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The XHamster Wikipedia Page Is Suddenly Immensely Popular, and No One Knows Why (theoutline.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: At the beginning of June I started to notice that XHamster, the third most popular adult website after Pornhub and XVideos, had one of the most viewed Wikipedia pages. On May 29, XHamster's Wikipedia page went from receiving around 100,000 views to 200,000. By June 1, it was getting more than 300,000 views a day for no apparent reason. There haven't been any viral stories about XHamster lately. There are no controversies about the page itself that would have prompted sustained attention or an edit war. [...] Pageviews on XHamster's Wikipedia page, however, has been bonkers throughout the month of June for no obvious reason. That's according to a pageview analysis tool from Wikimedia Labs, and confirmed by a Wikipedia spokesperson. I reached out to Wikipedia to see if it could shed some light on this puzzle. In an email, a spokesperson verified that the pageviews were accurate but that they didn't know what was causing the surge. Wikipedia's spokesperson pointed out that the edit activity, unlike its pageviews, has remained steady.

129 comments

  1. Add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Kodi addons.

    1. Re:Add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      addon to wikipedia page? you're a fucking moron.

    2. Re:Add-ons by Gay+Boner+Sex · · Score: 2

      Nah, simpler than that. Whenever msmash posts a clickbait story, that generates traffic.

      As in, this is a hoax story. Person A created a lot of "visitors" so that person B could write a story about the "anomaly." Persons A and B both either work or have interests in that company. Person C realizes what is going on and uses it to generate clickbait revenue on her Digg reincarnation, Slashdot, once touted a "News for Nerds" site.

    3. Re:Add-ons by Luthair · · Score: 2

      He could be onto something, if add-ons pull text from Wikipedia for a description and don't cache it well...

    4. Re:Add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      even easier. bots target some also-ran porno site's wiki page to test how much page views at wikipedia affect search engine's rankings in results pages.

      captch: crotch

    5. Re:Add-ons by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      I was thinking something far more innocuous, like some tiny fascist dictatorship has banned all porn with a global proxy that filters everything based on request URL and referrer string comparisons. Then randomly one day someone notices that anything with a wikipedia referrer passes the filter and word gets out.

    6. Re:Add-ons by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It could correspond to an increased use of DuckDuckGo as a search engine default. DuckDuckGo typically includes a Wikipedia page in a feature box, next toits top-line search item, if a domain is typed in the URL bar without a TLD designator.
      https://dl.dropboxusercontent....

      Worth investigating.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    7. Re:Add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Recently XHamster started adding tricky to remove watermarks to its videos, probably because it was tired of people re-posting content without attribution.

      Of course, the watermarked videos got taken, and served to people who did not know about Xhamster. They must have liked what they saw, and searched for the website, so that they could get more of the same. And the search engines displayed portions of the Wikipage.

      Damn. What will people make into a mistery next?

    8. Re:Add-ons by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      It's being used as the are-you-online check by DLink routers.

    9. Re: Add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Damn. What will people make into a mistery next?

      How to spell "mystery", apparently.

    10. Re:Add-ons by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      This makes sense, too.

      Funny, them watermarking stuff that they never produced, only hosted - including presumably, user generated content.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
  2. i visited xhamster once by FudRucker · · Score: 5, Funny

    and there were not any hamsters, but lots of poor people that could not afford to even buy clothes to wear

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:i visited xhamster once by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Funny

      and there were not any hamsters, but lots of poor people that could not afford to even buy clothes to wear

      Oh there were hamsters, you just didn't look in the right category!

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    2. Re:i visited xhamster once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look under "Rodents"

    3. Re:i visited xhamster once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm. That's weird. If they had no money, what were they doing for fun?

    4. Re:i visited xhamster once by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0

      Yeah those people are so poor, they're basically fucked.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    5. Re:i visited xhamster once by PPH · · Score: 0

      You've got to look under "duct-tape".

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    6. Re:i visited xhamster once by roc97007 · · Score: 0

      Be happy you did not find the hamsters.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    7. Re:i visited xhamster once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Whatever you do, don't google feltch.

    8. Re: i visited xhamster once by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the right cavity, you mean...

    9. Re: i visited xhamster once by Type44Q · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'm told that if you look really closely at Goatse Guy, you can see whiskers...

    10. Re:i visited xhamster once by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      And ampland.com doesn't sell amplifiers!!

      I hear they are merging with porzo.com . . . . . I just can't remember where I heard it.

