What are these little numbers?

1. 69

   Hope Alexanderposted 14 years ago

   I've been here a couple of years now, but something just happened which has left me scratching my noggin and perhaps some of you hubbers can help me.
   
   A fellow hubber left a link in a comment on one of my hubs that pointed - to the hub he was commenting on.
   
   ie Hope's Hub About Cats
   
   he left a link like httpl://www.hubpages.com_57897fg/hub/Hopes-Hub-About-Cats
   
   
   What's with that? And what are the numbers he added into the URL?
   
   Is this some spammy referral code trick?

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2. 74

   Anti-Valentineposted 14 years ago

   Yes, it's a referral or URL tracker. We all have access to it, but you don't have to use it.

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3. 78

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   Did you delete his comment or leave his self-serving link right where it was?

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4. 69

   Hope Alexanderposted 14 years ago

   Wow, so someone put their own referral tracker in a link to the hub that they were commenting on, in the hub that they were commenting on?
   
   Is that not incredibly redundant? Or perhaps it is super stealthy.
   
   I'm marking it as spam if it is a referral tracker, that doesn't seem right to me.

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   1. 0

      sneakorocksolidposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      And men in corsetts is!

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5. 78

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   Hope - I get the odd reader that only comes to leave a link back to their own hubs. I always check ... if I see the same message 'great hub - here's one of mine' or similar spawned by them around others' hubs, I delete. They've not been to read mine - they're looking for related hubs to their own, in order to promote something they've written.
   
   That's how some like to do it, which is fine. But I don't and won't

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6. 69

   Hope Alexanderposted 14 years ago

   It would have made sense if it was a link to his hub, but it was a link to my hub. The same one he was commenting on, complete with his tracker inserted into the link.
   
   Quelle mystery!

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7. 93

   Blake Flanneryposted 14 years ago

   Hope,
   That may actually give him a percentage of HubPages' share of some of your hub's impressions for a certain amount of time.  Very clever, if that's what he was up to.

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   1. 69

      Hope Alexanderposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I'm still not sure if it was Machiavellian genius or just a mistake, at any rate, I got rid of it. I'm pretty sure people on my page don't need another link to the same page, on the same page.

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   2. 72

      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      That's not how the referral trackers work.
      
      But it's still a spammy thing to do.

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8. 78

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   Ahhhhh I'm with you now! lol that's well cheeky! Delete - or leave it for the fact he was brazen

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9. 72

   AEvansposted 14 years ago

   I haev linked and othes have linked to mine unless it is spam I just leave it.

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10. 60

    R P Chapmanposted 14 years ago

    you should never discount entirely the possibility that he might have just been an idiot!

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    1. 70

       sunforgedposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I vote idiot.
       
       Nothing wrong with using ref trackers, i suggest using them every time you link to a hub - but on someone elses comment capsules, with a link to the same page?
       
       The visitor would have to click the new link and then an adsense ad - and even then its like a 10% chance that youll appear within hubs 40% share (dont rememeber the exact number at this moment)...but its small

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