Add a new referrer spammer to the block list

Hi Friends,
After 20 minutes of searching, and having a new topic almost finished asking where to find the page to configure the Referrers Manager plugin, I finally found it. It’s called “Search Engines and Social Networks” (in the Systems menu). Geez!

Ok, following the instructions, I paste in the URL, to find out if it’s a search engine or social network. Then I click the big, red, “Check URL” button, but nothing ever happens. No text is appearing below under Detected whatever. Nothing literally ever happens.

It doesn’t look like either a search engine or social network, but I suppose it could be run by one of those. Should I post the URL here?

How can I block this site?

Matomo version 3.5.1
Referrers Manager version 3.0.4 (I visited the plugin page on github, but I don’t immediately see the current version number.)

Let me know if you need any more info.

Thank you very much :slightly_smiling_face:

Curiously, that entry disappeared from the Referring Websites widget. Is that how it’s supposed to work? Search it, and it gets blocked?

Edit
Oops… No, it’s still there. I just didn’t realize that the URL that’s displayed in the widget is not the actual URL. After I expand that item, the actual URL is very different. Let me try searching the other one…

Hhmm, still same result. Nothing happens from that search.

Hi,

The Referrers Manager Plugin is just to add new search engines or social media to Matomo so they get listed in the corresponding reports.

If you want to block this website from showing up in the referrer, then you should add it to Matomo’s list of referrer spammers:

This list getss updated weekly, so if you make a pull request there, it should be blocked for everyone within a week.

Ok, thanks for the info.

How does it get blocked by everyone within a week? Wouldn’t I have to do something, like upgrade, or install a new list or something? How does everyone’s blocklist get updated, without everyone taking some kind of action? There’s no live connection between Matomo project and its users, right?

You know…I used to post to that list regularly, a few years ago. (I think I was one of the early complainers about it. The original block list started in a forum topic!) But I thought they were making a new feature or plugin, so that users could do something like click on a referrer spammer to add them to your own unique block list. I remember reading about that, and I even posted comments to the thread about it.

Then I didn’t get anymore referrer spammers, so I thought they had built something into the program, that I got in my next upgrade, and it was working and doing a good job. So when I got the spammer the other day, I thought I just needed to add it to my list. So when I looked through my plugins and I saw the Referrer Manager, that’s what I thought it was.

But now, I realize I just wasn’t having proper tracking. And since you helped me sort that out in a different topic the other day, now I have proper tracking again, and now I’m getting referrer spammers again.

But still, the last I read that thread, they were talking about users being able to maintain their own unique block list. I guess that never has happened, if they’re still maintaining this external list?

Ok, well thanks for the info. I’ll bookmark that link, and report the spammers. (Did I mention how much I hate spammers?!) Thanks again!

Sorry to revive this, but I’m still not clear how I get the blocklist working in my Matomo installation. I read all the info provided there, and I understand how to add a new spammer to the list.

It says to use the list at your own discretion. But I don’t see how to use it.

Is it just a matter of upgrading regularly? Or can I manually update my list from time to time?

PS - I’m going to edit the title of this message, since Referrers Manager plugin isn’t what I thought it was.