Scribblehub traffic with "empty" referrer?

[KrakenRiderEmma]

Has anyone ever seen a weird spike of traffic with an "empty" referer? Usually there's some Scribblehub traffic from the front page, from within the story ("clicking next chapter") etc but "empty" is a minor amount. Is this a... bookmark?

Not a big deal but just curious as to whether this is a "thing" or not.

 

[tiaf]

I think empty was access from a third party. Tony mentioned it a thread ages ago. Don’t remember which one though.

 

[melchi]

I bet it is just blocking trackers.

Like with adsense if someone clicks a link they can tell what the link that sent them to that page is. I'm not sure if SH main page works like that too.

If someone isn't clicking a hyperlink to get to the chapter then I don't think it should show up at all.

 

[Feather]

I think empty was access from a third party. Tony mentioned it a thread ages ago. Don’t remember which one though.

Some probably legit 3rd party, most prob “archival” sites’ bots scraping it directly. You know which ones.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I thought it was VPN protected viewing?

 

[KrakenRiderEmma]

That all makes sense… i guess if a user is VPN protected and clicks through the chapters of a story then all their hits might show as empty referers instead of “inside the story,” often the biggest referrer.