Spam Hits from "ranksonic.info" and "buttons-for-website.com"
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@fitzcarraldoblog
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I’m using Firefox for Linux 35.0. Clearing the browser’s caches (Web Content; Offline Web Content and User Data) , complete history and all cookies makes no discernable difference. I have the ranksonic.info spam in the Referrer column when accessing the Internet from my Compal NBLB2 laptop running fully-updated 64-bit (~amd64 arch) Gentoo Linux connected to my home network via a router (BT HomeHub Version 3 connected to a high-speed broadband socket provided by UK telecoms provider BT. The BT HomeHub has an internal firewall, and my Linux installation is running UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) Version 0.34_pre805-r2. I also get the ranksonic.info spam when I am browsing in the hotel I am posting from now, which has a D-Link DAP-1360 wireless access point in my hotel room and is connected to the hotel’s wired Ethernet network. The hotel (Marriott) uses the iBAHN network service for hotels:
http://www.ibahn.com/en-us/welcome.php
Irrespective of the above, should it not be possible to click on the blue flag/”Spam?” link on my blog’s Site Stats page and block the spam Referrer? As mentioned in my previous post, if I click on “Spam?” it just expands the +ranksonic.info but there is no blue flag/”Spam?” link beside the individual ranksonic URLs. Is this a problem just for me, or do other people experience the same behaviour when they try to click the flag/”Spam?” link for +ranksonic.info?
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I was able to mark those as spam for you from the new stats page. Let me know if you need anything else!
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Liz, I was able to mark ranksonic.info as a Spam referrer on the old Stats page, https://wordpress.com/my-stats, although I couldn’t from the classic admin. Stats page (the one without the map). Many of us don’t use the “new” Stats page for lots of different reasons.
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Thank you, lizthefair. It’s a pity that marking URLs as spam does not work from the so-called classic menu, though (My Sites > WP Admin > Site Stats), as I much prefer that to the new UI. Would you, as a Happiness Engineer, be able to spread even more happiness by making that work too? ;-)
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It’s a pity that marking URLs as spam does not work from the so-called classic menu, though (My Sites > WP Admin > Site Stats), as I much prefer that to the new UI. Would you, as a Happiness Engineer, be able to spread even more happiness by making that work too? ;-)
I’m afraid not. The stats page that is part of WP-admin is quite old and no longer under development. We keep the link available as a courtesy and to let users upgrade at their own pace, but we can’t keep it updated.
If you see more spam referrers that you have trouble removing from one of the older views, the easiest thing to do is to temporarily switch to the new view, fix the problem, then go back to your preferred view.
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Hi there,
I’ve read the whole conversation and my frustration is strong since it appears that there is no effective solution on wordpress.com to block traffic from spam referrers.
Did I get that right?
Here’s my question to raincoaster or anyone else willing to help: is it possible to access the .htaccess file by upgrading to a premium access?
If not, would moving my website to a registrar other than wordpress give me access to that file so I can stop the nasty traffic?
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Here’s my question to raincoaster or anyone else willing to help: is it possible to access the .htaccess file by upgrading to a premium access?
None of the WordPress.com premium plans include .htaccess access.
If you were to move to a self-hosted WordPress install you would have full control over all of your site settings. You can learn more about the differences between WordPress.com and self hosted WordPress here
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Hi lizthefair,
Thx for the quick answer and the link.
I’m not sure I understand tho: if I transfered my current wordpress.com website to a different registrar (other than WP.org), would I have access to .htaccess?
I’m not very clear on these things sorry…
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In any event, if I was to transfer my WP.com website to WP.org, would I be able to keep my current template?
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if I transfered my current wordpress.com website to a different registrar (other than WP.org), would I have access to .htaccess?
Your site allaboutwork.org is currently hosted on WordPress.com. That means we take care of a lot of the behind the scenes stuff for you. This helps keep your site secure and running fast, but it also restricts some of what you can do.
If you were to move to a different webhost, you could download WordPress software (the software available at WordPress.org, but also from your host most of the time). Then you would have a self hosted WordPress site.
A self hosted site (even if it used WordPress software) would have .htaccess.
In any event, if I was to transfer my WP.com website to WP.org, would I be able to keep my current template?
Your theme, Suits, is available for self hosted sites. You wouldn’t keep it exactly, but your new site could use the same theme which would make it pretty easy to make your new site look like the old one.
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@ fionamcquarrie– Sorry about that. That’s one of the dangers of these big threads.
yalakom–if you have more questions about moving your site, could you open your own thread? That way we can avoid confusion about who is asking what about which site. Thanks!
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I have a hard time swallowing this.
Basically, we can’t protect ourselves from spam-referrers because we have no access to the .htaccess file, but you guys are not doing it for us either, this is a little crazy!
I’d be willing to pay to fix this since this is likely messing up my traffic! Why can’t we pay to fix this nasty problem?
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Basically, we can’t protect ourselves from spam-referrers because we have no access to the .htaccess file,
We do a lot behind the scenes to fight spam and are improving those methods all the time. If you’d like to have more direct control over that I’m happy to help you move to a self hosted site where you can do that, but we need to discuss it in a new thread.
Since the questions originally asked here have been answered, I’m going to close this thread.
- The topic ‘Spam Hits from "ranksonic.info" and "buttons-for-website.com"’ is closed to new replies.
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