Jack Linden made a post on the official Second Life blog yesterday about changes to the traffic scoring.

You can read that post by clicking here.

But here is my question. WHAT’S THE POINT?! However you calculate it, while people are still abusing bots and campers (despite a change in the Terms of Service to supposedly prevent that from happening) the traffic score is about as useful as a blind air traffic controller.

Which brings me to my bitching and ranting session. WHY ARE THEY NOT ENFORCING THESE NEW RULES? What’s the point in telling us all bots and campers are banned and then doing nothing to enforce it? It’s like world governments saying ‘murder is wrong…. but go ahead anyway. Just remember that is isn’t a nice thing to do.’

Allow me to quote Jack Linden (from his post back in April 2009, which you can read by clicking here).

“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.”

Almost a month later, in May 2009, he made this post in which he offered further clarification on the rules. he stated that camping was also deemed “gaming traffic,” and as such, was also prohibited. However, the Lindens, as stated in the April post, do not want residents policing this and sending in Abuse Reports. Of course they don’t! That would mean they would actually have to pretend to be doing something to enforce it. Instead they claimed they would routinely monitor Search for what might be overly inflated traffic stats.

Let me start by saying they are doing a shit job at that. Frankly. I just ran a search myself for a very common term, “skin.” And whaddya know….

Gee... Those look just like traffic figures that occur without the use of bots.

Of course, my instant reaction was that pretty much all the visible ones on there were probably gaming traffic in some way. But you know me… I hate to pass judgement (/end bullshit) and so I thought I would at least go and have a look for myself at a few of them before calling them all names and inserting some offensive language.

Now while there were some high scoring places who have achieved this by simply having Bloodlines clans and the like all gather, there were some who were definitely in breach of the policy. The policy states that those who use models for clothing in their stores, run as bots are exempt. Does this count if one person on a quarter sim store is running 65 ‘models?’ There needs to be some clarity. This is blatant gaming!! How about actually making people parcel off the separate 16sqm plot (so traffic will be scored separately) for every single ‘model’? There was talk of that but nothing seems to have come from it. And it’s all good and well Jack Linden saying that ‘eventually’ store owners will have to declare their models to Linden Lab and the model’s traffic won’t count. But when is ‘eventually?’ Is that the same eventually as ‘eventually 100000 will be able to be online simultaneously without crashes?’ In which case, don’t hold your breath, folks. And as if people will even declare their models.

And amongst those I visited, some were still holding out with the traditional means of camping, now clearly and categorically banned.

But will Linden Lab do anything about it?

I really had a high amount of priase for Linden Lab after they took the step to ban bots and camping for traffic gaming. I thought it was a big move and one in the right direction. I even left a comment to that effect on the original post back in April 2009. But the fact is that traffic in Second Life is still worthless because Linden Lab, quite frankly, will not enforce it. Yes, I can appreciate that it is a time consuming effort to monitor bot usage. So surely a harsher ‘punishment’ for those who are found to be doing it would be in place in order to attempt to reduce it. Anyone, in my opinion, caught traffic gaming in Second Life should have their parcel’s traffic statistics returned to zero for a month. And if the Lindens cannot cope or manage with dealing with campers and searching for breaches of this policy, then they need to open up to Second Life residents and enable an option for reporting traffic gaming on the Abuse Report and allow residents to tip them off.

Ok, so we don’t like playing the school tell-tale. But I personally hate traffic in Second Life and only because of those who game it in this way. It means that people don’t realistically have a chance unless they play these games. It’s hideously unfair and the fact that so many people do it, means that so many others feel they have to in order to compete.

So congratulations on the policy, Linden Lab. Now, how about actually enforcing it? ma2g3upc96

Ok, so I have seen advertisements on XStreetSL for this Traffic Injection company in game. They’re very well thought out ads including a guy being injected. Injection? Injected? Oh yes, I see what they did there. So funny I almost peed myself. Yes. Hilarious. Almost as witty as tooth ache. Anyway, given that I am sure most are familiar with my intense hatred of bot farms and bot farmers or in fact anything that falsifies traffic, I thought I would go and take a look at what it is they are doing.

Their office is a crappy little place, though the traffic is high… funnily enough! But I wasn’t interested in their decor, I wanted to read their info! And hilarious it is.

Allow me to quote from their note.

“You have chosen the right option traffic injection provides you a huge incensement of you land traffic that will put on the best search rankings. And also get you lots of land traffic in a supported way.”

Incensement? Umm, isn’t incensement just a posh word for ‘fury’ or ‘rage’? They’re offering to make you mad? Wow… what a great offer. Come use our crappy traffic falsification service and we’ll get you really angry? Love it! What a unique marketing idea. Further down the note they insist they do not use campers or bots, but they work for 24 hours. What I want to know is, if they are not using campers or bots, where did they find people who would sit up 24 hours for a couple of hundred Lindens? Send them my way! I don’t mind exploiting cheap labour! Now, call me cynical, but if they insist they do not use bots or campers I am tempted to say ‘bullshit’. Nobody can find 20 people to sit up at their computers for 24 hours doing nothing for the equivalent of a quarter of a Starbucks coffee. Oh, but their bullshit and desire to falsify the traffic right around Second Life™ is ok…. because….(and here I go quoting their note again)…

“our avatars respect the rendering costs. All less than 650 rendering points We got a lot of very well dressed avatars all made with care to make your land looks good. We assure you total description.”

A couple of points to note… who gives a shit about the rendering costs when they’re hidden away in a skybox somewhere and no land could ever possibly look good with an army of ‘definitely-not-bots-or-campers’ sitting around. Oh, and they offer total description apparently? Description of what?

Throughout the rest of the note they go on to reiterate that they use real avatars and no bots… then state prices that really wouldn’t allow for the payment of real avatars. Perhaps I will go find some of their “real” avatars and see how real a conversation it is possible to have with them! In fact, yes I will.

Anyway, I wouldn’t normally dedicate a whole post to slating someone’s company, but in this case I will make an exception. What a load of rubbish. How can newcomers to the game expect a fair shot at building up their own little business when services like this assist in completely falsifying traffic. Oh well. Now to find these bots…. umm I mean campers…. umm, I mean ‘real’ avatars!

Why is it that traffic stats are completely worthless??

Oh wait, I remember now.

'Attack of the Killer Balls of Light' was never going to be a big hit.

This was taken on the sim ‘Still Life’ over an 8768sqm parcel that is home to Sleek Modern Furniture. Interesting this was one of many bot decks. 70 people on the sim, all crammed onto that single parcel and I didn’t find anyone who was at their keyboard to talk to me. And interestingly, a trait common to avatars logged in with a certain freely available bot program, none of them loaded into anything more than a big ball of light. Imagine that. But of course, they don’t count as bots if they’re 4000m in the air on a no fly parcel. Didn’t you know that:

And that is why a traffic figure of 118000 means, well, absolute bollocks.