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Follower a spammer?

  1. overbyhere
    Member

    This is quite difficult to explain so please bear with me. someone followed my blog earlier and i checked out there blog as they are from Spain and my blog is about Wales so i thought it odd. The name in the notifications led to a different blog to the name in my blog followers (again, odd!). The URL was suspicious to as it implies they steal photo's. I intended to keep an eye on the blog to see if they steal any of my hoto's and now in my stats i have in my referers from this same person my own URL but it's different, it is like this, over_by_here_wordpress_com Is this a spammer and what is that URL, does it mean they have a blog with my URL and so will steal my posts to add to it? I'm getting rather worried about this so any advice would be much appreciated.Thank you

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

  2. overbyhere
    Member

    Isn't there anyone who can advise me? this person has now spent 5 hours on my blog and has gone through 17 posts so far. Please don't tell me that's normal behaviour.

  3. feartheseeds
    Member

    Okay...

    1. having a follower from another country is not unusual.
    2. a person with a link to two different blogs is not unusual
    3. what's the URL to their 'photo stealing blog'?
    4. I once had someone go through 300+ of my posts over eight hours, it happens
    5. if you're worried someone is spending too much time on your blog, make it private and maybe they'll go away and never come back. Then, later, make it public again and hope they never come back.
    6. have you tried saying "hi" to them on their blog?
    7. once you've made your blog available to the public weird things might start happening... ironically, this is normal.

  4. overbyhere
    Member

    So what is the link in referers they came through on the second time after following my blog? How can i speak to them when they are spanish (i have to translate their blog), and by the same token why such an interest in my blog.How would making my blog private and then public again be of any help when they are already following my blog? The blog linked to their name has not ever been used since 2007 and the other blog only has a few photo's in pages, which were deleted today and then re-added with that person's copyright.Photo's of London Italy and France, but none of Spain strangely enough! Yes i consider it odd,

  5. timethief
    Member

    Please know this. Posting here will change nothing. There are several steps that you can take in order to prevent your material from being used in an unauthorized manner. See here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/prevent-content-theft/
    Also see > Watermark Your Images > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2007/10/19/watermark-your-blog-images/

    Content theft is dealt with after the fact > Content Theft – What to Do > http://en.support.wordpress.com/content-theft-what-to-do/

  6. overbyhere
    Member

    My images are already watermarked. Still no-one can tell me how this person came through in my referers after following my blog with the link overbyhere_wordpress_com

  7. timethief
    Member

    Also note that you can use Copyscape to search for copies of your content on the web http://copyscape.com/

  8. timethief
    Member

    Have you read the sites stats section and are you clearly aware that not every referrer is known as well as why that is?
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/stats/#referrers
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/stats/#search-engine-terms
    Why doesn’t the number of referrers add up to the number of total views?
    Not all visitors will land on your blog by clicking a link somewhere else. Visitors may type your URL directly into the web browser, click a link in an email, or click a link in another application which then loads the browser.

  9. feartheseeds
    Member

    You cannot stop people from following your public blog.

    You cannot stop people from reading your public blog.

    If this person steals and posts any of your copyrighted material you can have it removed either by telling WordPress (if it's a WP blog) or by filing a DMCA notice.

    If this person is reading your blog I would assume they can read the language in which you post.

    You have not found any of your material on their blogs, you don't have any proof they've stolen anything of yours -- if you believe they have stolen copyrighted material, or that they are a spam blog, you can report them to WP via the link in your admin bar.

    So your only problem seems to be a Spanish-language blogger has been looking at your English-language posts. That's not a big deal. Again, if it matters this much to you, ask them why they care so much about your blog. I'm sure they know how to use Google translation services.

    Good luck.

  10. feartheseeds
    Member

    ...always refresh.

  11. overbyhere
    Member

    I'm obviously not making myself clear. My URL is http://overbyhere.wordpress.com and this person came through to my blog and in the referers (not search engines) it had the link, as written, overbyhere_wordpress_com

  12. anotherlovelyday
    Member

    I had a similar puzzling referrer listed yesterday -- it was my blog's address, but with a "_" where a "." would usually be, just like overbythere found in his referrers list. How can anotherlovelyday_wordpress_com be a referrer? (Ididn't try clicking on the link -- thought I'd better gather more information first)

  13. timethief
    Member

    I clearly understood you. I hope you clearly understand me. The sites stats available to you on your blog site stats page is all the information there is.

  14. raincoaster
    Member

    What is the URL of THEIR blog? We want to look at it to see if you're in their blogroll or something.

  15. timethief
    Member

    @avotherloveylday

    How can anotherlovelyday_wordpress_com be a referrer?

    If you link to an earlier post of your own it's called a pingback.
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/pingbacks/

  16. overbyhere
    Member

    I've looked. They have nothing in their sidebar, they haven't even got any catogories, just two pages on the blog with some photos. I don't really want to add the URL as they will then see this. I just don't understand what that link referer is, that's what makes their behaviour on my blog odd, and has nothing to do with them being Spanish as someone implied.

  17. anotherlovelyday
    Member

    Thanks timethief.

  18. timethief
    Member

    @anotherlovelyday
    You're welcome and happy blogging! :)

  19. overbyhere
    Member

    I have not got pingbacks enabled and i have not linked to my own post, and certainly not linked to the person in question either and it doesn't look like the pingback link shown in the pingback info timethief gave. I'm giving up now anyway. Thanks all

  20. anotherlovelyday
    Member

    When I hover over the referrer's link, it shows Go to "http://href.li/?http://anotherlovelyday_wordpress_com" in my status bar. I went to Google and typed that address in. One of the listings was for a link to my blog from a photo I posted on Flickr -- but no one viewed that photo yesterday. So I did a search for just the "http://href.li/" part and it listed a link to the website "http://href.li" where you can "Create an anonymous link that will hide the HTTP Referer header," as the listing reads. Maybe it relates somehow?

  21. timethief
    Member

    I flagged this thread so Staff will enter it and respond to any outstanding concerns.

  22. overbyhere
    Member

    @anotherlovely day. That doesn't happen for me, nothing comes up when i hover, and i'm not going to click on it. I have nothing anywhere else on the internet to link to.

  23. overbyhere
    Member

    I forgot i'm using Google Chrome and any links hovered over show up at the bottom of the page, just checked again and yes mine also has that same href/li thing. But as already mentioned i do not have anything to link to anywhere else on the internet.I have to go to bed now as it's past midnight so i'll check back tomorrow. Thanks for all the help.

  24. macmanx
    Staff

    I'm not sure about the _ characters, we'll look into that, but I wouldn't worry about this.

    There is nothing for a spammer to gain by following a blog.

  25. anotherlovelyday
    Member

    Thanks macmanx.

  26. macmanx
    Staff

    You're welcome!

  27. raincoaster
    Member

    Oh, that's simple. Now that I've got some variation of the referring URL it's easy to see.

    http://href.li/?http://anotherlovelyday_wordpress_com

    simply indicates that somebody put a link to one of your posts in their Paper.li "magazine", which is sort of like pinning you on Pinterest or posting you to a Facebook page.

  28. timethief
    Member

    @raincoaster
    Great catch! Bookmarking.

  29. overbyhere
    Member

    @raincoaster is that good or bad for me, i don't know what either of those things are (apart from Facebook) I have artwork images that i have permission to add to my blog, but it is my responsibility to take care of the copyright and make sure nothing is being stolen. Hence my concern.

  30. timethief
    Member

    Making sure anything online is not stolen is an impossible task. As the saying goes: "If you don't want it to be stolen then don't post it on the interent." All you can to prevent content theft and deal with it after the fact is what I already posted above.

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