4 ms·

This site redirects to HN when it notices HN in the referrer.

by debugnik 9mo ago

chimpontherun 9mo ago
open in new tab
- yellowapple 9mo ago
  That doesn't seem to clear the referrer, at least on Firefox. Gotta go a step further and outright copy/paste the URL into an already-created tab.
  - high_na_euv 9mo ago
    Open in private works
therein 9mo ago
Wow, I didn't even notice because I have extensions that strip the referrer header. Excellent.
st_goliath 9mo ago
If you have JavaScript enabled, that is. JWZ at least does the redirect on the server side. The following is pulled in from `https://soc.me/assets/js/turnBack.js https://soc.me/assets/js/turnBack.js`: const undesirables = [ "news.ycombinator.com/", // "reddit.com/", // disable temporaily "lobste.rs/" ] ; if (undesirables.find(site => document.referrer.includes(site))) { window.location.replace(document.referrer); } I wonder why Reddit is "temporarily not undesirable".
- mechazawa 9mo ago
  Why are they undesirable though
- self_awareness 9mo ago
  Git history doesn't explain it unfortunately https://github.com/soc/soc.me/blame/main/assets/js/turnBack.js https://github.com/soc/soc.me/blame/main/assets/js/turnBack.... Although, when we inspect author's profile on lobste.rs, we'll see that he's banned: https://lobste.rs/~soc https://lobste.rs/~soc [Banned 4 years ago by pushcx: Troll.] Maybe he's banned from HN as well. And this 'undesirables' is a method of taking some kind of revenge.
  - colejohnson66 9mo ago
    Last comment was just over 5 years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=soc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=soc
    - self_awareness 8mo ago
      Author has said that development is moved to codeberg, but github version was good enough for the "turnBack.js" analysis.
    - self_awareness 8mo ago
      Uh, before I wrote my sibling comment I read 'comment' as 'commit' and because of it I somehow assumed it was a github link... not sure how that happened. Anyway, the user named 'soc' on HN has "listbite" in the description. I saw this profile, but I think it's not the same guy. But also I wasn't sure so I didn't paste the link to HN at all.
trashb 9mo ago
This is an interesting way to prevent the hug of death. I wonder what the author's reasoning is, also would it really be effective?
- debugnik 9mo ago
  I doubt it, the redirect is client-side, I got a flash of the page before the redirect.
  - philjackson 9mo ago
    If anything, it's going to at least double its traffic this way when people click again assuming they hit back somehow.
bArray 9mo ago
Copy the URL and manually paste it into a new tab, no referrer then.
koito17 9mo ago
The fact sites do evil things with these headers is why I configure Firefox with network.http.referer.XOriginTrimmingPolicy set to 2. It "breaks" sites, but often in good ways (such as the site in TFA).
- mghackerlady 9mo ago
  Referrer links are a dumb idea. Why the hell do you want to know where I'm coming from other than to track me
  - Nzen 8mo ago
    For targeting advertising expendatures at the site level. If most of my traffic, as revealed by referrer links, comes from social-media-platform-foo and only a little from social-media-platform-bar, then I am likely to spend more on ads from foo than from bar. I'll grant that it is a noisy measure, but doesn't need to be about tracking a particular individual.
    - mghackerlady 8mo ago
      Businesses survived just fine before this. Do personalised ads earn more money? Maybe. But they're invasive and if the governments bowed down to the people instead of corporations they'd be just as illegal as stalking a potential customer to harass them when they're most likely to see you
- SilentM68 8mo ago
  Got same issue with Edge, but works with Firefox :)
nhubbard 8mo ago
I thought I was losing my mind for a second. What a strange script to run...

This site redirects to HN when it notices HN in the referrer.

chimpontherun 9mo ago

open in new tab

yellowapple 9mo ago
That doesn't seem to clear the referrer, at least on Firefox. Gotta go a step further and outright copy/paste the URL into an already-created tab.
- high_na_euv 9mo ago
  Open in private works

therein 9mo ago

Wow, I didn't even notice because I have extensions that strip the referrer header. Excellent.

st_goliath 9mo ago

If you have JavaScript enabled, that is. JWZ at least does the redirect on the server side. The following is pulled in from `https://soc.me/assets/js/turnBack.js https://soc.me/assets/js/turnBack.js`: const undesirables = [ "news.ycombinator.com/", // "reddit.com/", // disable temporaily "lobste.rs/" ] ; if (undesirables.find(site => document.referrer.includes(site))) { window.location.replace(document.referrer); } I wonder why Reddit is "temporarily not undesirable".

mechazawa 9mo ago
Why are they undesirable though
self_awareness 9mo ago
Git history doesn't explain it unfortunately https://github.com/soc/soc.me/blame/main/assets/js/turnBack.js https://github.com/soc/soc.me/blame/main/assets/js/turnBack.... Although, when we inspect author's profile on lobste.rs, we'll see that he's banned: https://lobste.rs/~soc https://lobste.rs/~soc [Banned 4 years ago by pushcx: Troll.] Maybe he's banned from HN as well. And this 'undesirables' is a method of taking some kind of revenge.
- colejohnson66 9mo ago
  Last comment was just over 5 years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=soc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=soc
  - self_awareness 8mo ago
    Author has said that development is moved to codeberg, but github version was good enough for the "turnBack.js" analysis.
  - self_awareness 8mo ago
    Uh, before I wrote my sibling comment I read 'comment' as 'commit' and because of it I somehow assumed it was a github link... not sure how that happened. Anyway, the user named 'soc' on HN has "listbite" in the description. I saw this profile, but I think it's not the same guy. But also I wasn't sure so I didn't paste the link to HN at all.

trashb 9mo ago

This is an interesting way to prevent the hug of death. I wonder what the author's reasoning is, also would it really be effective?

debugnik 9mo ago
I doubt it, the redirect is client-side, I got a flash of the page before the redirect.
- philjackson 9mo ago
  If anything, it's going to at least double its traffic this way when people click again assuming they hit back somehow.

bArray 9mo ago

Copy the URL and manually paste it into a new tab, no referrer then.

koito17 9mo ago

The fact sites do evil things with these headers is why I configure Firefox with network.http.referer.XOriginTrimmingPolicy set to 2. It "breaks" sites, but often in good ways (such as the site in TFA).

mghackerlady 9mo ago
Referrer links are a dumb idea. Why the hell do you want to know where I'm coming from other than to track me
- Nzen 8mo ago
  For targeting advertising expendatures at the site level. If most of my traffic, as revealed by referrer links, comes from social-media-platform-foo and only a little from social-media-platform-bar, then I am likely to spend more on ads from foo than from bar. I'll grant that it is a noisy measure, but doesn't need to be about tracking a particular individual.
  - mghackerlady 8mo ago
    Businesses survived just fine before this. Do personalised ads earn more money? Maybe. But they're invasive and if the governments bowed down to the people instead of corporations they'd be just as illegal as stalking a potential customer to harass them when they're most likely to see you
SilentM68 8mo ago
Got same issue with Edge, but works with Firefox :)

nhubbard 8mo ago

I thought I was losing my mind for a second. What a strange script to run...