Who's Online Sidebar - Diesel Forum

Birken Vogt · 10-22-2007, 10:01 AM

The sidebar that says who is online consistently says somewhere around twice the number of anonymous as registered users. Is this because there are bots crawling for email addresses or do this many people browse anonymously?

Birken

Steve Spaulding · 10-22-2007, 11:03 AM

The search spiders are included in the anonymous total, and you can see the breakdown if you click the "details" button. I don't think it is unusual for any forum to have a lot of guests visiting. I hope they aren't all email address bots!

johnm · 11-08-2007, 11:57 AM

hate to admit it but i aint gotta clue what a bot or spider is?

daahhhh.

jm

Texrob1 · 11-08-2007, 02:53 PM

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnm</div><div class="ubbcode-body">hate to admit it but i aint gotta clue what a bot or spider is?

daahhhh.

jm </div></div>That makes two of us,if I see a spider on my computer I smash it!

william_04_X · 11-10-2007, 03:04 PM

bots and spiders are automated programs that search the internet...

some are friendly like googlebot...that's how they compile info on new web sites..i started a club site and within a week or so i could google the club name, and get results..before the bots, i would get nothing..

some are malicious...they will try to automatically register on forums to post spam..registration security questions are effective at keeping them out..

i'm sure there's more to it..i'm an electrician, not a webmaster..LOL

Texrob1 · 11-10-2007, 06:33 PM

William, thanks for the explanation,I learned something new today.

SmokeyWren · 11-10-2007, 07:51 PM

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnm</div><div class="ubbcode-body">hate to admit it but i aint gotta clue what a bot or spider is? </div></div>

"Bot" is short for robot, and in this context it's short for "internet robot". Click here for the Wikipedia explanation.

"Spider" or spyder in this context is short for web spider or internet spider. It crawls around the internet looking for web servers and their customers. That same link above has links to an article on web spiders.

Glad to see you're still around, John. Us old codgers have to stick together. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img]