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1. johndilligent
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 5:14 PM

   Regarding entries on the dashboard widget "Referrers":

   Okay, I have just had my first weird referrer crop up, and the whole
   affair has me scratching my head and wondering how all this works.

   Traditionally my referrer traffic has been very lean to nonexistent and
   has come consistently from verifiable and reliable sources -- usually
   from wordpress support or comment links, and then I have one guy
   who followed me over from the news forums I sprang forth from, I can
   always tell when he's visited because I get a yahoo mail referrer entry
   in the widget. So in the end I may have 2 or 3 daily hits cataloged as
   referrers, or none at all. And when they have come in, the "value" as-
   signed to them over at the far right has invariably been "1" -- one hit
   per referrer, never more.

   But this morning when I looked over the Referrer widget, I found 1 hit
   each from three of the usual suspects, then EIGHT from a spammy-
   looking URL I'd never seen before. As I commenced to checking it
   out, red flags went up: it appears to be a valid blogsite, "Beautiful Na-
   ra" and powered by wordpress. But it's apparently located in Malay-
   sia and every bit of the contents is in Maylasian, or whatever they
   speak. It's apparently a thriving blog, as there's lots of posts and
   comments and such, but again, it's all in a foreign language.

   But there's also tons of ads. In fact, when I clicked on the referrer
   link, it opened up a full-page web-hosting ad, with an option to "skip
   to the blog". And in cruising around looking for any evidence of one
   of my own blog articles or any links to my site (none of which were
   ever found) I encountered 2 or 3 different varieties of URLs in the
   navigation bar. Finally, although it was dificult to arrive at an author-
   itative assessment, the general flavor I got was that the content of
   the blog bore no resemblance to my own content.

   So what gives? None of this seems logical to me, and I'm really
   wanting to know what this is all about and if it's bad for me and if
   so then how to make it go away. I mean, naturally I could use the
   hits, and international exposure sounds good too. But nothing about
   this adds up, and that's what's really bugging me. If it's some sort
   of a scam I'd like to try and nip it in the bud, if possible. Thanks...

   I am located here: http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/

   although it appears they may be linking directly to this page:

   http://thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/the-quickest-most-convenient-way-to-cook-up-some-cancer/

   This is the referrer: (now I'm showing 12 hits from them) : Opens with:

   [spam referrer links removed]

   The blog I need help with is thedirtylowdown.wordpress.com.

2. airodyssey
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 5:48 PM

   Hi. See here for instructions please:
   http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/unwanted-referrers?replies=6#post-553425

3. johndilligent
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 6:26 PM

   Hi AirOdyssey,

   Thank you for your response and this valuable information.
   But I think you may have missed the point. Actually it may
   easily have been a simple cas of just "too much information".
   Sometimes even I look back over my posts and say, "Damn,
   that sure looks long!" (Too long...)

   My point is I'm wondering whether or not this scenario IS un-
   desirable, as at least initially, it's providing me with hits, not
   spam.

   Yes, it runs diectly through a redirect to an ad site webpage,
   but when you navigate through that, you arrive at a thriving
   blog.

   I don't want to discourage any legitimate hits. But my primary
   concern is I can't find the link, or any reference to my site on
   the blog in question. And the general content couldn't be more
   diverse. So the whole thing has an illegitimate feel to it.

   But in the end, it's providing pageviews, and apparently with no
   perceived ill effects. So again, I'm wondering if this is a bad thing,
   or if I shouldn't stare a gift-horse in the mouth, as my old Uncle
   Elmo used to say.

   Any other word on this?

4. johndilligent
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 6:57 PM

   Okay, I have just found this thread:

   http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/unknown-referrers?replies=29#post-476563

   which would probably be a better example for you to throw out
   in cases like this as it's infinitely more informative.

   I get it.

   Too bad I had to learn this the hard way, like everything else. I
   was all over those URLs like ants at a picnic, clicking away at
   everything that popped up. I can now see what a great ploy this
   is to get your unique visitor and pageview count up. I would never
   click on that site or read any of the content naturally, I was just
   looking for my link. But they must have gotten 20 or thirty clicks
   out of me...

   Thanks!

5. airodyssey
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 6:58 PM

   And thank you. There are so many threads about spam that it's sometimes hard to pick the right one.

6. johndilligent
   Member
   Feb 5, 2011, 7:19 PM

   You're welcome. Just when you thought you'd seen it all.
   The problem was the way it works is counterintuitive when
   you haven't seen it before, but I will say when I first laid
   eyes on that URL in the referrer widget, the first thought
   that went through my head was, "Spam".

   I sent all the information in to staff.

   Thanks again for your timely assistance in the matter.

   JD

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