This is one popular site.

You folks want to see something really cool? I created a little script (see link below) to show you where people are coming from on the web (live) to get to this site, and to give you a taste of what goes on behind the scenes with commercial websites.

Because this is not something we want our competition to see everyday, I'm going to remove this post (and the link) in a day or two. But some of you will find this interesting and cool.

The page only shows "REFERRERS" -- only people who clicked a linked from some other site to get here. I set it to reset at midnight and to refresh every two minutes.

We use referrers to help us market the site, and it also alerts us to trouble on the way. If we see people coming from an undesirable site, we can block or redirect that traffic away from here. This is just one tool businesses can use to manage their site and traffic. There are programs that make this look all pretty in graphs and stats -- or you can just stare at raw log files (which we do) all day. The raw logs is where the link below is pulling the referrer info from.

If you click the link below, you'll see a page with a bunch of links. The first column shows the time and date. The second shows the IP address the person was using (their internet connection), and the last column shows the site they were on and/or the keywords they used to get here if they used a search engine.

If you click any of the links on the page you'll see the last thing the person was looking at before they came here. If it was a search engine, you'll see the keywords they typed in to get here. I set it to refresh every two minutes and clear at midnight.

http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/log.html

* An IP address is a unique number your ISP assigns to you every time you go online. To find your IP, go to www.whatismyip.com. You can find what ISP that IP belongs to by doing a WHOIS search on www.arin.net. This is one way people are tracked down when they do illegal stuff online.

* Also, on a side note, this is the kind of information the government has been trying to get Google to give up. As you click the links, you'll see why.

 

It should be, because we spend a lot of money advertising in search engines.

 

I can't tell you all our secrets, but...

Most website owners have access to their log files and can use it to get the following information:

Total visits
Total unique visits
The username a person uses when they access the members area
Referrer (what link they clicked on to get to the site)
IP address
Time the IP address was used
Path a person takes through the site
What operating system they are using
What browser and browser version they are using
Keywords they used in the search engine
Errors and broken links (like page not found)
Most popular entry page
Most popular exit page
Countries people are coming from

There are extended log files where you can get more info, but most websites do not have access to configure that unless they own their own server -- as opposed to hosting the site with a hosting company.

You don't have to worry about other sites knowing you were here unless you click a link from this site that goes to that site. For instance, on the home page right now there is a link to the Black.White television show on F/X. If you click that link then the marketing department at F/X can see that you came from this site.

But they don't know it's you personally. They only know that the IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx came from whitewomenblackmen.com at 3:40 PM...etc. The only ways they can connect it to a person is to get a court to subpoena the ISP to find out who was using that IP address at 3:40 PM.

Or they can get you to sign up for something on their site where you put in your personal information. Then they can look at what IP submitted the information, trace it back to the link, and know that you came from here. But most webmasters do not get that deep -- or even know how. Most just want to know how many hits they are getting and which sites are sending them sales (conversion rates).

* Note -- you can pick up "spy-ware" or ad-ware on the web that will track what you do and send the info to a company that compiles and sells it to other companies. Some common software also may do this -- esp. file sharing programs. But there are free tools available to get this stuff off.

We run our own servers, so we can go a little further than log files when dealing with our sites. For instance, when someone "spoofs" their IP address or email address. Not only that, but where we work we can get them at the switch/router or call an upstream provider and get them blocked right on the Internet backbone.

Interestingly enough, we had a training session today on the latest greatest hacker, spamming, and phishing tools and techniques -- primarily phishing sites (where they trick people into giving up banking info) -- THAT is what you should be worried about.

We learned some techniques to track them down within 24 hours (but usually less than 15 mins). It's really pretty cool learning all the ways you can track someone on the web, but in general, you don't have to worry about browsing on the Internet unless you're doing something illegal or causing problems -- if you're worried about being tracked by webmasters. Most use built in stats programs that compile everything into general overall statistics that don't show much detail.

If you have any other questions.... ask away.

 

I converted the linked page to an example page. It is no longer live or updating, but you can still see a few examples of the links.

 

We're also the #1 dating site for black and white sock puppets. Why would we want to sort them out? This is the only site where a black sock and a white sock can get together and no one says anything. No need to hide behind closed draws.

(Yeah I know... Don't quit my day job.)