Slurp Spiders

[dusty]

Do Slurp Spiders ever take a break?

If they are harmless, as stated in a previous thread, why bother displaying the fact that they are even there? It just distorts the number of guests that are viewing the site.

[a1gutterman]

Do Slurp Spiders ever take a break?

If they are harmless, as stated in a previous thread, why bother displaying the fact that they are even there? It just distorts the number of guests that are viewing the site.

Hi Dusty,
When admin first changed the settings that revealed to us the spiders, he commented that they were always there, they just showed up as guests. I believe that we can either see them as they are, or as guests. Either way they will "distort" the number of guests. Am I wrong?

[paul269]

what is a slurp spider?

[dusty]

Best answered by others who know more than I about the subject:

http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... ight=slurp

[eldyfig]

Thanks for the link, Dusty. I am more informed now on these critters. I just can't get the image out of my head of a spider sitting in front of a computer sucking down a Big Gulp soda.

Tony

[charlese]

Hi Dusty,
When admin first changed the settings that revealed to us the spiders, he commented that they were always there, they just showed up as guests. I believe that we can either see them as they are, or as guests. Either way they will "distort" the number of guests. Am I wrong?

How can slurp spiders distort anything? Yes, they show up as guests. In fact, they are! The spider bots are reading the posts and transferring some of them to other sites. Is that bad? Not unless something is put into a post that the writer may regret, (phone numbers or other personal stuff) or something (information) that is really wrong! There is no difference between a real person, viewing the Forum and a bot (spider) viewing the Forum. Both are really guests.

However, there is one difference I can imagine! The real person can relay this information to others, but distort it during the process. The Spider will always relay the information accurately!

[dusty]

Unless you look at the number of guests (without knowing how many are slurp spiders) and conclude that the number of Shopsmith users online has increased significantly.

Without that bit of info, one might conclude an increase in participating users when in fact it is an increase in slurp spiders - thus distorted data.

Yes, before anyone jumps on that statement - the real problem, one could argue, would be that the data collected was misused. The analysis is bad not the data.

The original question in this thread was "do slurp spiders ever take a break".

[charlese]

Unless you look at the number of guests (without knowing how many are slurp spiders) and conclude that the number of Shopsmith users online has increased significantly.

Without that bit of info, one might conclude an increase in participating users when in fact it is an increase in slurp spiders - thus distorted data.

I agree, Dusty! Anyone, including yours truly, coming to conclusions (assumptions) while not having full information will often come to erroneous conclusions. The information (data) is there! The data is not distorted. Failing to view it is the error that leads to distortion!

[a1gutterman]

Thanks for the link, Dusty. I am more informed now on these critters. I just can't get the image out of my head of a spider sitting in front of a computer sucking down a Big Gulp soda.

Tony

I like that picture Tony.

[a1gutterman]

Hey Dusty,
It looks like Doug (admin) changed the setting: All I see today are guests - no spiders.

No, I was wrong, one Google spider just appeared.