Even though I already get site statistics, including referral information, over at SiteMeter I decided to install Refer from Textism just because it looked kind of interesting. As you can see here, it does just what it claims to do. Unfortunately, this also gave me my first encounter with referral log spamming, since random pr0n sites are popping up in that log. I’m fairly certain they don’t actually link to me. Once again this confirms the idea that spammers are out to ruin anything and everything they can get to. It’s weird though, since I’d never seen any of this under SiteMeter (and in fact, the junk referrals still don’t show up there). I figure either SiteMeter manages to filter out the junk somehow, or spammers specifically target sites with an installation of Refer.

Comments

Comment by Brett on 2004-05-05 09:18:30 +0000

It’s only recently that I have been getting porn spams on my statistics. I was wondering where they were coming from. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one

Comment by Neal on 2004-05-05 22:51:17 +0000

Perhaps the purveyors of porn posess a particular preoccupation with your periodic postings.