Lurkers

[DSEddie]

I know I've been gone a long time, but I was curious to know why so many unregistered guests are viewing the forums. When I was a regular contributor to the forum I can't recall a single time we had double digit guest numbers, yet I haven't seen a day since I've been back where we haven't had double digit guest numbers.

Could it be silent monitoring?:lookaround:

[JohnP]

I know I've been gone a long time, but I was curious to know why so many unregistered guests are viewing the forums. When I was a regular contributor to the forum I can't recall a single time we had double digit guest numbers, yet I haven't seen a day since I've been back where we haven't had double digit guest numbers.

Could it be silent monitoring?:lookaround:

The price of peace is eternal vigilance

[wukong]

The price of peace is eternal vigilance

On the radio traffic reports it is caller gapper delays.

[MOM]

I'm one of the guests at times. I don't log in and post from work for fear of
the IT Gestopo we have. But sometimes I do read as a guest while at my desk.

[DSEddie]

That makes sense, Mom. I understand situations like that, and it may be standard nowadays, I just don't recall ever seeing so many guests back in the day.

[mtnsldr]

I think we've also drawn "attention" from outside these here walls and the "google kids" we get...

[Drill for life]

I lurked around here until I finally decided to register, I am so glad I did!!!!! Grunt's is like my home inside of the internet, I feel real comfortable here and I feel like most people here don't judge me. I know that's why most of us like it here. It feel's like family.

[DSEddie]

I lurked around here until I finally decided to register, I am so glad I did!!!!! Grunt's is like my home inside of the internet, I feel real comfortable here and I feel like most people here don't judge me. I know that's why most of us like it here. It feel's like family.

It does feel like family around here, and well it should. Proper mentoring would not be possible if the cadets were afraid to ask questions or take initiative.

[armysc_25b]

I'll resolve the IP addresses on the guests occasionally, and a lot of times they resolve to bots for the search engines. Whether that means there's an active search that picked up a term in a post, or the engines are doing their "crawls" updating information, that seems to be where a lot of our guests come from.

[Smiles]

I'll resolve the IP addresses on the guests occasionally, and a lot of times they resolve to bots for the search engines. Whether that means there's an active search that picked up a term in a post, or the engines are doing their "crawls" updating information, that seems to be where a lot of our guests come from.

The other night we had 32 guests and 21 were search bots from Yahoo, Google and MSN. I was curious too!

[DSEddie]

The other night we had 32 guests and 21 were search bots from Yahoo, Google and MSN. I was curious too!

What is a search bot? And how does it register as a guest?

[armysc_25b]

What is a search bot? And how does it register as a guest?
Anyone that signs into the the website is a guest until they sign in with their registered username. The IP address that people log in from is visible to moderators, so we can take that IP address and resolve it to a location (be it a proxy server or someone's home internet provider).

[DSEddie]

Anyone that signs into the the website is a guest until they sign in with their registered username. The IP address that people log in from is visible to moderators, so we can take that IP address and resolve it to a location (be it a proxy server or someone's home internet provider).


Alright, I got that part, but how does a search bot appear as a guest? If I understand correctly, a search bot is not a person but some type of program/software/whatever that is used to find keywords, right?

[armysc_25b]

I'm assuming that it's IP address registers long enough for the forum to think it has a visitor.

[DSEddie]

I'm assuming that it's IP address registers long enough for the forum to think it has a visitor.

Makes sense, I guess. I'll have to dig into the net to see if I can find definitive answers.

[Smiles]

What is a search bot? And how does it register as a guest?

They run off of search hits done in the Yahoo, Google, MSN search bars. When a key word is searched a bot is sent out to find that word or phrase, then pages of possible sites is generated. That's how it was explained to me anyways. That's how some folks have found this forum.

[fjer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_bot

Basically they regularly copy the webpages to their server, which is what the search engines then search.

[DSEddie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_bot

Basically they regularly copy the webpages to their server, which is what the search engines then search.

There we have it. Thanks to everyone for the information.