The Real Ryan J. Parker

Since upgrading to WordPress 2.3.2, the webserver that hosts my blog has taken a beating from trackback spammers.

The trackback requests were prevalent before, but for some reason they weren’t slowing the server down until the upgrade.

After trying many solutions, I finally found a way to solve the problem. This will no longer allow you to have trackbacks on your blog, but if you have to decide between no blog or no trackbacks then I’m sure you’ll have no problem implementing this.

Basically you just update your index.php to the following:

if ( preg_match('/trackback/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) ) {
die();
} else {
/* Short and sweet */
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
require('./wp-blog-header.php');
}
?>

You might need to modify the preg_match() so that you don’t cut off legit posts that have trackback in the name, but the blog I use this code on does not have such posts.

Hopefully some day soon these spammers will realize they’re doing no one any good.

Now that FeedBurner is owned by Google, you would think they’d have time to fix their math.

For example: I have 14 people subscribed to a feed using SendMeRSS, yet FeedBurner only counts 4. I know it’s 14 because SendMeRSS lists the number of subscribers in every e-mail that is sent out. Yes, I’m one of the 14 because I want to know if it’s ever broken.

Also, Google’s feed fetcher only reports 7 subscribers, yet FeedBurner counts this as 14. I know it’s 7 because the Googlebot comes to my site first before being re-directed to FeedBurner.

I figure this is just a parsing issue, but conspiracy theorists could suggest that Google wants to make it look like everyone is using their service.

Regardless, I just want to have an accurate subscriber count. Is that too much to ask for?

A few days ago I noticed about 60 clicks to my AdSense account in a short time span that appeared to be invalid, so I notified Google to make sure they knew that it was some sort of fraud. I’ve heard horror stories of people having some random jerkoff have their account disabled, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t fall into the same trap.

Looks like it didn’t work.

A few hours ago I received the following e-mail from Google:

Hello Ryan Parker,

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks and/or impressions
have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s). We have
therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that
this was a necessary step to protect the interests of AdWords
advertisers.

As you may know, a publisher’s site may not have invalid clicks or
impressions on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks and/or
impressions generated by:

- a publisher on his own web pages
- a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
- automated clicking or surfing programs, or any other deceptive
software
- a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the
layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason

…

I run AdWords campaigns and obviously hate click fraud, which is why it’s unfortunate that Google has disabled my account.

So, what are the odds of Google reinstating my account?

Tags: google, adsense, account disabled

What another nonsense TLD: .info.

Hopefully by blacklisting .biz and .info I can keep Akismet happy.

While we’re on the topic: anyone actually own and/or use a .info TLD for a legit purpose?

Tags: .info, spam

Does anyone use .biz for a legitimate commercial service?

After much interruption, I’ve finally added the .biz TLD to my WordPress blacklist. This shouldn’t affect any real commentators, as it seems no one uses this TLD for legitimate purposes.

I guess the point of this post is to see if anyone has heard of anyone using the .biz TLD for a legit business. I haven’t, but there has to be someone out there, right? I mean, that’s what it was created for, right?

Or, more likely, .biz is simply another way for domain registrars to try and sell you yet another domain you don’t need.

To prove the point, just look at a recent post from Guy Kawasaki on how much it cost to build Truemors:

I spent $1,115.05 registering domains. I could have used GoDaddy and done it a lot cheaper, but I was too stupid and lazy.

I registered 55 domains (for example, truemors.net, .de, .biz, truemours, etc, etc). I had no idea that one had to buy so many domains to truly “surround” the one you use. Yes, I could have registered fewer and spent less, but who cares about saving a few hundred bucks compared to the cost of legal action to get a domain away from a squatter if Truemors is successful?

Let’s assume the website becomes a smashing success. Is it really worth buying these domains even though that domain isn’t really worth anything? These squatters aren’t impacting your bottom line very much, are they? Gotta respect Guy, but I don’t follow this logic.

Lastly, have you ever or do you ever plan on buying a .biz? I hope not–you’re blacklisted.

Tags: .biz, spam