Are idle browsers counted as ghosts in the who's online list?

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RaulTheUCSCSlug
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The website on the main page on the lower right will tell you the staff that is on, and some of the members, along with that it tells you how many guests and how many "ghosts" are these just random computers that have left Physics Forums open in another tab? (Something I have been guilty of many times!)
 
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I am not 100 % certain, but my wild shot in the dark is that those are members who have chosen to not show their online status.
 
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That's what I see:
Total: 910 (members: 57, guests: 771, robots: 82)
I hope these forums are not haunted!
 
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mfb said:
That's what I see:

I hope these forums are not haunted!
Same -- I've never come across the term 'ghost' in the members list.
 
Woah, creepy, I thought it said ghosts, but now it says robots. Maybe it was always robots and I just got mixed up. .Oh well, the world will never know. :rolleyes: :biggrin: but why would anyone ever have a bot on this site? Leeching the data of new threads/responses?
 
Or maybe I am not sure what a "robot" is, anyone care to explain?
 
Those robots are mainly search engines, looking for new things in the forums.
 
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