Bots....

[Juan576]

I see bots on here all the time, the "yahoo" bot is almost always on, and there's also a "google" bot. Can we do anything to erase/stop them?

Otherwise, I really love this website

[erikleeson]

I hate to be picky, but this topic has been answered already. Creating threads that have been answered previously like this are (No Offense) a waste of board space.

But to answer your question, the bots are good things. The bots absorb everything that happens on web site, and eventually appears on the search engine. For instance, as we speak, Google (bot) is copying the posts of this thread and inserting them onto the very wide range of searching possibilities. So eventually, if you searched "Bots..." somewhere in the endless void of results, you would get a search result with a link to this exact page. You get it? The bots are good because they bring traffic to the site.

There are also
Google (bot)
Yahoo (bot)
MSN (bot)
MSN Media (bot)
Ask Jeeves (bot)
Gigabot (bot)

And probably a bunch more. I think there are 15 bots in total, or maybe its 50

[Juan576]

sorry! you can close/delete this topic if you want.

[ladybug15057]

Juan576 I am sorry for the posting that was a little out of line towards you. Sometimes we all create postings that the subject had already been discussed, but when there are a total of 17,313 posts it is hard to read through them all. There is a search feature in the upper right corner of the screen, but not always does the search feature quite bring up topics we are in search for either. It's good for quite a few search items but not all.
IMO, when a member posts a concern I do not consider it a waste of board space... unlike some postings that continuously try to reword others thoughts/comments/experiences on several postings. Juan576 thank you for your concern regarding the bots here at HCP.

[erikleeson]

I wasn't trying to tell you you where wasting board space, I simply stated that it had been answered already. The other bot thread has many answers so I thought she might have come across it.

Don't feel bad or anything, there are far more worse things you could do to waste space. I agree with Marie that the bots is a little strange at first but it is something that is a normal concern.