SLWTF - A Second Life travelogue by Garth Goode

Yes, my minions, kneel before me! Know that I, Garth, am your master. You may be grey, you may be Ruthed, you may be naked, but you’re mine! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Okay, they’re not my worshipers. I don’t have worshipers, that I know of. These are a just bunch of particularly well-hidden bots on Echo Island. Usually I see them milling around in a skybox. This bunch looked so dutiful kneeling there that I had to take a picture.

For those of you who don’t know what bots are: Have you ever gone to an island that looked like it had a lot of people on it from the number of green dots on the map, but when you get there the place is empty? Chances are the place is using robot avatars (bots). Usually they’re sitting on poseballs in the sky or hidden in a windowless skybox.

The bots are just like any other user, only there is only one person behind the group of them. Having bots on the land increases the visitor count and thus improves the landowners position in searches. No one thinks it’s particulrly ethical, but people continue to do it because, “everybody does it.” Until Linden Lab finds a way to ban bots, people will keep using them.

This group was especially well hidden. As I increased altitude to find the skybox, I was suddenly ejected from the region by a security system. That’s the first time I’ve seen someone take hiding their bots so seriously.

Not to be deterred, I returned to the region, put on my shield, went non-physical and soon I was gazing at my kneeling acolytes. The owner even went so far as to hide them in a skybox made of invisibility prims, so someone flying casually by at 752 feet won’t see them.

Of course, I couldn’t resist sending a copy of the picture to the landowner, who will just have to be that much more clever next time.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ECHo%20Island/19/155/752