Does my blog have bot-ulism?
I know I have talked about this before; my stats are booming. In January I had 7.7K views and 7.4K visitors. To put those stats in perspective, prior to this a typical month for me would be around 600 views. The most popular post in January was: https://stopdraggingthepanda.com/2019/02/14/indignatron-b-as-seen-on-tv/
Lots of views, but no likes, no comments and the visitors were mostly from The United States, Singapore and Hong Kong with the majority being from The United States. And it’s still continuing.
So I dug deeper. WordPress stats lists not only countries but also cities where the viewers are located. Apparently I am very popular in North Bergen, New Jersey; 4.7K views in January alone. Before this I did not know North Bergen existed. Although I did spend a summer in Bradley Beach, New jersey working as a student in The La Reine Bradley Hotel. But that’s another story.
North Bergen apparently has a population of approximately 60,000. According to Google AI, it “thrives on a diverse economy heavily anchored by transportation, logistics and warehousing”. This doesn’t explain why I am so popular in North Bergen. The answer could be , of course, that I am not popular at all in North Bergen and yes, there’s a bot chomping on my blog.
On the other hand, if some of you nice people in North Bergen, New Jersey are actually reading my blog, hey, make a comment, say hello! I’m waiting.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
“Big In North Bergen” sounds like a great title for a book.
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Or a song! Now you’ve got me started , I’m trying to think of words that rhyme with “Bergen”. Thanks tref! 😊
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I am in Virginia. I am actually reading this blog. I actually like your content, but Word Press hates me because I block cookies. No idea how many comments WP is blocking from fellow cookie blockers.
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Thanks for checking in, Priscilla. Good to have some genuine readers out there. JIM
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I had a good friend from North Bergen in my 20s, nice Italian girl. I guess now it must have left its working class roots behind and become a hub for people skimming internet content for…what? I’m still trying to figure out what they get from poets that they can sell. (K)
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Excellent question, Kerfe. The bot seems fixated on the Indignatron B post. I believe they examine sentences for repeated patterns. Can’t imagine what they learn from my stuff.
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It will probably always remain a mystery.
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I also get a boom in stats from time to time, also no actual visits or views. But seldom and not as many a.s yours.
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Thanks for checking in, it’s a bit of a nuisance really, creepy in a way!
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The bots like me better. I had 4700 views in one day! 😂 It’s a shame, really, I sorta liked having some accurate stats for various purposes. I didn’t realize you could track cities, though.
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Hi Eilene, congrats on your popularity with bots! Yes, it seems like an intrusion and messes with your actual stats. Plus it’s a waste of energy, they are probably looking for language patterns to train their language models, I think!!
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Probably AI machines that harvest our work? What’s WPs settings and/or policy in this nefarious practice?
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The no likes, no comments giveaway is the most reliable bot detector there is. Real readers leave traces. North Bergen’s logistics hub detail is a nice irony, turns out warehouses don’t just move physical goods anymore
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Yep, and they are still at it, last time I checked! JIM
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