Question on blog for web gurus - jihad on jive?

[JiveLad]

Hi

Just wondered if any web experts could explain what happened today (or what might be behind this?).

Normally I can see from the reports that maybe 10 or so people on average check my blog - sometime jsut 2-3 - occasionally 20 - if I posted something controversial (or vaguely interesting) on the forum.

And.....these are people 95% from the UK.

What happened today? Over 40 visitors from countries like Spain, Serbia, Pakistan, Iran, Norway....to name but a few.

I ain't advertised or promoted - or anything? And I can't imagine anyone else would - as it is so specialised...............

What could be behind this?

Bit spooky...........hope it's not a 'jihad against jive' or something.....

[ducasi]

Spammers using a botnet attempting to post "coments" on your blog?

[JiveLad]

Spammers using a botnet attempting to post "coments" on your blog?

Don't think so..........I think it's something to do with the image - which is of some painted nails.............

but I don't quite see how clicking on that image in Google Images gets you to my blog..............cos it doesn't!........

...so how does this work?

[ducasi]

Does your image appear on any other page?

Is that image in the Google index?

Are the hits to your blog, or to the image alone?

What are the referrers for the image hits?

[spindr]

Are you leaching other sites' bandwidth to show their images on your blog?

<a href="http://www.christiesnails.com/pictures/johnette1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.christiesnails.com/pictures/johnette1.jpg" border="0" /></a>

SpinDr

[ducasi]

Are you leaching other sites' bandwidth to show their images on your blog?

Oh, that's bad! Stealing images is bad – but stealing bandwidth too!

I guess that might also explain why your page takes so long to load and quite a few of the images are broken...

[JiveLad]

Oh, that's bad! Stealing images is bad – but stealing bandwidth too!

I guess that might also explain why your page takes so long to load and quite a few of the images are broken...

Hi Ducasi - thanks for letting me know about that........I had noticed it slowing down slightly - but as I have a 10Mb line it was still just 3-4 secs.

Anyway, it should be faster now as I changed it to just load the latest 40 posts instead of the lot. And the pictures are tidied up.

I still don't get how a surfer manages to find their way to the blog via an obscure image........I can't see how it happens. Can anyone explain in layman terms?

[ducasi]

I still don't get how a surfer manages to find their way to the blog via an obscure image........I can't see how it happens. Can anyone explain in layman terms?

If the web site you "borrowed" the image from publishes a list of recent referrers on it, then you'll get the visitors to that web site checking out your web site.

Make sense?

[JiveLad]

If the web site you "borrowed" the image from publishes a list of recent referrers on it, then you'll get the visitors to that web site checking out your web site.

Make sense?

Ok - so they have some automated referral system which puts in the links? Well - I couldn't see it on their web site. Either way, I'll think about changing the image: part of me says yeah, I don't want to waste people's time - another says that part of the beauty of the web is the serendiptious nature of it - and who knows how it could change someone's life.( )

[straycat]

Jihad on Jive? So would that be a Jivehad?

[ducasi]

Ok - so they have some automated referral system which puts in the links? Well - I couldn't see it on their web site. Either way, I'll think about changing the image: part of me says yeah, I don't want to waste people's time - another says that part of the beauty of the web is the serendiptious nature of it - and who knows how it could change someone's life.( )

Still think you should be hosting the images yourself, rather than using other people's bandwidth.

If it was my bandwidth you were stealing, I'd first be upset, then I'd switch the image to be something else you might not want on your blog...

[TheTramp]

Still think you should be hosting the images yourself, rather than using other people's bandwidth.

If it was my bandwidth you were stealing, I'd first be upset, then I'd switch the image to be something else you might not want on your blog...

Maybe a quick email to the people who's bandwidth he's stealing, Duncan?

[JiveLad]

Ok guys - thanks for the insights. Being a bit naive about these technicalities I had not appreciated how it works - I guess I assumed that the image was copied over to the Blogger Server - and stored there.

Well, having looked at this a bit now, it seems that the best way some bloggers do this is to store their images on Flickr - where apparently you can store 200 images for free. So I might check that out.

Are there any other easy ways to manage this?

Anyway, I emailed the lady Christie who owns the nail image earlier today, to explain the situation - so she knows. Hmmm - hasn't happened on any other image I don't think.....

[Beowulf]

Still think you should be hosting the images yourself, rather than using other people's bandwidth.

yeah I agree .. nasssty bandwith sstealing hobbitses

If it was my bandwidth you were stealing, I'd first be upset, then I'd switch the image to be something else you might not want on your blog...

Yeah.. been there, done that, had a flaming good laugh at there expense, and even if you don't do that you can always set up an anti leech script in your .htaccess file

[killingtime]

Ok guys - thanks for the insights. Being a bit naive about these technicalities I had not appreciated how it works - I guess I assumed that the image was copied over to the Blogger Server - and stored there.

You can use Picasa Web albums which is also Google hosted and should now be where all your blog images are uploaded to.

Well, having looked at this a bit now, it seems that the best way some bloggers do this is to store their images on Flickr - where apparently you can store 200 images for free. So I might check that out.

200 isn't your limit. That's the most that is listed on Flickr without a pro account. Anything more than that knocks the oldest off the list but it is still there (so links to it will still show it).

I use a lot of images from Flickr mostly from other people. In this case though I make sure I search for things that fall under the Creative Commons license (therefore those people are giving me permission to do just that). Also Flickr states, as part of its usage, that it is happy with linked images but you must also link back to the page (so you also have a hyperlink around the image that leads to the Flickr page). Seems fair enough to me so I'm happy with that.


Add a couple of examples (if the moderators are cool with that), blog post with image from Flickr and using Picasa Web Album and linking to the site I originally got the image from.