how to block WP follower

  • trailhiker · Member ·

    I have a follower from within WP (not an e-mail follower) who has a suspicious-looking blog site (strange punctuation of post titles, no posts since 2010). I have removed this follower twice in the last couple of days and she has re-followed for the 3rd time. I do not want to play this game, but I do not see anything about her blog that suggests she would be interested in my blog. So I would like to block this WP user from following my blog. Please let me know if there is an appropriate thread I should view; I didn’t find any when I tried a search. Thanks.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • drunkentennis · Member ·

    Good day,

    Recently, there was a thread opened up about “weird” followers. You can find the information in this thread.

    A suggestion from one of the users is

    Do know however that on a publicly visible site, it is not possible to block someone from following you. You can none-the-less report the user as spam on Gravatar by following the link to their Gravatar profile and using the “report abuse” link in the left column. If you don’t see the link there, you may need to log in to Gravatar as well.

    -justjennifer

    Hope this information can help. If the user is following you persistently in the next few days, please add the ‘modlook’ tag for Staff attention.

    Cheers,
    Win

  • trailhiker · Member ·

    @drunkentennis, Thank you for your suggestion. I have been re-followed for the 4th time and have removed for the 4th time. I followed the Gravatar link and submitted a comment with the “report abuse” link. I wonder how this person even knows I have removed the follow unless she is checking every day. (Or does WP automatically generate an e-mail to announce the removal?) This has all happened within the last week, and I feel like I am being stalked. If I am followed again by this user I will add the tag you suggested for Staff attention.

    BTW I investigated this follow in the first place because the name appeared in the “weird outlook followers” thread, and I recognized it because I had just been followed by this user for the first time.

  • drunkentennis · Member ·

    Hm, that is indeed very strange. Please do add the tag if this reoccurs.

    Cyber-stalking is no fun :/

  • trailhiker · Member ·

    At 6:15am today I received an e-mail from Gravatar stating that the account has been removed from Gravatar.

    At 8:41am today I received an e-mail stating that the user is following my blog (this is the 5th time). The Gravatar icon is no longer a live link, but it appears that nothing else has changed.

    At 10:17am today I removed the user from my followers.

    I am delighted and flattered to have legitimate followers of my blog. This particular blog that is following mine does not appear to be a real blog (see my initial post in this thread) and I do not appreciate being made to feel that I am being stalked. I am now tagging this thread with ‘modlook’ in the hope of getting staff to take a look and advise. Let me know if you need the WP username.

    Thank you.

  • fstat · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Since your blog is publicly visible anyone with access to the internet can view and follow your blog. Even if you remove them, they will still be able to visit your blog and view its contents. Also, if we could permanently block them they could still change their username and follow you again.

  • trailhiker · Member ·

    @fstat I consider this behavior to be abusive. I haven’t been re-followed (yet???) for the 6th time by the original user (20MinuteResults [@willy7799]), but I have been followed in the last 30 hours by two other obviously fake/spam sites: Finding True Love [colombiandatingofficial.wordpress.com] and peruwomen [@peruwomen]. Investigating these sites, there is no content and the About page isn’t even populated, just the boilerplate WP About page text. Both appear to be masquerading as dating sites that want you to click on the Follow button. I am now wondering if I need to go through ALL of my WP followers to discover and weed out any other fake/spam sites.

    This behavior is just as unwanted as the message spam that your filters do such a good job of removing. I ask you to look into this behavior — I don’t for a second believe I’m the only legitimate WP user who is experiencing it and doesn’t appreciate it — and see what can be done to address it. I don’t expect it will be easy but there’s got to be a way. Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide that might be helpful.

    Thank you.

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