Ambrosia Dance Club

If you go to the Linden Blogs you can read the latest economic report where Linden Labs claims that the number of concurrent users is reduced due to the implementation of their bot removal policy which took place in April.  Well, I for one certainly don’t see it.  It seems to me that the prime offenders are still at it and are literally thumbing their noses at the policy.  But the Bot Hunter is ever vigilant and loves to show you exactly how these people who are gaming traffic with fake avatars do their dirty deeds.  Lets call them what they are…f#$@ing cheaters who fool people into thinking that they have a kick-ass club by planting hordes of bots in an attempt to get a higher traffic rating in search so unsuspecting noobs can buy their worthless crap.

Here we have the infamous Dance Island .  Today’s traffic is an astonishing 84534.  You can tell where the bots are by just looking at the mini map. On the left side is the club itself with a group of green dots. The other large cluster of dots is pictured above. It is a club just to hold dancing campers, ummm let’s just call the what they are. F#@%ing BOTS. But why even have any pretense anymore.  Just put your traffic gaming campers out in the open.

In your face, Linden Labs! This is a Linden Labs Showcase venue after all and is proudly listed as a great place for newcomers to go.

The Scofflaws at The Rock are still at it clocking in at a number one with their amazing  99000 traffic rating.  Get close to the warmth produced by the campmaster device everyone – ahhhhh.

Feel the Linden goodness.  Up yours Mark Linden!

Lets see…Phat Cats. Well they should have super high traffic because the romance and twirl-a-girl places always do.  But what is this?

Oh dear its a Model, in fact I count about 17 of them. Well the idea of models is really neat.  But the reality is we know they are not for modeling clothes .  They exist to artificially raise the traffic rating of the sim.  Period.  Soooo, Phat Cat Owners, you are running bots to raise your traffic. You suck!
Or maybe I am totally wrong and you are hiring real people to model the clothes in all of the stores. Yeah , right.

Well, what the hell, that certainly helps out with todays 72633 rating enabling you to stay even with dreaded rival Sweethearts.  Sorry, but they beat you with a 73843 traffic rating with what I suspect to be genuine traffic.

People always like to shout out that their favourite club in SL is the “best club” and indeed it’s heard quite often at Ambrosia. Since the word best is so subjective the only way to to really tell which is the most popular club is by its traffic rating. By typing the word “CLUB” in search places it is possible to see who is currently in the number 1 spot for traffic. This week in the number 1 spot, overtaking those pale hosers at Dance Island is the Black Rain Club – Biker Sim. I decided to check it out.

Upon arrival I found myself surrounded by a healthy number of avatars. However, some of them were not fully rendered. Hmm, kind of like bots.

Lets give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are all really waiting around for the random money giver to regurgitate lindens into their upturned beaks.

Here we can see this avatar waiting patiently for her payout!. But alas, it pays out ‘AFantasy Color Change Shoes’ to one of the bots. Sorry!!! No cash for you!!
Let’s wait 19 minutes for the next payout.

Over the air crackled the commanding voice of a live dj barking something in German accompanied by a driving techno beat.

Here is a new arrival – A pig headed person spewing pink particles. And i thought things were going to be boring.

Ahhh, here are some more green dots in the sim. Let’s go find out if this is where the real party is. Wow, it’s a veritable United Nations of people clustered around a CampMaster 2.0 paying out 1 L every 30 min! As I sat there among the undead i could hear the words of Jack Linden,

“We recently posted a new policy explaining that the use of Bots to unfairly inflate the traffic score (and therefore Search ranking) for a venue would be considered a violation. Whether a landowner uses Bots or Camping Chairs, or Camping Chairs with Bots in them, the effect is the same – the traffic score for that parcel is inflated unfairly”

Hmmm.

But what of the actual club? Well here it is!

Lets go inside.

Well, the Stuka dive bomber is certainly cool. Not a bad looking club either. I count 19 people. They are in voice chat speaking in German. So lets add it up. 19 people in the club. 97 in the sim. Could it be that this Number 1 venue is unfairly using campers and bots to game traffic scores? Why do they feel that they have to do this? The club that they have would be a whole lot better for the real people that use it if they did not have to contend with the massive lag caused by the 78 extraneous avatars.

Since the club members are mostly European we can assume that there is a slack time when very few real people would actually visit the club. Therefore this club should have a respectable traffic rating or around 12000 not 87403. But thanks to its number 1 ranking in Places people teleport in regularly because it is at the top of the list.

Is this an example of gaming traffic? You be the judge.

It was with great joy that i read the news that Jack Linden has declared a Fatwah on Bots and Campers that game traffic in Second Life.

On the Second Life blog post on Thursday April 23, Jack Linden stated the following:

“Almost everyone agrees that using Bots to manipulate traffic (and therefore Search rankings) is unfair. Not only with respect to Search itself but also due to the load on Mainland Region resources and how that can impact other Residents in the area.

“Therefore we are setting policy that attempting to gain an unfair Search advantage, by the use of Bots to inflate the Traffic for a parcel, will be considered a violation. This policy applies to both Mainland and Private Estates as both are represented in Search.”

Jack Linden posted that residents would not need to report violations, but next week Linden Labs would “routinely look at the Search results” to look for camping bots. Where they found clear cases, the owner would be given a warning, followed by “an account suspension or removal from Search if it persists.”

