4 bots and 27 guests and me

[artimrj]

Strange seeing no one online but me and 4 bots with 27 guests. I cant help but wonder who are all the guests? Why dont they join and join in?

[Hawk]

Rich Garber and I talked about that one time long ago. His take was that a lot of the simming community doesn't participate in the forums, this one or others. They just stop by to garner info and move on.
Since I have RWA set up so that guests can read the forums without registering, as do some of the other forums, it's easy for them to do. If folks like to read, they can generally get a wealth of info and have their questions answered and not even have to join.

I've always found it annoying to have to register at a forum just to even see it. I have joined forums before only to find out there was nothing there for me.
I guess some forum admins think a high member count means something.

[dazzharvey]

I was probably one of these guests as i was trying the android app on my phone and forgot my password ;-)

[kevhead]

Hawk I remember when this site started and was always fascinated by this new simulator that everybody was talking about. I was still plowing away at MSTS and saw this site and was very skeptical about it, the Sim not the site. When I finally built a machine that could not only play MSTS but this new beast as well I became hooked. Sold all my model trains and spend way too much time on this thing. But any who thanks for all you do just in case no one ever tells you. I think the way you have it is just fine.

[Mark]

Since I have RWA set up so that guests can read the forums without registering, as do some of the other forums, it's easy for them to do. If folks like to read, they can generally get a wealth of info and have their questions answered and not even have to join.

I've always found it annoying to have to register at a forum just to even see it. I have joined forums before only to find out there was nothing there for me.
I guess some forum admins think a high member count means something.

I have seen this myself a lot of times, there is one in particular that I wont mention just now that you need to register for just to get past the welcome page of their site ( you probably already know what one it is). The way Hawk has it makes a lot more sense. Why would you spend time registering trying to squint to read a captcha for information on a site that you can find on another one because the users span more than one forum. Like he said though it's a numbers game. The more they have the more they can "brag" about being the best forum for that subject. Even though it doesnt work out as there can be 1000 users, but out of those 1000 there are only around 20 legit users that post, the rest are just looking for quick steps to fix an error. Pointless.


So Hawk to echo what Kevhead said Your setup is ideal for the users of this great Sim, and I myself have had numerous problems fixed without even having to ask as the majority of errors found are generic and most people seem to suffer the same thing.


Ideal setup here at RWA well done and to you sir I tip my hat (if I was wearing one)


Mark

[artimrj]

I leave my forums open to read, but you have to register to post. I have 1,000 usernames in one of them, but like you say, only about 60 post messages. They joined to get the downloads and never heard from them again. My new setup for RW is being done different. You can get the dls without joining, hopefully this will eliminate the ghosts.

[ozinoz]

I am pretty sure I am not one of the bots

I visit here probably 4 or 5 times a day - due to the time differential between the US, where most posts come from and here to pick up the latest info, but I only log in when I want to post, which is probably what a fair few users do.

So now I am going to revert to guest status.....



G

[micaelcorleone]

I visit here probably 4 or 5 times a day - due to the time differential between the US, where most posts come from and here to pick up the latest info, but I only log in when I want to post, which is probably what a fair few users do.

So now I am going to revert to guest status.....

The same goes for me.

[artimrj]

I am always logged in. Easier for me that way.

[micaelcorleone]

same. But what were the 4 bots?

Bing [Bot], Google [Bot] etc.

[Chacal]

I'm not saying I'm a bot,
but I'm searching for Sarah Connor, and
I'll be back.

[Hawk]

The bots Bob's referring to in the original post are nothing more than search engine crawlers. They just stop by to crawl the forum so they can use what they find in their respective search engine database.

There's nothing malicious about them.

I leave my forums open to read, but you have to register to post. I have 1,000 usernames in one of them, but like you say, only about 60 post messages. They joined to get the downloads and never heard from them again. My new setup for RW is being done different. You can get the dls without joining, hopefully this will eliminate the ghosts.

That's pretty much the way I do it, but I have auto prune set up for those 'ghosts'. Otherwise it would show something like 3,000 members or more. The auto prune settings are explained in this post.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=262

[artimrj]

Thanks Hawk, I didnt realize phpBB did that. Just was checking it out on my forum.

[Hawk]

I don't remember how what the default phpBB settings are like because I have a mod installed that gives a little more control over the pruning, I think.

Here's a shot of what the settings look like for me. I think they're different from the default setting options.

prune.jpg

[ozinoz]

I enjoy a prune as much as the next man, but mine look nothing like that