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[Ryan]

I've got a few questions for y'all. While perusing the forum I have often noticed at the bottom the list of users browsing this forum. And almost always I see a Bing [BOT]

What/Who is this? It's obviously not an active member. Is this someone who is not a member but is on the forum anyway? I'm FAR from being computer literate and always thought that BOT's are bad things.

Also, with all the anti's out to steal any kind of information they can use against us, wouldn't it be better/safer for this forum to only be visible to those of us that are active members of the forum?

Can anyone clarify? Please and thank you!

[Smokey613]

Probably Microsoft's BING web search tool. All your search engines "crawl" through websites gathering information. It's been a common practice for several years.

[mojo84]

Search engines indexing the forum for search results.

[Jusme]

I don't worry about anti-gun folks trying to get any info from us, we tell the truth on here, so it won't register with them anyway.

[DocV]

The internet tech community has an unfortunately limited vocabulary. Not all "bots" are bad. Search robots, such as Bing's or Google's, are generally benign and honor automated search limitations set by a web site operator through a standardized "robots.txt" mechanism. As a web site gains in popularity, "search-bots" may index the site more frequently. There is an entire industry build around driving search-bots towards a particular site, which may artificially inflate the site's search engine rankings. Some search engine optimization services have been used by scammers as-well-as legitimate business but such activities are not indicators of evil intent on the part of the bot.

Attack bots, on the other hand, are usually thought of as being "bad" bots. Usually this type of bot is housed on the computers of unwitting accomplices whose computer resources have been purloined into the hands of those who will do evil. I prefer to refer to evil bots as zombies or drones. I can drone on about the various bot phylums ad-nauseum and usually do on Mondays and Wednesdays at 1PM in room 304. If you are suddenly struck with a bout of insomnia, drop by for my fifty-minute cure.

[Ryan]

Thanks for the information y'all. I appreciate it AND I can say I actually learned something today!