Lots O' Bots?

[Fish Catch Me]

Hey all,

I was wondering of this site has any protection from bots - I see staggering numbers of views on topics that are NICHE within this niche interest. These threads have like 1-3 posts but thousands of views, just seems like bot spam and makes me a bit wary - know what I mean?

[Capt. BassinLou]

Hey all,

I was wondering of this site has any protection from bots - I see staggering numbers of views on topics that are NICHE within this niche interest. These threads have like 1-3 posts but thousands of views, just seems like bot spam and makes me a bit wary - know what I mean?

Bots are at work all the time. The site's security was upgraded a few months ago, and so far its keeping the site operating smoothly. We also get a lot of views from lurkers, not many choose to become members and participate with our discussions or share information of their own. 

[Fish Catch Me]

Oh I'm sure there's lurkers, and thanks for the info on the security update, but I'm seeing threads with 1-5 posts that have 1000-5000 views with topics that indicate nothing about that content or a thread topic that that is super obscure - just odd ya dig?

[Capt. BassinLou]

Oh I'm sure there's lurkers, and thanks for the info on the security update, but I'm seeing threads with 1-5 posts that have 1000-5000 views with topics that indicate nothing about that content or a thread topic that that is super obscure - just odd ya dig?

Are these active threads or locked sticky threads? We have several sticky threads that are locked and have been around for a very long time. These threads are for information purposes, hence the high view count. I haven't seen any recent active thread with thousands of views.

[Fish Catch Me]

Active, not sticked - sticked woulda made more sense.

I was going to find a couple specific examples but some of these Tpoic pages have a bunch.

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=560.0

About half way down threads from this year start, some topics are plain or particular with thousands of views in months with 0-8 replies. Same for this one -

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=244.0

Thread "Hawg Tech Upgrades and More " has no replies and 1400 views in 5 months, but that thread title alone doesn't seem to appeal to the genral public in that that way know what I mean - rather obscure and specific. Its not like it says "how to catch more bigger bass" which would draw a crowd.

I mean, it very well may not be bots, but I've seen highly active bass fishing forums with significant user interaction and like 1-10% of thread views. Makes it seem botty, or those other forums are all too afraid to join two forums so they check both sites actively every day but only engage with one. Is there an unspoken feud I'm unaware of that's driving these people to "pick a side" and only join one forum or the other?

[Capt. BassinLou]

Active, not sticked - sticked woulda made more sense.

I was going to find a couple specific examples but some of these Tpoic pages have a bunch.

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=560.0

About half way down threads from this year start, some topics are plain or particular with thousands of views in months with 0-8 replies. Same for this one -

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=244.0

Thread "Hawg Tech Upgrades and More " has no replies and 1400 views in 5 months, but that thread title alone doesn't seem to appeal to the genral public in that that way know what I mean - rather obscure and specific. Its not like it says "how to catch more bigger bass" which would draw a crowd.

I mean, it very well may not be bots, but I've seen highly active bass fishing forums with significant user interaction and like 1-10% of thread views. Makes it seem botty, or those other forums are all too afraid to join two forums so they check both sites actively every day but only engage with one. Is there an unspoken feud I'm unaware of that's driving these people to "pick a side" and only join one forum or the other?

I see what your saying. I don't believe these threads are driven by bots. The "clicks" these threads are receiving are key word search and topic driven.   

As far as site "feuds".  I'm not aware of any site feuds and I'm a member of several bass fishing sites. People gravitate and participate in the bass fishing sites they feel most attracted to and enjoy interacting in.

If you interact on bass fishing forums long enough, you will find a lot of us interact on several forums, but may use different tag names. 

[FD]

Active, not sticked - sticked woulda made more sense.

I was going to find a couple specific examples but some of these Tpoic pages have a bunch.

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=560.0

About half way down threads from this year start, some topics are plain or particular with thousands of views in months with 0-8 replies. Same for this one -

https://www.ultimatebass.com/bass-fishing-forum/index.php?board=244.0

Thread "Hawg Tech Upgrades and More " has no replies and 1400 views in 5 months, but that thread title alone doesn't seem to appeal to the genral public in that that way know what I mean - rather obscure and specific. Its not like it says "how to catch more bigger bass" which would draw a crowd.

I mean, it very well may not be bots, but I've seen highly active bass fishing forums with significant user interaction and like 1-10% of thread views. Makes it seem botty, or those other forums are all too afraid to join two forums so they check both sites actively every day but only engage with one. Is there an unspoken feud I'm unaware of that's driving these people to "pick a side" and only join one forum or the other?

First of all, thanks for paying attention to the details

Secondly, it's not uncommon to have less than a 1% engagement rate, meaning less than one post per 100 views.  People look and move on without contributing.  The hawgtech example is most likely Google search views.  We are ranking pretty well in that area.

As far as a feud, I'm not aware of one. I own this site and belong to most other fishing/boating sites.

FD

Sent from the very edge of civilization...where I belong