There is a range of IP's for each spider. And no, I'm not going to ban spiders from the site. How else do you think we get traffic other than word of mouth?
20some spiders is nothing. We had 40 Inktomi Spiders running around near the end of June.
so judging by the popularity of google and the im feeling lucky button should we have at LEAST 30-40 new members now just through sheer link hits and people deciding to stick around?
It depends on what they're searching for. Search for Off Topic Central and we're the first hit, but search for Off Topic, Off Topic Forum, Off Topic Discussion, etc, and we're way down the list.