Odd visitor behaviour

[vanwoman]

Forum URL: ukhippies.boards.net/

A few days ago I installed a visitor tracker. Since then, I've had the same visitor to the forum 11 times. I've cross referenced thier IPs and it's not a registered member
That's fine. 
What's odd is they come on, have a look at the two public sections, the apparently try to look at the member list. The thing is, when I go on as a guest, I don't even see the member tab let alone the list. 

How is this happening?


ISP:  Three
Host:   238.threembb.co.uk
ukhippies.boards.net/
Landed: Oops, there was an error! | UK Hippies
   ukhippies.boards.net/user/8

[Brian]

Hi, vanwoman.

It could be a search engine bot that's familiar with the ProBoards forum structure and visiting familiar URLs manually in an attempt to index them. I can only really speculate based on the information you've given.

[vanwoman]

Thanks, hadn't thought of that. The paragraph at the bottom is the information given on the tracker site. It's weird anybody can access the member list without logging in. It's not even visible to a guest. So the URL might be on a bot list somewhere then?
Anything else you need to know?

[Scott]

vanwoman, fyi knowing the URL is not the same as accessing. Our forum structure (like Brian referred to above) is such that the members area is located by going to YourForumURL.proboards.com/members, so adding /members to any PB url would lead to the members area. If you are logged in and have normal access this will work. If you are not logged in then you get "Oops, there was an error!" message. So where anyone can add the /members to go to the member area, it doesn't mean they will actually gain access or see the list of members.

[vanwoman]

Yes I understand that. My point is would a bot bother? Given that there's not a members tab to investigate. Also the visitor is going directly to two specific members.

[Brian]

Have both of those users recently posted? Each user's display name on the forum is a link to their profile, so I can easily see a bot trying to access those if they're on the page.

[vanwoman]

Ah I never thought of that! Yes they are regular posters.