The Real Blogger Status

The Stats "Audience" page is now showing a mysterious entry, in the "Pageviews by Countries" list, for some blogs. The list of the top 10 most active countries, for the "Now", "Day", "Week", and / or "Month" lists, for some blogs, includes a non country name - "Unknown Region". The "Unknown Region" entry appears to be associated with a second Stats oddity, a monochromatic "Pageviews by Countries" map. This oddity is causing some concern, in various forum discussions . Where one would hope to see a familiar Stats multi-shaded Audience map, with various countries displayed in differing shades of green or black, some blog owners are seeing a monochromatic pale green display. The monochromatic display appears to be accompanied by the mysterious "Unknown Region" entry, in the countries list. I am examining the Stats "Audience" page, for this blog - in different time range...

We've been experiencing - and discussing - referer spam, since 2011 . We still see unaware blog owners, asking in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When I checked my stats for my blog, and looked at traffic sources, I noticed a link from a different country - and it just seems weird that Russian readers would then go to a US site. When we explain that they're probably seeing another referer spam attack - and that clicking on the links is not always a good idea, we get a variety of responses. Some want to know if there is a purpose, to this noise.

Not every blog, that gets readers - or pageview counts - is going to get comments. We see the disappointment, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I have received over 2,000 page views, but only close friends comment. Is there a setting or something that makes sense as to why I'm not receiving comments? And yes, there are various settings, which may restrict your readers abilities to comment - but that may not be the only possible problem.

We see signs of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about Stats count adjustments. The number of page views for individual posts and total page views have dropped precipitously. It appears that Google is under reporting these page views, which of course results in less earnings for our website. This blog owner does not understand the effect of referer spam upon Stats - nor the separation of AdSense and Stats. Some blog owners think that they know what pageview counts are appropriate, for their blog - and are unhappy when Stats does not display counts that agree with their expectations.

I've discussed referer spam before, and its visibility in Stats logs produced by newer, less popular blogs . There is always the odd mature and popular blog, also showing referer spam in its Stats logs. Mature and popular blogs, published by experienced blog owners, may still be subject to referer spam. Referer spam attacks blogs of all age and popularity levels. Experienced blog owners will learn to recognise referer spam - and typically, when they identify it, they learn to ignore it.

Real people live in various countries all over the world. Every country has Internet service - and people who surf the Internet. Some read this blog - and maybe your blog, too, My blog pageviews today increased from 150 to 1530 !! And almost all the visits were from Canada. Please Help Me! Why would you dread Canadian readers, eh? Knowing that your blog may host readers, in a worldwide community, would you fear traffic from unknown countries?

Occasionally, we see a complaint about referer spam, from a known spam source, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - but the spam entry is not in a Stats log. Some people are recently reporting referer spam source, in Google Analytics, StatCounter, and more. When I check my Google Analytics, I See traffic on my blog from porn sites! and Why do I see Russian spam, in my StatCounter logs? Why indeed? If referer spam is unique to Stats, because how Stats develops visitor activity counts , why would we see referer spam activity in Analytics, StatCounter, and other visitor logs? It's normal to ask questions - but when you ask the wrong questions, in the wrong places, you help contribute to your own problems.

One popular Stats related accessory, which displays pageview information to the public, is the "Popular Posts" gadget. Popular Posts identifies from 1 to 10 of the most popular posts in the blog, by comparing Stats pageview counts. Optional parts of the display of each post are a snippet of text, and an ever popular thumbnail photo. Like many Stats features, blog owners have found imaginative uses for "Popular Posts" - and overlook the limitations of the gadget. Both the dynamic nature of Stats, and the timing of the various pageview count recalculations, create confusion, when Popular Posts is examined.

Some blog owners want significant details, from Stats. How do I get all posts listed, with pageview counts? or How do I get a specific time period, from last month? or How do I filter out the bogus counts? Not everybody observes that Stats gives us specific details, based upon what's generally useful, or what is possible to keep, easily. Some details are not provided, because Stats provides details that are significant, in the right context. Other details are not provided, because they are not retained, from day to day (week to week, month to month, or year to year).

Occasionally, we see odd questions about Stats, and the history of someone's blog (or maybe, the URL of someone's blog), in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . If I started my blog last year, why does my Stats display show pageviews from 2, or even 3, years ago? and If I rename my blog to a better URL, how do I carry the Stats numbers to the new URL? Neither blog owner shows an accurate understanding of the historical nature of Stats pageview counts.

