Wednesday 30 October 2013

Zombie Cookies, Vampire Stats and Trolls

You never know what you'll see when you're blogging and reading what others say online. Just in time for Halloween I discovered that I am probably picking up zombie cookies as I navigate the web. They are flash cookies placed on your computer as you visit websites. Unlike the usual ones that you can get rid of when you clear your cache they persist and work across browsers to remember you on websites or ban you from a site even after your cookies are cleared. 



Halloweendevilishdelights.blogspot.com      Zombie Cookies


They hide in your Adobe flash and actually come back to life after you delete them. 


Another thing I keep finding in my blog statistics are vampirestats. You see a url that seems to refer people to your blog. This makes it look as though more people have visited. Beware - they want your clicks. When you go to their site to see who they are, then they get what they want. I don't know how to block them - one person said that when a blog is established they drop off.


I've been saving the zombies and vampires and waiting for Halloween. Happily there are no horror movie diseases among my diagnoses so the only thing left that fits a Halloween post is the trolls.

From Monywa  Trolls making soup

Trolls are those people who jump into your discussions and disrupt them. They may insult you and others. They may argue or say outrageous things just to get an emotional  response.  The advice given on many sites is "Don't Feed The Trolls"


So have a Happy Halloween and beware of what you find in your next door neighbour's yard. It could be out to get you.


2 comments:

  1. Interesting. I didn't see VampireStats show up in my stats until a few weeks ago (right after I registered my domain). As my traffic has been picking up I've seen more and more things like that.

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  2. I did not get them at first either. They certainly fit for a Halloween post though. It sounds as though you can't get rid of them so I don't worry much.

    Those zombie cookies are irritating though. I might try to get rid of those. The ads I see are so obviously based on things I look at online that it's creepy

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