He went onto reassure users of other bots, “We will not be banning or removing Bots from Second Life. There are many amazing and useful ways to use Bots and the fact that in some circumstances they can be misused should not impact the more constructive users of Bots. We wouldn’t remove Scripting because it can sometimes be used in bad ways, and Bots are no different in that respect. … ”

So this is great and wonderful news.  Ambrosia has never in its history employed nefarious traffic gaming tactics such as the use of bot campers and AFK dancing couples on the dance floor.  As a result, we have always showed traffic in the range of 5000 to 15000 for the first 2 years of our operation.  Only recently, has Ambrosia truly broken into the mainstream of popularity.  The Sim is now generating traffic figures of between 20,000 and 30,000 with over 700 unique visitors in a typical day.  But what of our competitors?

I recently took a trip around the grid to see how the implementation of Jack Linden’s edict was progressing. I typed “Club” into search places and found the highest traffic belonged to this place; Atlanta City with a traffic rating of 109360.  How do they maintain such an amazing rating?  BOTS.  Located on the edge of the sim, hovering in the air seated around picnic tables are the owner’s 83 Bots in all their glory.

Below we have our friends at the “number 1″ venue in the game Dance Island. They have cleverly skirted the issue of having campers by creating a bogus new dance club on the other side of the island under the stores and filling it with bot dancers.  You can clearly see the two sets of dots on the minimap.  Former Camper Bots are now disguised as legitimate patrons. Well done. A great big “Up Yours Jack!” from the number 1 dance venue in Second Life.

Here is a fine establishment called  Classic Rock.  Today’s traffic rating is an incredible 106722. Now look at this screen shot.  There are 67 avatars all dancing away in the room but what is missing?  Yes, you guessed it there is no chat whatsoever.  In fact the only chat i heard was from the DJ and a few totally disoriented noobs who teleport in because…hmmm, it’s ranked number 1 in search?

Well at least they make no attempt whatsoever to disguise their bots.  Totally out in the open and making their faux Lindens.

Here is another great dance club that most people have stumbled onto in their search for some sort of place in SL where actual people congregate for a good time.  This is Flashbacks, a place where you can rent advertising space that gets viewed by disoriented noobs and amorphous puffy bot clouds.

High in the sky above September Rain, Traffic 47,366, is a black box protected by a security system.  What secrets lie inside?  And why would you protect a black box with a club logo with a security system?

Why to hide the fact that you are running bots of course.  Well at least they have been given a very scenic view whilst they stand around and gain an unfair advantage in traffic.

Here, Party Like a Rockstar dispenses with the niceties and just has their Bots floating around in the sky.  Note the actual club traffic on the mini map.

Here finally is  a legitimate club, Toby’s Juke Joint Blues Club. You can see 10 or 12 avatars dancing and having a good time. Not to much conversation though.  Perhaps they are in the naughty box. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.  But wait…there are 38 main agents in the sim.  Is there another party going on?

Why of course.  It’s a party behind the wall on the beach!  Whoo hooooo!!!  Toby is apparently a great philanthropist who wants to allow noobs to get ahead in life by paying them 1 Linden an hour.

This is just a very short list of examples that I was able to find in about the space of 20 minutes.  The use of Campers and Bots is obvious to anyone.  As of today all of these offenders are still operating these traffic generating devices and thumbing their noses at everyone who is attempting to play by the rules.  SL mirrors Rl in that respect.  People who game the system are rewarded and legitimate business owners are penalized. So now, any store owner or club manager that removes the bots they were cheating with and tries to rely on the real traffic that their venues generate are instantly relegated to obscurity while their competitors continue to attract a steady stream of new traffic.

My guess is that 50% of the SL world is populated by Bots and Campers generated by outside software. It is hard to believe that the Lindens will ever truly do away with half of their concurrent numbers.  So this whole policy of banishing bots and campers is truly a farce and just talk.  And anyone with a few minutes of spare time can see how easy it would be to do away with the most egregious of offenders. Just go down the list of the highest ranking places and look around like I did.

Traffic generating Bots are naturally obvious when they are sitting around as campers. They are not so obvious when they are dancing as couples on a dance floor.  However, they are easily flushed out with offers of cash on a crowded dance floor.  When a shout of “I will give 100 L to anyone who says Hi” is met with silence or an answer from the DJ/Host…you just might have a sim full of bots.

No Sim that has just a clothing store on the Grid should  have traffic higher than 10000.  It’s ludicrous when a store has traffic in the high 5 figures or even 6 figures.  These are obvious cheaters.  Shut them down.  Remove them from Search Places.  It’s simple.  Let them pay for classified ads.  Use the money generated to hire more staff to sniff out bots.  Death to the Bot hoards!

There are so many clubs operating in the world now compared to when Ambrosia first opened its doors in 2006. It seems like dozens more open up everyday. So how does the new or existing venue owner get an edge up on the competition and get found in search? Well, you inflate your traffic numbers of course. And how do you do that? Why, simple. You get 25 Alts and park them in a sky platform 500 meters above your property. Then make your land no fly so no one can see this nefarious gaming.

All dressed up and no where to go

Voila, an instant 40,000 traffic rating! Golly, is this why there is so much lag? Well, let’s see, on this island there were two real people and 25 well dressed zombies. Hmmm, does this happen often in second life? You bet it does. It’s been going on forever and will continue to because the Lindens love artificial numbers. Just look at the mini map on every sim that shows a rating above 30,000. The owners of this travesty at least had the common sense to put up a wall around their bots so they could not be pushed over the edge. Or can they?

With a flight assist tool you can get a running start that will give zombies like this just enough of a shove where they end up going right through the thin wall! What fun! Try that little tip and see if it works for you. Happy Bot hunting!