Confusion about Stats, and referer spam inaccuracy , is expressed, weekly. You never have a real idea as to how many real visitors view your blog, since these referrer spammers are in fact identified by their name, and their number of visits on the Stats "referring URL" list. Referer spam inaccuracy is possibly the best known - but certainly not the only - Stats problem, discussed daily in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Stats is a controversial Blogger feature, because of various perceived inaccuracies - but even so, is more useful than competing products , because of its unique design. Not every blog owner realises that all visitor logs / meters provide displays and statistics, which contain known inaccuracies. The fact is, no visitor log / meter can ever be 100% accurate.

Some blog owners just do not understand the realities of referer spam moderation. How can I set my dashboard, to not track pageviews from referring sites like "vampirestat . com"? Not everybody understands that Stats was not designed for catering to individual preferences, in deciding what statistics should be displayed. Stats spam moderation was not designed to allow for individuals to decide on what figures to display - or ignore. Like Blogger Comment moderation , Stats is collaborative, fuzzy, and heuristic. Collaborative systems work best when everybody is subject to the same restrictions. Blogger / Google can best fight referer spam by monitoring all activity, against all blogs, uniformly.

One of the most intriguing subjects discussed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves the seemingly purposeless spam which torments us in our comments and our Stats logs. I see this random garbage on my blog - and the sites advertised are complete junk. Is there any actual reason for this? Interestingly, both nice blog spam (in our comments), and referer spam (in our Stats logs), have purposes - though with the continually varying content used in both, it all looks very much like random garbage. If we analyse the content, structure, and volume of the various spam attacks, we can see patterns - and an understanding of the overall purpose of the spam.

As referer spam continues to be reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we see occasional signs of confusion. Some blog owners, knowing how to use WhoIs lookups and similar online utilities, to their advantage, are looking up the referer spam targets - and are reporting the targets to their registrars and hosts. What these blog owners may not realise is that not all apparent "customers" of referer spam "services" may have actually contracted to be featured in the services.

One of the details of referer spam , that intrigued me for a time, involved who was reporting the spam. Most - but not all - referer spam is reported by newbie owners . People who just setup a blog, and are anxiously waiting for their first readers outside their own country, are suddenly astounded Wow, thousands of people are reading my blog - from China and Russia! I am an international celebrity, in my first week!! The euphoria quickly vanishes, when told in the forums Nobody is actually viewing your blog from these sites - and nobody knows about these links but you, since only you can see your Stats logs.

We see the occasional optimistic suggestion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners tired of the referer spam, in their Stats logs . Why can't we just tell them which Stats entries are spam? This is, admittedly, such a simple suggestion - it surely must present part of the final solution. If one considers the purposes behind referer spam, one can see a problem with having individual blog owners designate specific pageview entries, in their Stats logs, as referer spam.

Periodically, we see evidence of confusion about Stats and the pageview counts, as provided in the various displays and time ranges, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . My pageview counts keep going down! or My counts go up during the day - but in the afternoon, they drop to zero!! or My counts keep going down! There's no end to the drop!! All of these complaints - and more - involve blog owners, who don't understand the relationships between the displays and time ranges.

Some owners of newer Blogger blogs spend time reading their Stats logs, and worry that their "All time" pageview counts don't always go up - they go down, too. Why do the counts go down? Is there one number, that I can believe? They don't understand that with Stats, you need to look for trends - not absolute readings. In the beginning, fluctuations are more obvious, and trends are less obvious. Thanks to the referer spam war , and to normal visitor activity , even the "All time" numbers will go up and down - for newer blogs, which have less genuine and constant visitor traffic. And the constant rise and fall is scary - until you get used to it.

One sign of panic, seen regularly in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , comes from people who spend a lot of time viewing their Stats logs. My pageview counts are always going up and down. Why is Stats so flaky? It's good to monitor your reader activity - sometimes this will warn you of a major problem in the Internet, or with Blogger. But keep a proper perspective .

The sport of ocean surfing has been described as something like "constantly falling down an ever advancing wall of water", while trying to stay upright and ahead of the wall of water (aka the "wave"). Publishing a Blogger blog, and dealing with hijackers, pirates, and spammers, is similar to surfing. I am frequently advising people, who complain about the constant waves of spurious spam classifications, blog clones (aka "content thieves"), and referer spam, to keep looking ahead - and keep publishing their blogs. Like ocean surfing, you want to keep looking ahead and remain standing - don't fall down, and let the wave behind wash over you. The latter leads to drowning.