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wierd wordpress referrer

  1. ingridcc
    Member

    all of a sudden in a low-stats day this referrer called wordpress.com started showing up. now it has 20 referrals, all of which are counted in my daily total, yet don't seem to be added onto my page views. In fact this is the first time I've ever seen the daily total views be more than my subtotal pageviews.

    When I click on this wordpress,com referrer I am taken to a wordpress page or site that I've never seen before that has posts from the only three blogs I am following (mine and another one and wordpress news or announcements):

    http://wordpress.com/#!/read/

    What is going on here? I've never seen this before, it seems to be a page of my own subscriptions, how could it be sending people to my site?

    And why the discrepancy between my pageviews and my total views? (Now the clock just passed midnight, so this is in yesterdays stats.)

    I guess this is a trivial thing to be concerned about! But it's bugging me for some reason...

    Thanks in advance for any clues...

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

  2. windybee
    Member

    Ingrid,
    I don't think this is trivial. A similar thing has happened to me. WordPress.com suddenly showed up on my blog and when I clicked on it - it took me to a page where my blogs are posted. Which I find very strange - as I don't know what this means. Also, now my site keeps jamming up - and all of the videos that I have posted are now blank on my blog.

    When I went to the WordPress help section to contact WordPress - it says that WordPress support is down until 10/29 for maintenance.

    If you or anyone else knows what is happening, please respond.

    This is too weird.

    Windy

  3. myindexb
    Member

    Hi - I think I have the same issue. This morning I woke up to find that our blog had a flood of referrals from WordPress.Com that don't show up in our daily views. Don't know what this means, but would be interested to know the answer.

  4. isazonov
    Member

    the same issue :-)

  5. spinningstar
    Member

    Same issue and I dislike it.

    And, it is not consistent - high impact one day, little the next and then back to high impact. On another thread, it was suggested that the increase had something to do with RSS feeds, but I wonder about that, since I have my blog blocked from search engines and just recently put in the "subscribe via email" feature in the blog.

    I hope this will be explained someday and sooner rather than later.

  6. windybee
    Member

    Hi all,

    Well, at least my blog is somewhat back to normal as far as appearance goes (the videos are back in place).

    I think WordPress has incorporated us into it's own page in the "WordPress" community and one of the reasons my blog was completely messed up is because they were in the process of dragging everything over to that area of WordPress.

    I have search engines disabled, because I don't want ads and tend to keep my blog posts to friends and colleagues - although now, it looks as though they are out there for everyone to see.

    I think WordPress should have given us an option to opt in or out on this feature. Not just automatically insert our blog into the main WordPress site. Not sure what the value of this is, other than other bloggers "re-blogging" our hard work which is not exactly what I had in mind.

    Nothing we can do about it as far as contacting support until 10/29, unless someone knows how to opt out of this feature, which may not be possible.

    Windy

  7. kevinfromcanada
    Member

    I am having the same problem -- my blog got 150 WordPress.com referrals in an hour recently. It has been occuring for about a week with a similar pattern -- mainly just a few then a massive amount in a short period.

    It seems to coincide with the expansion of the "follow" feature, causing me to wonder if bots have found a way to exploit that new addition -- but that is idle speculation on my part. WordPress does such a good job on statistics most of the time that it is disappointing when something like this seems to corrupt them so completely, since there is no way of restoring integrity to the numbers.

  8. ismailimail
    Member

    Related: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wordpresscom-as-referrer?replies=77

  9. kevinfromcanada
    Member

    Thanks, ismailimail. That thread shows how widespread and annoying this is. I don't mind the WordPress staff heading off for a week, but perhaps it might have been a good idea not to introduce whatever this new disruptive feature is right before doing that.

  10. spinningstar
    Member

    I've double-checked my settings. I still have search engines blocks and do not have a RSS widget activated. So the only link that could bring in new referrers is the "sign-up for email" widget. Well, and any comment that I make on other blogs.

    My blog is also a limited blog - for friends and family. I just checked another blog I just started but it is still private and there are no stats for that one. And, no WP referrer stats.

    If it helps - my problem started on the 18th and the stats for the WP referrer has been 319, 22, 346, 4 over the last 4 days.

  11. ingridcc
    Member

    I'm not sure the stats will be permanently corrupted---those weird wordpress referrer visits show as visits in the referrer box and count toward the daily total but are NOT reflected in the pageview totals.
    For me the pageview total always used to be exactly the same as the daily running total up top-- this is the first I've seen them not match up so maybe when support gets back it can all be readjusted and these bogus referrer stats can be erased?

