I was looking at my server-stats page and noticed I had a new referrer bringing several thousand hits to BlogDogit.com.

Normally referrer spam is a big problem for blogs and I am using several methods to help combat this phenomenon. Today I noticed I had a new referrer among the Top10 and this got my attention. I never recommend visiting a referrer based on a log entry (this after all is what the spammers are hoping you will do) but this was major "hitage" that I wanted to get to the bottom of. So donning my internet detective cap I discovered that these hits were the result of someone in a high profile forum direct-linking to one of the Philosohoraptor images hosted by BlogDogIt.com. (See the Philosohoraptor widget in masodo's musings topic.)

Once I made this discovery I went directly into Photoshop and crafted a replacement image (shown in the screen grab above.) I simply added the Hosted-By Tag at the bottom of the linked image (of course I could have replaced it with any image - but I play fair) [smiley:;)]

I would like to welcome all the new visitors brought to BlogDogIt
via the free publicity and will only say:

Go 49ers!