12/5/05
At some point in the last two weeks, the hits on this blog went from the usual ten thousand-ish a day to hundreds of thousands (corrected from earlier). I thought I'd been slashdotted or BoingBoinged or something, but when I looked at the referrer list, I understood the culprit.
A few years ago, this site started getting serious comment spam, to the tune of about 150 a day. MT's blacklist kept a lot out, I'm sure, but spam sites always worm their way in. Finally, Steve found a trick that has kept 99% of it away, and now I have to delete only 2 or so each morning.
Then came the "trackback spam." By this summer, I was sometimes getting 300 of these a day, sites for penises and hair loss remedies and bestiality, tracking back on all the old entries. It took us forever to find the "off" switch, which is why there are no longer trackbacks on this site - a major cool functionality that I've had to completely abandon.
And now, my site is being hit 15,000 times a day by bullshit spam sites in what is now called referrer spam, which, as far as I can gather, is a way for spammers to get on my "referrer" page on the off-chance that I would ever publish one.
First question: has any of these spammers, or the asshole human beings behind them, ever made a FUCKING DIME screwing up people's websites like this? Or is it just like trolling the Atlantic, killing all the porpoises and not catching any tuna?
This referrer spam has effectively made it impossible to see how people get here. I used to be able to spot if someone had linked to me, then occasionally established a friendship (or at least linked back), but those days are over. In essence, spam has shut me off from the community of links, and has rendered me blind, like a submarine that has lost its periscope.
I realize all giant living entities like the Net are going to be subjected to parasites at best (and cancer at worst) but I'd just like to send out a giant FUCK YOU to all spammers glomming their horseshit onto those of us who are trying to make the internet a more intelligent place. From now on, every time one of you hits my site, I'm giving you karmic ass warts. Long may they throb in agony.
Preach on, brother.
Yeah, I'm getting the same spammer crap. I liked having trackbacks. I would love to be able to have a referrer list that actually indicates something. But no, these vermin make it impossible. I wish there was actually something anyone could do about it.
That really sucks.
In fact, it more than sucks! I'm really pissed. There must be someone out there who can figure out how to beat these assholes. I was born in '55 and my talents lie elsewhere. Victory Over Horseshit!
Wasn't there a promise that by now there would be a red button on every computer to zap the spammers? Maybe the point is not directly making money but inflating the overall activity of the internet to convince Web 2.0 VCs that there is something worth putting millions into. How else do you explain Pajama Media?
The spam on my refer logs have actually quietened over the last couple of months - and depressingly so as I have gone from 12,000 visits a day to under 9,000. The emotional relation of bloggers to stats is a weird thing. I am still convinced that 37 actual people have actual read something I have written.
"karmic ass warts"
sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
Well, you could have the spam, eggs, sausage and spam. That's not got MUCH spam in it.
Bud, thanks for the laugh. ;) Now that high voice is in my head.
For some reason, the amount of junkmail has exploded in my e-mail box in the last two weeks, too...not sure if there's some new technology that just started that. Most of the subject heads are "I need your help." Uh huh.
Dealing with spam drives me crazy as well. Spambots lift my domain name and abuse it. And what about these absurdist dada spammers sending out reams of non-sequitur mumbojumbo emails? What a waste of time.P.S. I've got some cheap V 1 @ G R A and C I @ L 1 S i'm trying to unload.
I don't understand what you just wrote, but it sounds bad! And I don't like bad things happening to good blogs!
Hey, when I write comments on your blog, does that "cost" you anything? Money? Or bandwidth? What is bandwidth anyway? If so, I am sorry!
Size matters438
She will call it MOBY
Be PROUD in the locker room
If you have a fizzle pizzle
Yeah, it's sad. There was an article somewhere (New Yorker?) that said spam is being used for extortion and spammers are selling themselves as the muscle. Some of those denial-of-service attack worms are hanging out for hire.
Badbob, I think I've gotten all of those. Except fizzle pizzle - that's a new one!
I want to add my complaint here about a non-spam-related but equally nefarious phenomenon--just read in the Yahoo headlines about Ford withdrawing its advertising from gay periodicals, after a long history of active support for the gay community (offering same-sex-partner insurance for employees, recruitment of gay employees, donations to gay interest groups, etc). This move is very obviously due to pressure from the American Family Association....though Ford denies that their ad-pulls are the result of a several-month boycott by the AFA.
I mean, they met with the AFA *last week* to negotiate ending the boycott, and then--miraculously--this week they pull their ads from gay papers and magazines? And we're expected to believe this is mere coincidence?
It's deeply dispiriting--though perhaps unsurprising--to see a corporation which has practiced advocacy for the gay community make this cowardly about-face. Ford, WTF? We're onto you.
And WE
ain't buyin no Fords!!!
i use this: www.statcounter.com
I too have often questioned the efficacy of spamming. It reminds me of gawkers and whistling workmen on the street. Do they ever *really* get laid as a result of their cat-calling? I think not. Sexist spammers.
Did you know that a barnacle's penis is 50 times as big as the rest of it? It has to reach out to impregnate fellow barnacles (they're all hermaphrodites)and will go from neighbor to neighbor until it gets it's "happy finish."
talk about finger on the pulse . . .
The NPR Diane Rehm show today was all about blogs including a bit about spamming. Someone even called in complaining that she was receiving spam in the comments section. Bad, bad people deserving of ass warts.
BTW and totally unrelated . . . ass wart comment reminded me of when Eddie Van Halen said in reference to attorneys, "These cats had me so beat down and confused, it made the cancer seem like a tiny zit on my ass." That made me laugh.
Joanna, hon, you’ve got it exactly right!
I was bored at work and spent some time talking--really *talking*--to a telemarketer. She asked to speak to the person in whose name the house was to sell me a new mortgage. I patiently explained that I lived in a commune and we didn't have a speakerphone, so, to be fair, she would have to give the pitch to the eight of us on the finance collective separately.
With the help of a couple of equally bored co-workers... we didn't make it to eight, but I won't be getting calls from that company again and the telemarketer has learned some new, largely made-up facts about capitalism and compound interest.
Too bad that in cyberspace, no one can hear you bullshit.
Just checked my stats again - turns out I was getting around 10,000 hits a day before spam, and now it's in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS with spam. Even worse than I thought.