Are you a Bot, or Not?

Developing a web-strategy to reduce Bottage without

annoying the actual human viewer
20 000+ views, deleted.
Im still sore about the stats that were erased from my SCRIBD accout whe they discovered
via ew al!orithms that most of these had bee crawlers ad bots.
I had 20 000+ views o my blo! at "etterdash too, the offshoot of 2#.com, before they
rearra!ed everythi! ad most of the blo!!i! commuity moved over to $ord%ress. I loved the
"etterdash %latform. &rated, $ord%ress has more o%tios, but it was a ti!ht'(it buch, a lot of
South )fricas ad the occasioal *+ %erso to come ad aoy us tryi! to tal( about %olitics. ,I
mea, you *+ !uys were always welcome. $e had some !reat lau!hs.-
.y )uthors De also shows thousads of views over the %ast / years, as do the boo(s I threw
oto 0%ub Bud. I fact, wherever I %ublished olie, the views have bee collecti! steadily, ad
most si!ificatly, o our ow website at 1(aboo.
So the Scribd stats were ot out of lie with all the other stats. $hich is why I fid it hard to
acce%t that they should have accumulated i a differet way.
But, Scribd defiitely isists it was crawlers ad bots. 2hey would (ow3 2hey have a secret
al!orithm by which they ca determie this. It %u44les me that they ca determie it
retros%ectively, but 5 what hey, there are may oo(s ad craies of %ro!rammi! as yet u(ow
to me. *less they used 5 iroically 5 statistics.
2he more worryi! 6uestio is this3
If the Scribd stats were all bots, perhaps the other sites stats are, too?
The question arises, what do I do?
2here is o way to determie how much of our ow web stats are bots, or of those o )uthors
De, $ord%ress, &oodreads, 04ie etc etc. 7 my ow site I ca see that 8semalt.crawler9 refers
6uite a lot of clic(s, ad our host has filters u% that catch a lot of crawler traffic. But3 how much is
missed: ;ow much ,or rather, how little- of all that traffic is actually human?
But the more im%ortat 6uestio is3
For whom am I putting things into the Web?
2he aswer is3 Buyers. Readers ad buyers.
Buyers are ot bots. I dot eed to worry about those. But readers: 7e wats to (ow if a
%iece is bei! circulated, if it is well received< authors li(e feedbac(. Sadly, des%ite %lety of
%eo%le dowloadi! the free eboo(s of last years com%etitio, obody commeted. =ot a si!le
%erso had the courtesy to come bac( ad commet, 8well writte9. 2he %eo%le we !et commets
ad reviews from are ievitably those who are already (ow to us3 .embers of the blo!!i!
commuity.
If it were oly my ow boo(s u% there I mi!ht resi! myself to the idea that %eo%le are >ust ot
that ito readi! them. 2hat they somehow dot li(e my style, that my to%ics are bori!, or
somethi!. But there are other authors u% there that are ?00@ readworthy, you will ot re!ret.
2he why dowload ad not leave a commet:
Recaptcha?
Bless you.
=o, I wot use Reca%tcha. I the first %lace, its a i!htmare to im%lemet. I the secod
%lace, %eo%le dot li(e havi! a reca%tcha %ushed ito their faces while browsi!. 2hey sim%ly
clic( away. Reca%tcha is for secure trasactios, ot >ust because.
But I am im%lemeti! much simpler little filters.
Donegal Trouble, our most favourite dowload file after the 8robots.tAt9, ow has a %o%'u% that
comes u% whe you clic( for your free dowload. 2wo of the ima!es ,which have o 8alt9 ad o
ima!e title, so the bot cat fi!ure it out from the code- sim%ly close the boA a!ai ad ta(e you
bac( to the boo(sho%. If you really wat the free %df, you eed to clic( o the oe that re%resets a
huma.
2his ou!ht to statistically filter out 2BC of the 8bot traffic9 dowloadi! Donegal Trouble. Im
6uite curious how the stats will loo( this moth.
)other device is im%lemeted for Mercury Silver3 2he free eboo( is available from me 5 by
email. So you have to sed me that email sayi! 8%lease sed me..9. Bots have abused some of my
web forms ,which is why I dowscaled bac( to email li(s-. 1(aboo is a hi'touch or!ai4atio.
$e wat to (ow who our readers, customers ad faBfrieds are. ) !ood'old email li( tells me
istatly if youre a s%ammi! crawler ,8buy %ure caabis9-, a 8I have ?#.D millio dollar ad
wat to !ive it to you for free9 scam, or a !euie reader who is here for what were offeri!.
Will these deices annoy real iewers?
2he %eo%le who !et aoyed by these miimal, li!htwei!ht bot'filters are !eerally of the followi!
ty%es3
idle browsers ,who accidetally stumbled across a li( to our website but are really dead
bored- 5 they wot buy aythi! ayway
impatient kids 5 see above
Cholerics who hate ay (id of eAtra clic( or %o%'u%. &eerally, Cholerics dot have the
%atiece to read, so they dot ma(e !ood customers for a boo(sho%.
Mr Invisible 5 the ultra'shy web 8%hatom9 who would li(e to si% the free ectar of a site
but, des%ite bei! very curious about a boo( o offer, is afraid to yield u% any (id of
%ersoal idetifyer ,eve as va!ue as a web'based email address- to !et hold of the material.
2his ty%e will never buy somethi! olie. 2hey will also ever !ive feedbac( i case they
ca be traced. )t a %arty, you wot fid them i case someoe says 8hello9. Sadly, these
are ot customers either thou!h they would %robably really e>oy the boo(s.
)s you see, oe of these would either %ay for a boo( or %ay with a o%iio ad feedbac(. So
while I mi!ht lose their %atroa!e, for what its worth 5 it wast worth too much to our sho% ad
our authors i the first %lace.
2he %eo%le who will cotiue to fre6uet are those who dot mid iteracti! by email or
clic(i! that oe eAtra clic(. So the humas I 8filtered out9 by meas of the bot filters dot really
matter to the well'bei! of the site. 1sycholo!y meets web desi!.
Why am I sharing this?
&uys, lets face it. 2he $eb has become a s%ider'web. $here those silver strads of hy%er'
commuicatio were su%%osed to be humas !etti! i touch with other humas, they ow have
bee ta(e over to a vast eAtet by those little aimals most at home i a web. ,Ca of Doom,
ayoe:- 2his was to be eA%ected from the very ature of the $eb.
So Im sayi!, "02S C")I. B)C+ 7*R I=20R=02E "ets ma(e it a!ai what it was
meat to be, a commuicatio ad iformatio hi!hway for humas, by humas.
!"lic# $I%& i' you(re with me)*
Fes %lease. If you li(e my a%%roach, do %ost this to your Gaceboo(. Remember your Gaceboo(
wall is differet from mie, differet %eo%le see it. Social clic('bac(s are the real clic('currecy
aroud here, because 5 you !ot it 5 its humas doi! them.