blog!

Jörn Franke

@Edent I have read the post and it does not address any of the concerns I stated before. Furthermore, it is also misleading as referrer can disclose much more information than the domain (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy).

I strongly recommend to avoid hosts that have any other referrer policy than no-referrer.

Terence Eden

@jornfranke

Fred Rocha

@Edent cc @hugo

Can we have this for @fumacapt and friends? ️

Osma A

@Edent
What does this mean for an app user? I haven't gone to check, but presumably this affects the browser behavior of the follower, based on their own server's setting, not the poster or their server. I can't see it changing anything for someone not using the Mastodon web UI, though. Am I wrong?

Terence Eden

@osma did you read the blog post?

Osma A

@Edent
I did. I didn't notice you mentioning this. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention.

Osma A

@Edent
> Apps can set their own Referer header - leading to more fragmentation.

Apps have always been able to do this, right? So it has no bearing on the server setting.

Terence Eden

@osma yup!

Terence Eden

The top 10 referring sites to my blog today.

Great to see Mastodon(.social) finally appearing in there.

(Read the blog post above for more details.)

Thomas Casteleyn

@Edent that will then only be the ones using that specific instance AND using the web interface I assume? Real numbers are likely much higher.

Terence Eden

@Hipska
(Read the blog post above for more details.)

Terence Eden

After a couple of weeks, Mastodon(.social) is now consistently in the top 10 HTTP referers to my blog.

Hope to see some of the bigger instances turn this on soon.

Gavin Anderegg

@Edent Oh! This is great to hear! I also was annoyed by this! https://anderegg.ca/2024/05/19/whats-up-with-mastodon-and-referer-headers

Terence Eden

In the last 28 days, Mastodon.social has *just* about snuck in to the top 10 sources of referrer traffic to my blog.

(Merging the two Googles, and the two HNs.)

Obviously, there are loads more ActivityPub servers which don't send referer headers, and things like RSS or clicks from email don't show up. But this is rather encouraging!

Read more at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/mastodon-now-sends-referer-headers-hurrah/

Cеmrе Kаrаkаs

@Edent Hiya, I primarily follow your blog on RSS, so the "RSS doesn't show up" bit intrigued me. Is your website static or dynamic, if its dynamic are you logging/tracking the times your rss feed is served?

Terence Eden

@cemre I could, but I don't.