Why So Many Guests?
- Thread starter RoadTrip
- Start date
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ReaperHWK
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Most people Google a problem and it links to a thread on here. Those are the guests. Makes sense to me.
the 18th letter
Full Access Member
With the tool I can view, most are "Guests" meaning they're likely non-members or members that are not logged in. There are a few Robots (multiple occurrences and identified as such) like Bing, Yahoo, Applebot, Google AdSense, Facebook, etc., but they're probably only 1 or 2% of the guests.
2024 White Tahoe
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Often, as a member, I will connect to the site and scan the latest posts without logging in to the forum. I assume the software indicates I am a guest and not a member?
considering anyone can view the site, less than 1k is a drop in the bucket, registration is only required if you intended to post or comment.
just in the time I posted this the guest number changed by over 100
strutaeng
Full Access Member
Probably the Chinese spying on us...
Yes. How would it know it's you if you didn't log in? Not like the software tracks IPs or anything.
and a translator
I run a couple of forums, and have seen similar "guest" behaviour in recent months. Increasing from several surfers at a time, which is standard behaviour, to several hundred guests at a time, which is more than the number of members.
They're likely spammers. I'm currently getting hundreds of attempted spam registrations each week, all with different usernames, email domains, and IP addresses. I manually verify every application, so none of them have gotten through.
They're getting smarter, and can even pass the skill-testing questions I've added to the registration pages. However, they don't seem to be able to figure out questions where there's no "set" answer, ie. a personal detail, and usually just enter random characters.
Most of it is from a single organization (or individual), as they always answer one of the questions with the same non-sensical phrase.
I've entered all of the known agent strings for the search-engine bots, scrapers, etc., so those show up as "bots" and not guests.
If you're not seeing spam posts here, it's because the mods are doing a stellar job.
They're likely spammers. I'm currently getting hundreds of attempted spam registrations each week, all with different usernames, email domains, and IP addresses. I manually verify every application, so none of them have gotten through.
They're getting smarter, and can even pass the skill-testing questions I've added to the registration pages. However, they don't seem to be able to figure out questions where there's no "set" answer, ie. a personal detail, and usually just enter random characters.
Most of it is from a single organization (or individual), as they always answer one of the questions with the same non-sensical phrase.
I've entered all of the known agent strings for the search-engine bots, scrapers, etc., so those show up as "bots" and not guests.
If you're not seeing spam posts here, it's because the mods are doing a stellar job.
Thank you for the excellent description and answer!
Best of luck with the forums you manage. May you always manage to stay at least one qualification question ahead of the bots.
