It turns out that the "bot" from my last post seems to actually have connections to Dickerman. It's kind of funny that Dickerman could not be more subtle, and think a little before she acted after reading my previous post.
Given the timing of the "bot" when it began its load of hits to the blog, I was suspicious about it. But these hits were coming throughout the day and night and I just couldn't see it being connected to Dickerman. To have that many hits on that kind of schedule just didn't seem like something a person would do - unless they were extremely OCD and had a very weird sleep schedule. I told myself it was just a normal bot crawler and that I was being paranoid about the convenient timing. Then Dickerman went and screwed that up.
On the 28th of September the viewer that I've tagged as being Dickerman showed up on the blog and would have viewed my recent update post for the month. In this post I made mention of the "bot" issues. It was after this viewer read this post about the "bot" that the "bot's" behavior very quickly changed. When I say the bot's behavior changed, I'll give you a very clear example of what that behavior change means. The graph below is the isolated views just from this specific "bot" from Thursday (9/28) afternoon to Friday (9/29) morning.
That is a snapshot I took of the "bot's" views when I was at work early Friday morning and checked that specific tracker again, after I had noticed the bot views shut down Thursday evening. What you are seeing to the left of 12am on Thursday is what the "bot" was doing on my blog for quite a long time.
I haven't bothered to go back and check on just how long the bot views were happening, but it's been going on at least through September (and I'm pretty sure it goes back to August). It seemed to happen after Dickerman had seen my July update. Since that time the views by this bot looked like what you see to the left of the graph, with random breaks for a couple hours late at night before picking back up again in the morning.
Except now that behavior stopped after 8PM Thursday, and this happened after Dickerman had viewed the blog that Thursday morning. The left side of the graph above is what it looked like nearly 24/7 during the month of September - and yet it all suddenly stops after Dickerman had seen my post about the "bot" activity. Rather interesting timing yet again wouldn't you say? I made a point to not immediately say something and instead just waited a couple days to see what would happen.
Since Thursday the "bot" has only made a handful of hits. But when I saw the bot drop in hits Thursday night, I made an adjustment to one of my other trackers so that it would catch the "bot" again if or when it came back. I hadn't planned on making the other trackers pick up the bot until I saw it stop after Dickerman's views. I'm glad I made the change because that's when I saw that the "bot" wasn't coming from Asia - it had never actually been coming from Asia the entire time.
The one tracker I had that wasn't blocking bots was still showing the "bot's" location in Asia on those handful of hits, just as it had been since the beginning of the bot hits. But the other tracker I adjusted showed the real location that the "bot's" views had been coming from the entire time. A deliberate attempt was being made the entire time to make the "bot" seem like it was coming from Asia. In reality it was coming from an entirely different location and someone was attempting to spoof the location as being out of Asia.
Spoofing a location isn't a surprising thing online, it's quite common especially these days, but now I know who is doing these views even without Dickerman making the mistake of cutting off the "bot" so quickly after reading the post.
I don't know specifically what the purpose behind the views are. Again, I find it hard to believe these views aren't being done by something automated, given the schedule it was on and how long it went on for. But it would be a stretch to try to say that the views aren't connected to Dickerman anymore. The views conveniently started after Dickerman saw my July update, and then again conveniently stopped right after she saw the September post pointing out the bot hits. Given the actual location of the views that's yet another reason to suspect Dickerman.
It amazes me that Dickerman wouldn't have used some thought before having things shut down that quickly. Well maybe "amazed" isn't the right word here. I can't honestly say I'm surprised she didn't think it through. Dickerman doesn't seem to give her actions much thought. But to immediately make the "bot" grind to a halt right after she viewed my post about it? Seriously, how the hell did she not expect me to connect the views to her after doing that?
Dickerman could have at least waited a day or two. I would have been suspicious still if the hits stopped after her view even if she had waited a couple days - but to make changes on the same day she views the post discussing it? Nothing subtle about this woman at all it appears. Maybe she doesn't care that I now know it was connected to her, but it still seems like a pretty stupid choice. Why risk doing something she would have to know is going to potentially antagonize someone that she really should not antagonize?
I haven't bothered to go back and check on just how long the bot views were happening, but it's been going on at least through September (and I'm pretty sure it goes back to August). It seemed to happen after Dickerman had seen my July update. Since that time the views by this bot looked like what you see to the left of the graph, with random breaks for a couple hours late at night before picking back up again in the morning.
Except now that behavior stopped after 8PM Thursday, and this happened after Dickerman had viewed the blog that Thursday morning. The left side of the graph above is what it looked like nearly 24/7 during the month of September - and yet it all suddenly stops after Dickerman had seen my post about the "bot" activity. Rather interesting timing yet again wouldn't you say? I made a point to not immediately say something and instead just waited a couple days to see what would happen.
Since Thursday the "bot" has only made a handful of hits. But when I saw the bot drop in hits Thursday night, I made an adjustment to one of my other trackers so that it would catch the "bot" again if or when it came back. I hadn't planned on making the other trackers pick up the bot until I saw it stop after Dickerman's views. I'm glad I made the change because that's when I saw that the "bot" wasn't coming from Asia - it had never actually been coming from Asia the entire time.
The one tracker I had that wasn't blocking bots was still showing the "bot's" location in Asia on those handful of hits, just as it had been since the beginning of the bot hits. But the other tracker I adjusted showed the real location that the "bot's" views had been coming from the entire time. A deliberate attempt was being made the entire time to make the "bot" seem like it was coming from Asia. In reality it was coming from an entirely different location and someone was attempting to spoof the location as being out of Asia.
Spoofing a location isn't a surprising thing online, it's quite common especially these days, but now I know who is doing these views even without Dickerman making the mistake of cutting off the "bot" so quickly after reading the post.
I don't know specifically what the purpose behind the views are. Again, I find it hard to believe these views aren't being done by something automated, given the schedule it was on and how long it went on for. But it would be a stretch to try to say that the views aren't connected to Dickerman anymore. The views conveniently started after Dickerman saw my July update, and then again conveniently stopped right after she saw the September post pointing out the bot hits. Given the actual location of the views that's yet another reason to suspect Dickerman.
It amazes me that Dickerman wouldn't have used some thought before having things shut down that quickly. Well maybe "amazed" isn't the right word here. I can't honestly say I'm surprised she didn't think it through. Dickerman doesn't seem to give her actions much thought. But to immediately make the "bot" grind to a halt right after she viewed my post about it? Seriously, how the hell did she not expect me to connect the views to her after doing that?
Dickerman could have at least waited a day or two. I would have been suspicious still if the hits stopped after her view even if she had waited a couple days - but to make changes on the same day she views the post discussing it? Nothing subtle about this woman at all it appears. Maybe she doesn't care that I now know it was connected to her, but it still seems like a pretty stupid choice. Why risk doing something she would have to know is going to potentially antagonize someone that she really should not antagonize?
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