Difference between revisions of "Linden Lab Official:Scripted Agent Policy"

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Official Policies

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Overview

This document summarizes Linden Lab's policy on bots. The goals of this policy is to increase fairness and reliability of the search and communications services.

Traffic and bots

Traffic is a numerical metric calculated for every parcel of land inworld. This score can be summarized as the cumulative minutes spent on the parcel by all visitors to the parcel within the previous day (PT). For details, see Guidelines for creating search listings in the Knowledge Base.

Bots, or scripted agents, are avatars controlled by computer programs rather than people. For more information, see What is a bot?.

In calculating traffic scores, the number of visitors include bots, which has led to their use to increase traffic scores and boost search rankings.

Communications and bots

Some bots are used to automate communications with parcel visitors, and to provide interactive services for human users. These types of bots can enhance the Second Life experience.

Every chat message, IM, inventory offer, group notice, group IM, and group invitation creates load on the Second Life communications services. There is an upper limit where bots consume excessive resources and threaten to decrease the quality of service for others.

Mainland parcel sales and bots

Some bots are used to automate the purchase of Mainland parcels priced below fair market values.

Policy

Bots per se, are allowed and have legitimate uses, but inappropriate uses are violations of this policy.

Therefore:

Using bots to "game" traffic is not allowed

You may not attempt to gain an unfair advantage in search results through the use of bots to inflate the traffic for a parcel. This policy applies to both mainland and private estates since both are represented in search.

Sending an excessive number of messages with bots is not allowed.

You may not use bots to send more than 5,000 messages in a calendar day. Messages to groups are counted as one message for every recipient in the group. All bots operated by a single user share a common limit.

For example, the following activities are violations of this policy:

Bots causing unreasonable load on search or the regions in which they operate.
Bots causing a nuisance by regularly getting stuck at welcome areas or infohubs. This includes the use of large numbers of land bots to get around the throttling of search requests.
Bots joining groups and sending group IMs or notices such that more than 5,000 individual messages will be received.
Bots sending more than 5,000 individual messages in a calendar day.
Using multiple bots to send an aggregate of more than 5,000 individual messages in a calendar day.

Using bots to purchase Mainland parcels is not allowed

The use of bots, autonomous software, scripting (manual or automated), scripted agents, or any systems or software internal or external to the Second Life service that circumvent, automate and/or remove the human interaction required to purchase a Land parcel within Second Life on the Linden Lab owned Mainland is prohibited.

Set scripted agent status

If you own a Second Life account that is primarily operated by a Scripted Agent (a "bot"), identify it as a bot on the Scripted Agent Status page. By identifying bots, you can help us give you more accurate account statistics and inworld search results.

Enforcement

Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results.

To begin, Linden Lab sends a warning message to the land owner. If the issue persists, then account suspension or removal from search may result. If you feel there has been an unfair decision in this regard, use the abuse appeals process.

Linden Lab routinely looks at message volume, and will treat use of bots to send excessive messages as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors aggregate communication volume.

