Remember me complaining about there being something fishy in the referrals? It was back before Christmas. Seems the Starprose problem is getting bigger. I know at least two other sites have mentioned the spam. There is even a MetaFilter thread about being spammed by the Lieberman campaign.
Whoever this spammer is, it's ridiculous. Today, I was spammed for Dick Gephardt and Carol Moseley Braun. I doubt theirs or the Lieberman campaign did that. In fact, I was spammed this weekend by a URL by this Starprose system claiming that this referral spam is new way to advertise. This post explaining the system is a hoot, especially the people that are replying to it. They are calling a spade a spade. 
I'd link to this post but I don't want to give Starprose any more traffic.
I think the goal of this referral tool by Starprose is to hit published referral logs, like those created by those that use the Textism Refer script which is also known as the Dean Allen's Refer script. Since many people (including myself) install it as the script tells us to and like to publish our results, it makes the script an easy target.
However, because of the Starprose Journal spam I got, I moved the Refer script. Actually, I changed the name of the directory to something else. I think if we all rename the refer directory to something else, the automated programs looking for the default /refer/index.php for the Refer script and trying to spam us won't be as lucky. They can't hawk to what they can't find.
I think it's pathetic many people have to stoop to the measure I mention above. I should be able to enjoy my site without being spammed. 
However, it's so nice to see anything mentioning Starprose getting 403'd. 
Posted by Shawn at January 5, 2004 11:42 AM in General.
Sounds like you're getting more political spam than I am even though I'm not hiding the fact that I'm in NH. Actually, I'd be curious to know if blogs from particular states got spamed more due to their perceived importance and/or ideologies.
Posted by: sya at January 5, 2004 6:10 PMI honestly do not think any of the candidates' campaigns are doing the spamming via referals. Since I posted this, I got hit with a link for Wesley Clark's campaign. The Lieberman campaign denies any involement. Why would they all be starting this spamming at the same time?
If the campaigns were really doing this, you'd think they would target those blogs they could benefit from at the moment. How would spamming me be that effective in January? My primary isn't until March.
I don't know who is behind this stunt. I just know they are using the Starprose software.
Posted by: Shawn at January 5, 2004 6:34 PMI got hit by the presidential spam too, but not on my blog. I got hit on another site I run. This one doesn't even have the Textism refer script so I saw the false refers in my Webalizer logs.
I'm wondering if they're simply targeting sites powered by Movable Type or something? I added Starprose to by banned list in refer.php a long long time ago!
Posted by: Dave at January 8, 2004 8:20 PMDave, back when I was getting hit with the journal spam, I observed how I was getting hit. Whatever it was that was spamming with the journals was specifically going for the Textism script. It was seeking out refer/refer.php page specifically with a HEAD command and nothing else.
Whoever this is, they are going about it the same way as the porn fake-blogs did in November. Isn't not about us. It's about the status in the search engines that crawl us.
Posted by: Shawn at January 8, 2004 11:16 PMSo do you have any idea why it showed up in the refer log of a non Textism refer site?
Posted by: Dave at January 9, 2004 4:06 AMProbably in hope that the server log is published in one other way or another. Some people don't need Textism to publish their server logs. Then again, when we view our logs, we webmasters see the ad, even if no one else does. As long as someone sees the ad, it works.
Posted by: Shawn at January 9, 2004 6:44 AM
