Blog Referrer Spam

I’m a bona fide reverse stalker. It’s true. Huh? Well, I keep a close eye on my stats, I know who links to me, and I know from where people visit. In some situations, I even know WHO is visiting. For this reason, but not this reason alone, referrer spam bothers me.

What is “referrer spam” you might ask? Well, as a matter of protocol, when you click on a link on a web page, the address of that page is sent along to the link that you’re visiting. This is called the “Referer” (Aside: the correct spelling of the word is ‘referrer’ however, when compiling the HTTP standard computer nerds, not known for their spelling prowess, misspelled it. This was not discovered until it was too late to change the standard back and, therefore, when it comes to the web, ‘Referer’ is an acceptable spelling, if incorrect.)

Referrer spam is when someone uses software that PRETENDS like it followed a link on someone’s page, and sends an incorrect referer. This is used for advertising since many people (like me) pay attention to their referrers and follow them back to see what the linked site has to say. It’s also annoying for people (also like me) who keep their most recent referrers publicly accessible (see: “Recent Comments & Referrers” on the sidebar).

Heretofore, this has been an infrequent thing on this site but this week I’ve gotten a dozen or so — some from sites of questionable integrity (read: porn sites) and it annoys me. I’ve come to find out that all of them have come from two IP address, which I have banned (those IPs are, for those interested: 216.127.94.113 and 217.73.164.106). In addition to the banning, I’ve written my own referrer spamming program, and I intend to use it on sites that spam me in the future.