I just noticed there are currently 15 registered users and 128 anonymous users browsing this site.

To those anonymous browsers who might be thinking about getting back into sailing, let me just say this.

Sailing is still a blast! Oh, I know, some things never change. I never was and never will be a champion sailor. Despite a serious attempt to the contrary, I'm as disorganized as ever. But, you know what? In the year or so that I've been back sailing cats on a regular basis, I've dropped twenty+ pounds, my blood sugar and cholesterol are back where they need to be! Sailing is my gym, my workout routine and it's a lot more fun than the tread mill!

So, if you're 50+ (in my case 50+++++++++) and your physique and general health aren't what they used to be, SO WHAT! Get a boat and go sailing! Get a sunfish. Get a wave. Hell! Get off your wallet and buy a brand spanking new Blade (or H16 or whatever)! Just get back in the game! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hey Pete,
Agreed. I used to play football, race motocross, etc., but not any more. Yet at 70 I was just able to win the Wave North Americans last year. And am still pretty good on the water, if I must say so myself. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Rick

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Yes you are!

You would likely be speaking to a Google bot.

Most of the anon users you see online are Google, yahoo or other search engines browsing and indexing the site.

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

So do the bots perform all of these activities?

Anonymous 07/10/07 12:24 PM Viewing a user's profile
Anonymous 07/10/07 12:24 PM Reading a post in threaded mode
What are the goals? Not NAHCA doesn't work!
Anonymous 07/10/07 12:24 PM Reading a post in flat mode
Weather Helm...Need Help

128 bots indexing the forum? I think that is a bit (understatement) on the high side. Only Rick would know from the statistics, but I would be very surprised if bots was responsible for more than 5% of the traffic.

Hey Matt,
How do you explain that each of the anon visitors has a different ip address? Wouldn't bots be using just one for Google, one for Yahoo, etc, and not be there all at the same time.
Rick

I can't see your users, so wouldn't know. But I often see this in our forums. Yes, the bots do all functions and can account for a large number of anon users at times. You would usually see multiple IPs being the same when they are indexing the site.

Bots on boats?!?!

Well, we already tried the Remote Controls and midgets on cats, so why not go one step further and put some (ro)bots on them ?

It is the wave of the future, man !

Or was that the new "desert island" by hobie ?

I always mix them up !

Wouter

There's a rumour that Wouter is actually a Bot..(dont tell anyone ok).

There will be mutiple bots indexing sites, some with the same IP, some different.

Use google to search to look up "how do google bots work". There are 3 types !

Do users browsing the forums without logging in show as "anonymous"? I do that a lot, just for a quick read....

Yes.

Some forum software can identify some of the bots, Rick may be able to see the bots indexing the site.

Team Seacats has 17 identifiable bots that roam the site regularly. There are a significant number of hits from bots that aren't identified. However, I doubt there are THAT many bots crawling the forum at any given moment.

For reference, we have 177 "Guests" on the Hobie site right now.

A quick sort shows a likely 140 of those are 3 different IPs. Likely indexing bots.

I guess you could block the bots for a period and then see how many anon users were left...that would be the only real test.

I've never done it but I understand that you can put a particular file (robots.txt I think) in your root directory that tells the bots were to go and what to (or not to) index.

We like the bot indexing. Helps the sites come up higher in the search lists when searching for "Hobie" terms.

I think the robots.txt files are used to "protect" information from bots.

robots.txt is a mechanism that tells well behaved bots to not index a site, or which part of the site the bot can index.
Running the log files from the forum trough a relatively modern logfile analyzer will quickly show which are boots and which are humans. Well behaved bots usually identify themselves trough the http-agent parameter.

Having the forum indexed by google and other major search engines is a good thing. Brings more people into the community.