Bill Ryan's Other Blog

It’s a truism that Stalkers never think they are stalkers – never.  They ALWAYS have some justification and it’s ALWAYS the victim’s fault.  one of the nice things about Stalkers though is that their zealotry is such that their emotion supersedes their intelligence.  They almost always think they are clever and covering their tracks, but in most cases, they don’t.

They think they can violate Terms of Use b/c their reason overrides any such terms.  They think they can copy, print and distribute your content in direct violation of stated terms b/c again, it’s justified. They think that just b/c a web site is public, they are entitled to use it however they see fit – again, even when it violates the terms of service. 

Sometimes, you don’t even realize you’re being stalked, or the extent of it.  Then something happens, you realize it’s happening and then you start finding out how extensive it is.  They’ll inevitably plea ignorance once the “it was justified’ excuse is dismissed, but ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Thank God for SiteMeeter, google Analytics and Web Server logs.  You can see everyone that’s come to your site.  You can see how often they come.  You can see what they looked at and how long they spent there.  It’s amazing stuff and the level of detail is really impressive.  Heck, even if you’re not being stalked it’s really interesting to see what people visit on your site and their behavior patterns. I for one, am thrilled I installed the extensive tracking infrastructure that I did.  I haven’t looked at it for months, but wow is it interesting.

What’s really intersting is comparing the web server logs to the tracking tools.  Graphs and summaries are one thing, but seeing the individual hits is something completely different.  Seeing the specific IP Addresses can be really interesting too – It’s kinda crazy how some people use their employer’s networks for personal access.

I’m playing around with some log parsers right now b/c I’ve really only worked with IIS and similar tools – looking at what all you can do with Apache is just plain cool.  Anyway, Stalkers are creeeeeepyyyyy to say the least, but I guess it’s better to know that you’re being stalked then being blissfully naive.  In this day and age with all the tracking tools available – I’m guessing it’s a pretty sucky time to be a stalker