Are you a Bot or Not?

8/11/2019 Are you a Bot or Not?

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Are you a Bot, or Not?Developing a web-strategy to reduce Bottage without

annoying the actual human viewer

20 000+ views, deleted.

Im still sore about the stats that were erased from my SCRIBD accout whe they discovered

via ew al!orithms that most of these had bee crawlers ad bots.

I had 20 000+ views o my blo! at "etterdash too, the offshoot of 2#.com, before they

rearra!ed everythi! ad most of the blo!!i! commuity moved over to $ord%ress. I loved the

"etterdash %latform. &rated, $ord%ress has more o%tios, but it was a ti!ht'(it buch, a lot of

South )fricas ad the occasioal * %erso to come ad aoy us tryi! to tal( about %olitics. I

mea, you * !uys were always welcome. $e had some !reat lau!hs.-

y )uthors De also shows thousads of views over the %ast / years, as do the boo(s I threw

oto %ub Bud. I fact, wherever I %ublished olie, the views have bee collecti! steadily, ad

most si!ificatly, o our ow website at 1(aboo.

So the Scribd stats were ot out of lie with all the other stats. $hich is why I fid it hard to

acce%t that they should have accumulated i a differet way.

But, Scribd defiitely isists it was crawlers ad bots. hey would (ow3 hey have a secret

al!orithm by which they ca determie this. It %u44les me that they ca determie it

retros%ectively, but 5 what hey, there are may oo(s ad craies of %ro!rammi! as yet u(ow

to me. *less they used 5 iroically 5 statistics.

he more worryi! 6uestio is this3

If the Scribd stats were all bots, perhaps the other sites stats are, too?


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The question arises, what do I do?

here is o way to determie how much of our ow web stats are bots, or of those o )uthorsDe, $ord%ress, &oodreads, 4ie etc etc. 7 my ow site I ca see that 8semalt.crawler9 refers

6uite a lot of clic(s, ad our host has filters u% that catch a lot of crawler traffic. But3 how much is

missed: ;ow much or rather, how little- of all that traffic is actually human?

But the more im%ortat 6uestio is3

For whom am I putting things into the Web?

he aswer is3 Buyers. Readers ad buyers.

Buyers are ot bots. I dot eed to worry about those. But readers: 7e wats to (ow if a

%iece is bei! circulated, if it is well received< authors li(e feedbac(. Sadly, des%ite %lety of

%eo%le dowloadi! the free eboo(s of last years com%etitio, obody commeted. =ot a si!le

%erso had the courtesy to come bac( ad commet, 8well writte9. he %eo%le we !et commets

ad reviews from are ievitably those who are already (ow to us3 embers of the blo!!i!

commuity.

If it were oly my ow boo(s u% there I mi!ht resi! myself to the idea that %eo%le are >ust ot

that ito readi! them. hat they somehow dot li(e my style, that my to%ics are bori!, or

somethi!. But there are other authors u% there that are ?00@ readworthy, you will ot re!ret.

he why dowload ad notleave a commet:

Recaptcha?

Bless you.

=o, I wot use Reca%tcha. I the first %lace, its a i!htmare to im%lemet. I the secod

%lace, %eo%le dot li(e havi! a reca%tcha %ushed ito their faces while browsi!. hey sim%ly

clic( away. Reca%tcha is for secure trasactios, ot >ust because.

But I am im%lemeti! much simplerlittle filters.

Donegal Trouble,our most favourite dowload file after the 8robots.tAt9, ow has a %o%'u% that

comes u% whe you clic( for your free dowload. wo of the ima!es which have o 8alt9 ad o

ima!e title, so the bot cat fi!ure it out from the code- sim%ly close the boA a!ai ad ta(e you

bac( to the boo(sho%. If you really wat the free %df, you eed to clic( o the oe that re%resets ahuma.


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his ou!ht to statistically filter out 2 of the 8bot traffic9 dowloadi!Donegal Trouble. Im

6uite curious how the stats will loo( this moth.

)other device is im%lemeted forMercury Silver3 he free eboo( is available from me 5 by

email. So you have to sed me that email sayi! 8%lease sed me..9. Bots have abused some of my

web forms which is why I dowscaled bac( to email li(s-. 1(aboo is a hi'touch or!ai4atio.

$e wat to (ow who our readers, customers ad fafrieds are. ) !ood'old email li( tells me

istatly if youre a s%ammi! crawler 8buy %ure caabis9-, a 8I have ?#. millio dollar ad

wat to !ive it to you for free9 scam, or a !euie reader who is here for what were offeri!.

Will these deices annoy real iewers?

he %eo%le who !et aoyed by these miimal, li!htwei!ht bot'filters are !eerally of the followi!

ty%es3

idle browserswho accidetally stumbled across a li( to our website but are really dead

bored- 5 they wot buy aythi! ayway

impatient kids5 see above

Cholericswho hate ay (id of eAtra clic( or %o%'u%. &eerally, Cholerics dot have the

%atiece to read, so they dot ma(e !ood customers for a boo(sho%.

Mr Invisible5 the ultra'shy web 8%hatom9 who would li(e to si% the free ectar of a site

but, des%ite bei! very curious about a boo( o offer, is afraid to yield u% any(id of

%ersoal idetifyer eve as va!ue as a web'based email address- to !et hold of the material.his ty%e will neverbuy somethi! olie. hey will also ever !ive feedbac( i case they

ca be traced. )t a %arty, you wot fid them i case someoe says 8hello9. Sadly, these

are ot customers either thou!h they would %robably really e>oy the boo(s.

)s you see, oe of these would either %ay for a boo( or %ay with a o%iio ad feedbac(. So

while I mi!ht lose their %atroa!e, for what its worth 5 it wast worth too much to our sho% ad

our authors i the first %lace.

he %eo%le who will cotiue to fre6uet are those who dot mid iteracti! by email or

clic(i! that oe eAtra clic(. So the humas I 8filtered out9 by meas of the bot filters dot really

matter to the well'bei! of the site. 1sycholo!y meets web desi!.

Why am I sharing this?

&uys, lets face it. he $eb has become a s%ider'web. $here those silver strads of hy%er'

commuicatio were su%%osed to be humas !etti! i touch with other humas, they ow have

bee ta(e over to a vast eAtet by those little aimals most at home i a web. Ca of Doom,ayoe:- his was to be eA%ected from the very ature of the $eb.

So Im sayi!, "S C")I B)C 7*R I=R=E "ets ma(e it a!ai what it was


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meat to be, a commuicatio ad iformatio hi!hway for humas, by humas.

!"lic# $I%& i' you(re with me)*

Fes %lease. If you li(e my a%%roach, do %ost this to your Gaceboo(. Remember your Gaceboo(

wall is differet from mie, differet %eo%le see it. Social clic('bac(s are the real clic('currecy

aroud here, because 5 you !ot it 5 its humas doi! them.

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Are you a Bot or Not?