What the hell is "Yahoo! Slurp Spider?"

[Anderson]

Browsing the who's online section, showed 101 active users and 487 guests...the name "yahoo slurp spider" popped up a LOT. I figured it had something to do with the operation of their search engine or something, but really have no idea.

I did a google search and found a lot of people complaining about these "spiders" overloading their message boards ("their" meaning the owner of the board).

So, first, what the heck is it and what is it's purpose?

Secondly, what kind of effect, if any, is it having on the HAMB?

[Ryan]

1. A spider checks every page on the site so that it is indexed and searchable through yahoo.

2. VERY little... With the kind of traffic we get, it is really a drop in the bucket.

[Anderson]

now I know. and knowing is half the battle.

Thank you sir.