Spammers are pure evil, and will do whatever it takes short of death (though I’m all for that if they decide to try it) to push page-rankings up just one more step on the search engine ladder.
Why hit referer logs, sane folk ask? Why not, evil spammers cackle in reply.
Anyway…
http://www.coldforged.org/archives/2005/01/25/killing-referral-spam/
If you want to stop them, this has been doing a pretty effective job on my site: referrer-karma
I second the vote for R-K
Thanks! I’m installing that.
But just wondering, they didn’t really leave any comment spam so what’s the point of that?
Just installed RK. Do I have to delete rk_settings.php?
No, you just need to change $can_configure = true; to $can_configure =false; and set the password you want to use.
“they didn’t really leave any comment spam so what’s the point of that?”
The logic (what there is of it) goes like this: Many web admins leave site logs open to public view, which often get indexed by search engines. And since every referer line in a log displays the URL, this makes it another can to drop spam into.
As well as those people who choose to display the “last X referrers” on their pages, like this guy.
I especially like the “Click through links on this automated compilation at your own risk, folks…some of them aren’t totally obvious.”
Gee, I wonder which ones…
I didn’t even know there was such a problem until I wandered in here, then checked my referral listing. More headaches. *sigh*
