gamma.ucsd.edu tests multiple bad bots

Nmap Scripting Engine, favicon Internet survey research

[Pfui]

From the University of California, San Diego.* Bots possibly related beyond sharing the same Host because hit patterns were identical (top level, then favicon, then gone):

gamma.ucsd.edu
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Nmap Scripting Engine; http://nmap.org/book/nse.html)
robots.txt? NO

gamma.ucsd.edu
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; favicon Internet survey research; [e-mail])
robots.txt? NO

*Prior bit on blocking troublesome bots from .edu subdomains here [webmasterworld.com].

[Pfui]

gamma.ucsd.edu
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; favicon.ico Internet survey; research only)

robots.txt? NO

Hit root, then ~3 minutes later, hit favicon.ico.

FWIW: I get so tired of university profs/students/employees ignoring Web standards like the Robots Exclusion Protocol [robotstxt.org] and running roughshod all over the place. Try raising the bar!

See also, courtesy of a spelling-challenged bot-runner at stanford.edu: TwitterReseach [webmasterworld.com] [sic]

[wilderness]

Pfui,
The "trend" has always been to portray and view universities as a higher learning culture. As webmasters we're
"supposed" to clearly allow exceptions?

However. . .if you think of these same universities as 3rd party groups funded by research grants?
I can assure (from some ten years worth of experience) that you'll view their visits in your logs quite differently.

[keyplyr]

Apologies for my former colleagues at UCSD. Academics are well known to be sanctimonious, holding themselves unaccountable for acts done in the interest of research and education. Doubtful this will ever change.