Blocking traffic to my blog
March 10, 2014 7:55 AM Subscribe
Is there a way to block links from a certain referrer from viewing my Tumblr page, say through a javascript redirect to a blank page or a different page altogether? My blog has appeared on a site known for abuse and harassment and (though I have luckily not received any yet) I'd love to keep it from happening eventually.
I'm aware that it can trivially be circumvented through noscript or ghostery or things like that, I just want to do all I can to avoid harassment.
I'm aware that it can trivially be circumvented through noscript or ghostery or things like that, I just want to do all I can to avoid harassment.
If this is a secondary tumblr, you can also password protect it (discussed here in Tumblr's FAQ). That's an extreme measure, but it is available. I mention this because I didn't know about it for a long time.
posted by immlass at 8:24 AM on March 10, 2014
posted by immlass at 8:24 AM on March 10, 2014
One thing to keep in mind is that trolls, being basically bullies, react strongly to having any attention paid to them; if they pick up on your attempts to ward them off ("weird, the link seems broken, wonder why - heyyyyy look at that it works fine when I just type the URL in!") you may in fact draw their attention to the fact that you're concerned about their abuse, which then encourages it.
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:42 AM on March 10, 2014
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:42 AM on March 10, 2014
destructive cactus has the better idea--you want the block to happen server-side, or else it's trivially easy to stop, and it's way more obvious what you're doing. An .htaccess rule that redirects to something completely mundane might discourage the casual viewer.
Keep in mind that HTTP referer-based-matching isn't ironclad, because referer is an optional parameter that is easy to disable client-side (and you can also, y'know, just type the URL in). So, this will make things difficult for your casual spewer-of-hatred, but it won't completely fix your problem, especially if someone at the referring site figures out what's happening.
posted by Mayor West at 8:57 AM on March 10, 2014
Keep in mind that HTTP referer-based-matching isn't ironclad, because referer is an optional parameter that is easy to disable client-side (and you can also, y'know, just type the URL in). So, this will make things difficult for your casual spewer-of-hatred, but it won't completely fix your problem, especially if someone at the referring site figures out what's happening.
posted by Mayor West at 8:57 AM on March 10, 2014
I strongly agree with Tomorrowful. Anything you do will be both quite obvious and straightforward to circumvent. You run the risk of making things worse.
Password protecting for a period is a somewhat better option, though. Just stay off the radar for a week, let whatever interest there was in your site die down, and then come back later. That said, since this is tumblr, you can assume that anyone particularly interested in causing trouble could have just followed you pre-block and will notice when you come back.
Having watched lots of weird hate-fests on 4chan evolve, not reacting to them is generally the only reliable way to stay out of trouble. Overreactors are their favorite target for taking the internet too seriously. No idea if that's the site in question, but I think that's a relatively generalizable attitude among trolls.
posted by heresiarch at 9:44 AM on March 10, 2014
Password protecting for a period is a somewhat better option, though. Just stay off the radar for a week, let whatever interest there was in your site die down, and then come back later. That said, since this is tumblr, you can assume that anyone particularly interested in causing trouble could have just followed you pre-block and will notice when you come back.
Having watched lots of weird hate-fests on 4chan evolve, not reacting to them is generally the only reliable way to stay out of trouble. Overreactors are their favorite target for taking the internet too seriously. No idea if that's the site in question, but I think that's a relatively generalizable attitude among trolls.
posted by heresiarch at 9:44 AM on March 10, 2014
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posted by destructive cactus at 8:17 AM on March 10, 2014 [3 favorites]