I do hope they're harmless and don't bite or yank off some toes if stepped on. That would hurt something fierce.
Please excuse my ignorance here, but why do we have botts following or viewing our posts? Do they actually take note of our discussions? The botts in question are the bing and google ones.
Anyone can go on any forum on the internet and read posts/replies. But, to post/reply to a Thread, a person has to become a member of that forum. I would have no idea how to stop people from viewing any Thread on any forum. Forums on the internet are not Private, but there are forums where a person can send a private message, within the forum or thru a members listed e-mail address. So, bottom line is..........anyone can see anything Thread and posting/replay that any member does.
First, welcome to the forum. I am going to merge this with a couple of other threads, and I think you'll have the answer there. The bots are search engine spiders that index the discussions here for the sake of those who are looking for something we're discussing here on a search engine, like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, or another.
For the past couple of months, we have regularly been spidered by Brandwatch, which is a service intended to let manufacturers and retailers know what people are saying about their brand or their products. So, your complaints or compliments about whatever it is that you're commenting on are getting notice beyond that of other forum members.
Do you think they will see my post about the Goredi mini-cycle pedal exerciser? And that I think I will like it?
p.s. probably off topic, but to clarify guests and robots, members and tracking >> 5 members online, 136 guests, and 21 robots. I started copying those numbers as a curiosity recently, and this is the one just noted. Someone else mentioned that on their viewing page a trampoline advertising / link/ showed up and they had not searched for it - they wondered why it showed up. Yes, everything someone sees or looks at on a webpage is recorded in one or even a dozen places, ggl and china and yhoo and other, and used for marketing purposes and other purposes not so good. The "robots" are constantly copying, retrieving, and sending all things ever posted or typed back to the command center that sent the "robots", and anything anyone says online may be used against them at any time when whoever has the information wants to do so . Members Online Now Don Alaska, Jeff Elohim, John Brunner, Tony Page Total: 162 (members: 5, guests: 136, robots: 21)
Now that I'm completely awake for no reason, it's hard not to notice the Brandwatch Robot who's creeping around in the dark, looking at Member Profiles. (<･ ι ･>)))
Just click the 'MENU' thing in the upper left of the screen, then click 'Current Visitors' in the list below. Haha, the Robots are among us! But probably only to gather marketing data.
Ken has explained about bots (or spiders) several times before. This is the main reason that we need to have descriptive titles for our threads, because of Search Engine Optimization, which rates how this forum comes up in an online search. Anytime you check, there will always be a mix of members, visitors, and spiders working their way through the forum. They are not checking us out by name, even if they are on the profile section, they just crawl through everything, and it does not mean that we get more spam email or phone calls about our extended warranty.