  12. timethief
    Member

    Please read what macmanx
    Happiness Engineer had to say:

    It looks like this is a very new change. We're starting to report email subscription and feed views in your stats as referred by WordPress.com, hence the sudden jump. This feature is in its infancy, so we'll be making adjusts to it over the next several days. http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wordpresscom-as-referrer?replies=77#post-723980

  13. windybee
    Member

    Sorry guys, I'm not as concerned about the stats as I am about the fact that my page doesn't load easily now and it's not longer search engine disabled. WordPress has changed the Privacy setting to "Ask Search Engines" instead of disable, so they are taking that option away as it doesn't guarantee that google won't pick up your link right away or that ads won't be placed on your blog. Ugh. They "Fresh Pressed" me and from what it sounds like Ingrid, too.

    I don't think we will be able to change this back, but I'm going to write to WordPress about it. No warning, weird stats, trouble loading the page, and the change in privacy option. Wow, are they taking a tip from FB developers?

    Cheers,
    Windy

  14. timethief
    Member

    @windybee

    Also, now my site keeps jamming up - and all of the videos that I have posted are now blank on my blog.

    None of the videos are "blank". I can see them and every large image on the front page of your blog which loads very slowly due to how many post your have on the front page and what's in them.

    If you cannot see the videos and I can using Firefox 7.0.1 that likely indicates you have one of these issues:

    1. Are you using http:// or https:// see http://en.support.wordpress.com/https/

    2. Which browser and version of it are you using? Have your tried clearing your browser cache and cookies? http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=32050

    3. Is your browser version up to date? You can upgrade any browser version here.
    http://browsehappy.com/

    4. Do you have third party cookies enabled?

    5. Do you have JavaScript enabled?

    Do you have another browser you can try?

    Re: improving page loading time on your blog.

    Go here please > Settings > Reading
    Blog pages show at most__posts
    and reduce the number of posts appearing on your front page so it does not take forever to load. Note we have 3-4 seconds page loading time and after that studies demonstrate people will not wait - they click out.

    Also be aware that large images and embeds in every post slow page loading time and page loading time is a page ranking factor. Please consider splitting text in post by inserting "the more" tag into your posts, prior to the large images and/or embeds as that will improve page loading time. There will then be a "read more" link in an excerpt on the front page and when clicked the post will appear on it's own page.

    WordPress.com suddenly showed up on my blog and when I clicked on it - it took me to a page where my blogs are posted. Which I find very strange - as I don't know what this means.

    That sounds to like a visit to a global tag page.

    Nothing we can do about it as far as contacting support until 10/29, unless someone knows how to opt out of this feature, which may not be possible.

    There is no opt out.

  15. timethief
    Member

    If you do as I instructed above your blog will load quickly.

    If you address the 5 troubleshooting tips I posted above and provide answers to the questions I asked you, we will most likely be able to resolve your blog issue re: not being able to see the videos.

    If not there is more troubleshooting we can do after you answer my 5 questions.

    You can use this link to see if your Flash is up to date. http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ If it’s not up to date then this is where to download and install the latest version of Flash. http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

    Troubleshooting
    6. Sometimes operating system and/or security system updates can cause problems so check for known issues. When you make adjustments to your browser settings — changing privacy settings, deleting cookies or increasing security — you will need to close your window and restart the browser before those new settings become effective. Have you had any recent updates to your operating system and/or security programs?

  16. windybee
    Member

    Thanks for your response timethief. :-) I appreciate your suggestions. I do have a current browser and flash player ( on Mac), but I don't use Firefox as much as I use Safari. My blog seems to be back to normal and yes, I can view the videos now as I could originally. The glitch happened while they were "Fresh Pressing" me, which I'm not so happy about - as I use my blog primarily for friends and colleagues, but so appreciate your input. Thank you.

  17. timethief
    Member

    I can view the videos now as I could originally. The glitch happened while they were "Fresh Pressing" me.

    I'm so glad to hear that you can view the videos now and you're welcome.

    You may want to read this:
    matt
    Staff

    Hey guys -- founder of WordPress.com here.
    Good news: We've historically been vastly undercounting your stats, and we're starting to fix this.

    Bad news: There are some bugs with how things add up, meaning that they don't. I apologize for undue excitement this may have caused.

    More good news: Although support is closed, we're working on this. We'll fix it ASAP. http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wordpresscom-as-referrer/page/4?replies=96#post-726951

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