Is there a bot on this forum: "StephJones".

[USER888]

.

 

[Halcyon Yachts]

This may seem like a weird post but it has me flummoxed.

Check your last 10 users to view your profile.
Odds are on that someone with a username STEPHJONES has viewed your profile.
I have noticed when I look at someones else profile - I often see "STEPHONES".

She is ALWAYS online - ALWAYS.

Here is the kicker: I am on Sailnet the other day - Sailnet being an American sailing forum.

Some guy makes an interesting post - I check his profile, you guessed it "STEPHJONES" is there too as having recently viewed.

So I start viewing random profiles on Sailnet - and STEPHJONES has viewed heaps of them.

Back to this forum: Stephjones has made no posts, is always online, seems to have viewed a disproportionately large amount of profiles on both YBW and the American Sailnet. Her fourm on here has a link to a blog - its a one page blog and thats it. Weird.

Its weird. Did I say its weird.

I reckon Stephjones is a bot - always online, and programmed to do god knows what.

Or am I going nuts?

She hasn't visited me...

Pete

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Not in my profile nor have I ever noticed this avatar. However I read in newspaper that there are organisations that create multiple users on forums which are automated.

The purpose of this is to support or persuade opinion on a matter. Apparently the avatar will hunt out topics that are of interest in forums to the organisation e.g. guns and firearms legalisation. If this is an active discussion or prevalent in that forum then a human will take over and post supportive comments.

Now the above explanation is very poor but I read about this sometime ago in a British newspaper. The technology was apparently developed by some commercial organisation for intelligence agencies but has subsequently been released to use by others.

I wish I could talk in geek and be able to spin a suitable paranoid surveillance story around this but I can not. It also may be nothing more innocuous than some person on line all the time - maybe a sado who must log into forums and can not log off just in case with a penchant for sailor stuff!

 

[Tmacd]

This may seem like a weird post but it has me flummoxed.

Check your last 10 users to view your profile.
Odds are on that someone with a username STEPHJONES has viewed your profile.
I have noticed when I look at someones else profile - I often see "STEPHONES".

She is ALWAYS online - ALWAYS.

Here is the kicker: I am on Sailnet the other day - Sailnet being an American sailing forum.

Some guy makes an interesting post - I check his profile, you guessed it "STEPHJONES" is there too as having recently viewed.

So I start viewing random profiles on Sailnet - and STEPHJONES has viewed heaps of them.

Back to this forum: Stephjones has made no posts, is always online, seems to have viewed a disproportionately large amount of profiles on both YBW and the American Sailnet. Her fourm on here has a link to a blog - its a one page blog and thats it. Weird.

Its weird. Did I say its weird.

I reckon Stephjones is a bot - always online, and programmed to do god knows what.

Or am I going nuts?

You're not going nuts, 'she' has visited my profile too, and as you say, is logged on now!

BoB's explanations ring a bell with me too! Someone who knows more about it should do a Tin-eye search on the avatar, see if that throws anything up?

 

[Carib]

Looks pretty dodgy to me. Apparently a New York University student and she's up at nearly 4 in the morning looking at this site...

 

[prv]

Looks pretty dodgy to me. Apparently a New York University student and she's up at nearly 4 in the morning looking at this site...

To be fair, I've been known to do that Even more likely as a student with no schedule to stick to.

Pete

 

[Geoff Enigma]

Yes she's visited mine too all very odd

 

[iain789]

Yes she's visited mine too all very odd

+1

 

[Oscarpop]

Yep,

Shes viewed my page too.

In my mind, she is obviously a stalker or a supermodel, or both

(However in my mind many things happen that sometimes fly in the face of conventional thinking)

 

[Cookee]

She has visited my profile and has a blog of her own with a link in her signature - driving traffic to her blog?

 

[Nicholas123]

Damn,the one time I have got a bird interested in me she turns out to be a virus!

 

[Tmacd]

Well if it is something like that I guess its no big deal -but why choose sailing blogs?

I had visions of some online robot, stifling through our IP addresses, and you know - you hear the stories of internet banking thieves - my mind started going wild, so I thought I make the op about it see if anyone else had noticed.

Well, as you're leading the investigation, why not send 'her' a PM, then you can publish the response, if any?

 

[VicS]

Very odd.

She is not one of the last 10 visitors to my profile but she is apparently viewing the main index. Her "activity" there refreshes every few minutes.

 

[Plyn]

Yes she is one of the last 10 viewers of my profile, and was on line a few mins ago!

 

[Lakesailor]

You're all paranoid. It's a free world. Let her do what she wants.

 

[Boomshanka]

Now I'm depressed, this chick hasn't paid me a visit (yet)

 

[John_P]

'she' has visited my page also, can't the powers who look after the forum look into it !!!!! SNOOKS WERE ARE YOU

 

[Laundryman]

Stephjones

Me too. I'm intrigued. I hope someone on the forum has the time to investigate and share their findings. If anyone else wonders why I've visited their page, it's because I use an iPad and have fat fingers!

 

[Salty John]

You're all paranoid....

You want paranoid, go check out the 'misuse of forum' thread at the Liveaboard place!

Sorry, Fred Driff.

Yes, she's always one of the last ten looking at my profile. Seems a bit superhuman to me - she never sleeps.

 

[Farrelley]

She must be desperate if she's visited my page...

Should I feel violated?