This is a general advice to those who do not know the rules or are unclear on what they mean. Read on if you want to find out.
A while ago I spoke to Jack Linden about usage of bots and gaming of traffic values. I am sharing parts of the conversation with you below:
Jack Linden said:
Quote:but the policy is mainly about Search and how people use Bots to game that. So it would depend entirely on just how the usage played out. As with any other Bot tool, if it's use for bad then potentially it will be something we consider a violation, if it's doing harmless things then we're unlikely to ever worry about it.
We have a lot of users who use METAbolt for modelling and other types of business functions. Under the light of the information above, as much as using bots for modelling is OK, in practice it does add to increase land traffic numbers. So I asked Jack Linden if there were any limits etc and this is what he said:
Quote:it could be, depending on the circumstances. ideally they should parcel out where the models operate because then they won't be adding traffic to the main parcel [8:24] Jack Linden: we do want to support all valid uses of Bots, but a store with model bots is clearly gaining an advantage from that, so we'd probably look into it
At some stage Linden will be offering a new feature by which you will be able to declare your bots and use them freely on your land as they will not be adding to the land traffic after declaration. Until that time
the only option to use bots without breaking the TOS is to parcel off small pieces of land and place your bots on them.
Further to all this, unless you own the whole SIM, it does not mean you can place unlimited number of bots even though you are parcelling them out. Using an unreasonable number of bots could be considered "unfair usage of SIM resources" which is against the TOS.
You have been advised.
