So I was taking a quick peak at New Posts just now, and one of my namesake chubby digits apparently brushed across some mysterious icon or button or whatever...and I was suddenly confronted with what seems to be a list of users who are currently visiting the site. Okay...there was my name, and that of a few others who I recognized, and it showed what part of the forum each of us was visiting. It said that I was visiting Members, which sort of tracked...and others were visiting various other areas of the site. It showed 6 or 7 others identified as Guests as well, and revealed what they were reading as well.
But there were 4 or 5 Members...6 or 7 unnamed Guests...and an even dozen of other entities reading the forum, who were labeled as Robots! Friggin' Robots!!!
Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know the difference between a Robot and an AI...but I dang well do know that none of them are real people. And if the forum software can immediately pigeonhole them as one or the other...i.e. not real people...why in hell are they allowed to continue flouncing around the forum until some short-tempered old codger has to find them and report them?
Lately I have noticed that a lot of websites make me wait a few moments when I try to enter, while they check to make sure I'm a human being. Some of them require me to tick off a little box that says that; a few require me to examine a half-dozen tiny, poorly-focused photos and indicate which ones contain a kumquat or boomerang or something equally preposterous; still others don't tell me exactly what they are doing, but nevertheless tell me to cool my heels while they decide if they should let me in. And yet MFK apparently maintains an Open House policy for non-human entities, waiting for me or some other member to blow the whistle on them.
Honestly...Esox has moved on to greener, or at least dryer, pastures...I can't do all this work myself!
But there were 4 or 5 Members...6 or 7 unnamed Guests...and an even dozen of other entities reading the forum, who were labeled as Robots! Friggin' Robots!!!
Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know the difference between a Robot and an AI...but I dang well do know that none of them are real people. And if the forum software can immediately pigeonhole them as one or the other...i.e. not real people...why in hell are they allowed to continue flouncing around the forum until some short-tempered old codger has to find them and report them?
Lately I have noticed that a lot of websites make me wait a few moments when I try to enter, while they check to make sure I'm a human being. Some of them require me to tick off a little box that says that; a few require me to examine a half-dozen tiny, poorly-focused photos and indicate which ones contain a kumquat or boomerang or something equally preposterous; still others don't tell me exactly what they are doing, but nevertheless tell me to cool my heels while they decide if they should let me in. And yet MFK apparently maintains an Open House policy for non-human entities, waiting for me or some other member to blow the whistle on them.
Honestly...Esox has moved on to greener, or at least dryer, pastures...I can't do all this work myself!