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-The following is taken from the text of [https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/blog/2009/04/23/conclusion-to-the-blog-post-on-bots a post to the official Second Life Blog] made to set policy on bots on April 23, 2009.
+{{KBmaster}}
+{{Policy Nav}}
+==Overview==
-=='''Camping or Traffic Bots'''==
+This document summarizes Linden Lab's policy on bots.
+The goals of this policy is to increase fairness and reliability of the search and communications services.
-Almost everyone agrees that using Bots to manipulate traffic (and therefore Search rankings) is unfair. Not only with respect to Search itself but also due to the load on Mainland Region resources and how that can impact other Residents in the area. Therefore we are setting policy that attempting to gain an unfair Search advantage, by the use of Bots to inflate the Traffic for a parcel, will be considered a violation. This policy applies to both Mainland and Private Estates as both are represented in Search.
+=== Traffic and bots ===
+''Traffic'' is a numerical metric calculated for every parcel of land inworld. This score can be summarized as the cumulative minutes spent on the parcel by all visitors to the parcel within the previous day (PT).  For details, see [http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Guidelines-for-creating-search-listings/ta-p/803947#What_is_traffic_and_what_role_does_it_play_in_search_rankings.3F Guidelines for creating search listings] in the Knowledge Base.
-==='''How will this be enforced?'''===
+''Bots'', or scripted agents, are avatars controlled by computer programs rather than people.  For more information, see [[What is a bot?]].
-This time next week we will begin to routinely look at the Search results and where we find clear use of Bots to gain an unfair Search advantage we will be handling it as an abuse issue. We will ''not'' need you to abuse report this, instead we will monitor the Search results. To begin with we will message the land owner to issue a warning, but this will escalate to an account suspension or removal from Search if it persists. The usual Abuse-appeals process will be available for anyone that feels that the decision is unfair. We will not be banning or removing Bots from Second Life. There are many amazing and useful ways to use Bots and the fact that in some circumstances they can be misused should not impact the more constructive users of Bots. We wouldn't remove Scripting because it can sometimes be used in bad ways, and Bots are no different in that respect. Going forward we are going to look at ways to allow you to voluntarily identify to us that an account is a Bot, so that we can remove it from Traffic completely. We will continue to strive toward providing more statistical data to land owners, including the number of visitors they receive. However, the way these statistics relate to Search ranking will be changing. In the next few months, we will be making both technical and policy changes to the way relevance and ranking works in Search. The "traffic" score will be only one aspect of the ranking logic, and it will be scrubbed and weighted to account for gaming vectors. Our goals will be to (1) provide an informative and delightful search experience for all residents, and (2) increase fairness and reliability of the Search service for people who place listings. So Traffic will remain as part of Search ranking. Stay tuned to the blog to learn more about Search improvements and to join the discussion.
+In calculating traffic scores, the number of visitors include bots, which has led to their use to increase traffic scores and boost search rankings.
-=='''Now we come to Land Bots'''==
+=== Communications and bots ===
-We know that being able to safely transfer Land between accounts is very important and so we have decided to provide a safe way to do this on the website, later in 2009 . In addition we also intend to move other forms of Land sale to the website, including allowing auctions between residents for the first time which we're really excited about. We'll be talking more about this soon. So for now we are not going to remove Land Bots; we expect that as we develop the web tools further, by the end of 2009 Land Bots will cease to work as far as buying up parcels is concerned. In the meantime, where we see Land Bots causing unreasonable load on Search or the regions they operate in, or where they cause nuisance by regularly getting stuck at welcome areas or infohubs, that will be dealt with as a violation. That also includes the use of large numbers of Land Bots to get around the throttling of Search requests. So to summarize..
+Some bots are used to automate communications with parcel visitors, and to provide interactive services for human users. These types of bots can enhance the Second Life experience.
+Every chat message, IM, inventory offer, group notice, group IM, and group invitation creates load on the Second Life communications services. There is an upper limit where bots consume excessive resources and threaten to decrease the quality of service for others.
+=== Mainland parcel sales and bots ===
+Some bots are used to automate the purchase of Mainland parcels priced below fair market values.
+== Policy ==
+Bots ''per se'', are allowed and have legitimate uses, but inappropriate uses are violations of this policy.
+Therefore:
+;Using bots to "game" traffic is not allowed
+:You may not attempt to gain an unfair advantage in search results through the use of bots to inflate the traffic for a parcel. This policy applies to both mainland and private estates since both are represented in search.
+;Sending an excessive number of messages with bots is not allowed.
+:You may not use bots to send more than 5,000 messages in a calendar day. Messages to groups are counted as one message ''for every recipient in the group''. All bots operated by a single user share a common limit.
+For example, the following activities are violations of this policy:
+* Bots causing unreasonable load on search or the regions in which they operate.
+* Bots causing a nuisance by regularly getting stuck at welcome areas or infohubs.  This includes the use of large numbers of land bots to get around the throttling of search requests.
+* Bots joining groups and sending group IMs or notices such that more than 5,000 individual messages will be received.
+* Bots sending more than 5,000 individual messages in a calendar day.
+* Using multiple bots to send an aggregate of more than 5,000 individual messages in a calendar day.
+;Using bots to purchase Mainland parcels is not allowed
+:The use of bots, autonomous software, scripting (manual or automated), scripted agents, or any systems or software internal or external to the Second Life service that circumvent, automate and/or remove the human interaction required to purchase a Land parcel within Second Life on the Linden Lab owned Mainland is prohibited.
+==Set scripted agent status==
+If you own a Second Life account that is primarily operated by a Scripted Agent (a "bot"), identify it as a bot on the [https://secondlife.com/my/account/sisa.php Scripted Agent Status] page.
+By identifying bots, you can help us give you more accurate account statistics and inworld search results.
+==Enforcement ==
+Linden Lab routinely looks at search results, and will treat use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage as an abuse issue.  You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results.
+To begin, Linden Lab sends a warning message to the land owner.  If the issue persists, then account suspension or removal from search may result.  If you feel there has been an unfair decision in this regard, use the abuse appeals process.
+Linden Lab routinely looks at message volume, and will treat use of bots to send excessive messages as an abuse issue. You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors aggregate communication volume.
-* Use of Bots to game Traffic will be considered a violation.
-* Bots are fine and we totally support their good use inworld, but we will deal with inappropriate use of them.
-* Traffic has value as a land metric, and will remain.
-* Responsible use of Land Bots is acceptable for now, but overuse will result in further action.
 [[Category:Policies]]
-[[Category:Knowledge Base]]