Re: [syndication] NetNewsWire's referer

["Mark Nottingham" <mnot@mnot.net>]

I see.

If this is the case, they should use User-Agent, not Referer; the
semantics of each is pretty clear;

14.36 Referer
   The Referer[sic] request-header field allows the client to specify,
   for the server's benefit, the address (URI) of the resource from
   which the Request-URI was obtained (the "referrer", although the
   header field is misspelled.) The Referer request-header allows a
   server to generate lists of back-links to resources for interest,
   logging, optimized caching, etc. It also allows obsolete or mistyped
   links to be traced for maintenance.

 14.43 User-Agent
   The User-Agent request-header field contains information about the
   user agent originating the request. This is for statistical purposes,
   the tracing of protocol violations, and automated recognition of user
   agents for the sake of tailoring responses to avoid particular user
   agent limitations.

If I understand the reasoning behind this, it's that logs make referer
available more often than user-agent, and some people were interested in
seeing how much their particular agent is used. Unfortunately, misusing
the headers for purposes of what frankly amounts to vanity screws the
people who want to use them properly (e.g., those who want to see where
the hits are coming from).

It's not hard to configure any modern Web server to record the User-Agent
in the logs.




----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>
To: <syndication@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 3:59 AM
Subject: Re: [syndication] NetNewsWire's referer


> Mark, most aggregators set the referer to something constant so when it
> shows up in referer logs people can see which aggregators account for
how
> much traffic. There's nothing wrong with NetNewsWire doing this, we all
do
> it. Dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Nottingham" <mnot@mnot.net>
> To: <syndication@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 7:25 PM
> Subject: [syndication] NetNewsWire's referer
>
>
> > Is it just me, or does netnewswire set its referer to always be
> >    http://ranchero.com/software/netnewswire/
> > ?
> >
> > --
> > Mark Nottingham
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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>