing to do with being right or wrong. Instead, it's about making me the issue. But even this conjecture is no less rooted existentially in dasein.

Now, I'm still rather confused regarding what exactly bots are. Are they connected more to corporations out to make a buck, or to trolls out to "get" someone they don't particularly like at a forum, or something to do with the government and "national security", or a hacker just wanting to fuck around with something that others take more seriously, or manifestations of AI?


Edit:

Speaking of AI, PBS has a new documentary tonight on "the AI Revolution". Maybe bots will come up.

[seeds]

On the other hand, someone -- here? -- has set out to "enlighten" me on views. Yesterday this thread had about a 100 views...today it's over 50,000 views. Bots? And, if so, again, what's the point?

Yes, it makes no sense that it's bots. It must be people. Whitefish, Montana has a population just under 50,000 and I hear they're sensitive about nihilism. A Stooge couldn't be right about this one.

My guess is (and it's only a guess) that it has something to do with whenever you search for something on, for example, Google,...

(who has a registered bot on this site)

...at the top of the Google page, it states something like the following,...

"About 3,292,000 results (0.38 seconds)"

...which, to me, suggest that Google's search engine instantly probes pretty much the entire Internet (including our posts) for whatever keywords you may have loaded into the query box.

And as such, it counts (or tallies up) as a view of the thread.

So, for example, if thousands of people across the planet ask Google a question about, for example, "nihilism," or "God," or something else we might often discuss here on the forums,...

...Google simply finds the keyword in our posts and counts it as one of those 3,292,000 results achieved in 0.38 seconds, which, again, registers as a view on a thread.

Again, that's just a guess.
_______

[iambiguous]

Another assessment of bots: https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/ho ... human.html

"That Bot Is a Human!
How to tell when a person is pretending to be an A.I."

Here the focus seems to be on businesses/corporations. And with them the bottom line is generally the bottom line: $$$

But bots here?

In any event, bot or not, AI or human [or both], there is still the argument being made itself. And what I'm always looking for are arguments that might enable me to hoist myself up out of the truly bleak hole I've dug myself down into in regard to moral and political value judgments and in regard to death itself.

[Iwannaplato]

On the other hand, someone -- here? -- has set out to "enlighten" me on views. Yesterday this thread had about a 100 views...today it's over 50,000 views. Bots? And, if so, again, what's the point?

Yes, it makes no sense that it's bots. It must be people. Whitefish, Montana has a population just under 50,000 and I hear they're sensitive about nihilism. A Stooge couldn't be right about this one.

My guess is (and it's only a guess) that it has something to do with whenever you search for something on, for example, Google,...

(who has a registered bot on this site)

...at the top of the Google page, it states something like the following,...

"About 3,292,000 results (0.38 seconds)"

...which, to me, suggest that Google's search engine instantly probes pretty much the entire Internet (including our posts) for whatever keywords you may have loaded into the query box.

And as such, it counts (or tallies up) as a view of the thread.

So, for example, if thousands of people across the planet ask Google a question about, for example, "nihilism," or "God," or something else we might often discuss here on the forums,...

...Google simply finds the keyword in our posts and counts it as one of those 3,292,000 results achieved in 0.38 seconds, which, again, registers as a view on a thread.

Again, that's just a guess.
_______

I have no idea. I doubt 50,000 people visited one of Iambs threads in one day and it seems like he is beginning to doubt his stats, kudos for that.

I doubt most people here pop in and look at his threads (or anyone's threads). That even 500 people who do not post here would decide, Hey, let me go take a look at the latest posts in that philosophy forum seems incredibly unlikely.

We're entering the AI era - I hope it doesn't end us - and those things are scouring the internet for all sorts of reasons. You account seems reasonable to me, a layperson, clunking along on intuition.

[Flannel Jesus]

It might not all be bots, people might be getting directed here by Google when they search for arguments for compatibilism. Whether it's bots or Google tourists, they aren't reading a whole lot of Iambiguous's words thinking he's got a lot of interesting stuff to say. They're coming in, looking around, not seeing much of interest and leaving.

Iambiguous has a really big head about his page views, he's convinced himself he's not just talking to himself. That's a mistake whether it's bots or Google tourists.

[Iwannaplato]

It might not all be bots, people might be getting directed here by Google when they search for arguments for compatibilism. Whether it's bots or Google tourists, they aren't reading a whole lot of Iambiguous's words thinking he's got a lot of interesting stuff to say. They're coming in, looking around, not seeing much of interest and leaving.

Iambiguous has a really big head about his page views, he's convinced himself he's not just talking to himself. That's a mistake whether it's bots or Google tourists.

From the research I just did, it is most likely mainly bots. A view from a human does not entail that person read anything. Bots can come several times in a given visit, getting view hits each time.
The types of bots most likely would be....
Web Crawlers
Scrapers
Social Media Bots
and even
Malicious Bots

The only thing that might possibly lead to thread in a little forum focused on topics most people don't care about getting a lot of human views is if someone posted about it on social media and it went viral.

I find it hard to believe that compatibilism, for example, is suddenly the hot gossip on the internet.

The Baltimore bridge, Ok.