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

Revision as of 09:18, 3 May 2011

add versioning

Overview

This document summarizes Linden Lab's policy on bots. The goals of this policy are to provide an informative and delightful search experience for all Residents and increase fairness and reliability of the search service.

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.

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.

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.

Set scripted agent status

If you own a Second Life account that is primarily operated by a Scripted Agent (a "bot"), please 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.

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 <noinclude>{{KBmaster}}</noinclude>
 ==Overview==
 This document summarizes Linden Lab's policy on bots.
-The goals of this policy are to:
+The goals of this policy are to provide an informative and delightful search experience for all Residents and increase fairness and reliability of the search service.
-* Provide an informative and delightful search experience for all Residents
+=== Traffic and bots ===
-* Increase fairness and reliability of the search service for people who place listings.
+''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.
-== Setting scripted agent status ==
+Bots, or scripted agents, are avatars controlled by computer programs rather than people.  For more information, see [[What is a bot?]].
-If you own a Second Life account that is primarily operated by a Scripted Agent (a "bot"), please 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.
-==Camping or traffic bots==
+In calculating traffic scores, the number of visitors include bots, which has led to their use to increase traffic scores and boost search rankings.
-Attempting to gain an unfair search advantage through the use of bots to inflate the traffic for a parcel is a violation of this policy. This policy applies to both mainland and private estates since both are represented in search.
+== Policy ==
+Bots ''per se'', are allowed and have legitimate uses, but inappropriate uses are violations of this policy.
-===Enforcement ===
+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.
-Linden Lab routinely look at search results, and where we find clear use of bots to gain an unfair search advantage, we handle it as an abuse issue.  You do not need to file an abuse report for violations; Linden Lab monitors the search results.
+For example, the following activities are violations of this policy:
-To begin with, Linden Lab sends a message to the land owner to issue a warning; escalating to an account suspension or removal from search if it persists.  If you feel there has been an unfair decision in this regard, use the abuse appeals process.
+* 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.
-==Summary==
+==Set scripted agent status==
+If you own a Second Life account that is primarily operated by a Scripted Agent (a "bot"), please 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.
-To summarize:
+==Enforcement ==
-Responsible use of land bots is acceptable, but overuse will result in further action.  For example, the following activities are violations of this policy:
+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.
-* Land bots causing unreasonable load on search or the regions they operate in.
+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.
-* Land bots cause 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.
 [[Category:Policies]]