How do I delete a spam referrer that I accidentally marked as not spam?
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Buttons for Websites is the problem site. I wish my blog was of international importance but I’m not buying that I have readers in Croatia and Argentina to name a few.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Howdy!
I’m not seeing Buttons for Websites in your referrer list. Were you able to get the “Mark as Spam” option set?
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No! I’ve been meaning to ask about this for sometime.
This morning I finally do and then can’t find it in my referrers either. But I do get a lot of stats from countries like Slavakia, etc., that only go to my home page. And sometimes I will see buttons for websites as a referrer. -
You mentioned marking the referrer as not spam. Comments and feedback can be marked as ‘not spam’ but with referrers that’s only something our staff can do — and even then, we only do it after it’s been marked as spam. So if you know they appeared as a referrer before, and they don’t anymore, it sounds like they’re marked them as spam.
The countries that appear in stats are determined by using an IP address database. It’s possible those results are coming in from legitimate readers that use tools to change their IP address like a VPN or Proxy Server.
Since some of your traffic is coming in from encrypted google searches, it’s also possible folks in Slovakia simply stumbled on your site. It can definitely happen depending on their search terms.
The best thing to do is to mark as spam whenever a spam referrer appears in your Stats again, but for now that seems to be set.
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Thanks. Sounds like it is taken care of. Thanks for the addt’l info regarding the IP address database and tools people may use to change their address.
My reference to marking referrers as not spam came from WP info I’ve copied below. I only had the red flag on that website come up one time, I marked it as spam but then hit the undo button by accident and navigated away from website before correcting that. I noticed in subsequent stats that the red flag no longer was available to mark buttons for websites as spam. I assumed it worked the same way as if I had mistakenly marked them as spam and then navigated away from the site.
Marking Spam Referrers
Sometimes you may see referrers in your stats from sites you don’t want. If you wish, you can report those referrers as ‘spam’ and they will no longer appear in your list of referrers.
To mark them as spam, navigate to your “Referrers” section.
Each entry has a clickable ellipse next to the view count. (This works for all but a few whitelisted referrers, such as WordPress.com.)
When you click the ellipse, a red “Spam?” flag will appear. When you click the flag, the referrer link will go into your personal spam referrer block list and won’t show up in the future.
If you change your mind right away, you can click the “Undo” link that appears where the Spam? link was previously. However, once you have navigated away from the stats page, you will not be able to undo the action later.
If you mistakenly mark a site as spam, this will not affect your site’s visits or stats count; it only will keep that referrer from appearing on your stats page.
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Ahhh, the undo option. That makes sense. :)
I guess, to curb my curiosity would you let me know here if you do happen to see that referrer again? My gut is telling me that the spam mark went through and the undo didn’t… but’s hard to test this out since “unspam” bit takes a little work from our developers each time.
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Maybe so, but would the website continue to show up if the original spam marking had gone thru but the undo had not? Because it did show up on a regular basis most of last year. All the other sites that I marked as spam never showed up again.
I’ll let you know if I see it again.Thanks for your help.
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If it went through correctly then it will not show up again.
That’s why if it shows up again I’ll be really curious! :D
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