    11. Re:i visited xhamster once by plopez · · Score: 0

      or tub girl

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    12. Re:i visited xhamster once by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      I remember when hamsters meant this...

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    13. Re:i visited xhamster once by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I'm even old enough to remember where the song is from.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. If you don't use Adblock... by sycodon · · Score: 1

    ...many windows open when you are trying to see that school girl railed.

    Who knows where they go.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:If you don't use Adblock... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, they will send you to a wikipedia page. You're a fucking idiot just like the first post AC turd.

      FOAD.

    2. Re:If you don't use Adblock... by sycodon · · Score: 0

      Someone woke up with a dick in their ass it seems.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  4. Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My first thoughts are a botnet using a wikipedia page to check for instructions (since wikipedia is unlikely to be blocked)....otherwise, random IP accesses to a page like that would be very weird.

    1. Re:Botnet? by dlleigh · · Score: 2

      Yup, sounds like a command and control network.

      Are all the hits to the main page, or are there also a bunch to the history, talk and talk-history pages?

    2. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone mod this AC up, that's a damned good theory, really.

    3. Re:Botnet? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2, Informative

      They mention that possibility in the article, but rule it mostly out on account of the fact that 95% of the traffic to the page is from mobile devices, which are fairly atypical for botnet attacks.

    4. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Atypical? That is completely invalid claim when you take into account that one of the biggest active botnet today actually runs out of infected Android phones.

    5. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I concur. I wonder what the code word will be; or, perhaps, just an edit to correct the "British" English to real English. I had never heard of "jewellery" until I searched for "jewelry" on Wikipedia.

    6. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If it is on mobile I reckon it might be Chromes Awesomebar.

      People enter: xhamster which results in a google search. With safe search on wikipedia is the top entry.

    7. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How certain are they that the "95% of the traffic to the page is from mobile devices" are really from mobile devices ?

      If they're just going by the user-agent string then that figure is next to useless.

    8. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even close.

      Mirai pretty much eclipsed anything we've ever seen before. It piggybacked on IOT devices and such.

      Zeus and derivatives infected millions of machines. They are Windows only. Judging by the recent string of ransomware, Windows is still the biggest target out there, especially since Windows XP is still a thing.

      Android botnets, though a bloody embarrassment to the Android "soft" walled garden model, are puny in comparison to what's out there.

      Criminals go after easy targets. Windows XP and other unpatched Windows' are still a much easier target.

    9. Re:Botnet? by sexconker · · Score: 1, Informative

      They mention that possibility in the article, but rule it mostly out on account of the fact that 95% of the traffic to the page is from mobile devices, which are fairly atypical for botnet attacks.

      Other AC has a great counterpoint. I'll offer another: The Wikipedia servers have no fucking clue what type of host is requesting the page. Anyone can send any packet with any headers. A botnet operator has reason to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate (S04E04).

    10. Re:Botnet? by vux984 · · Score: 1

      That's was my first thought as well. But why the sudden spike then... chrome etc has operated that way for quite a while.

      I think the botnet c&c theory makes more sense to me; or some other virus related issue ... e.g. a misconfgured malware that is trying to direct people to xhamster but is instead ending up on the wikipedia page.

    11. Re: Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey for about 2 months now.

    12. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That'd be a pretty shitty botnet if so.
      Wikipedia is about the worst place you could make a botnet.

      You could make a better botnet via Slashdot articles commenting system.
      Post inane comments with FRIST POAST in the title and watch it get modded to the void, but still be viewable in an accounts posting history page.
      Even Britney Spears Instagram comments is better. Or Youtube videos.

    13. Re:Botnet? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      My main theories are the following.
      Xhamster was commented as part of a news story or webcomic that had a population that just didn't get it so they looked it up.

      Xhamster did something to get better search results for a particular fetish so where it didn't show up it may had topped the search list. And people wanted to verify it as a legit porn site.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    14. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well then, you're an uneducated douche-bag.

    15. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK, I'll bite. You do realise the British invented the English language?

    16. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The British may have invented it, but the Irish perfected it:

      "Otis liftywater I must dyke for it, Father, plash me for I have skimmed. Or shuteye see, blush me, Farber, for I am skint? Hamsters on boastcart, please."

      "...I let him keep it as if I forgot it to think of me when I saw him slip it into his pocket of course hes mad on the subject of drawers thats plain to be seen always skeezing at those brazenfaced things on the bicycles with their skirts blowing up to their navels even when Milly and I were out with him..."

      -James Joyce

      Captcha: damming
      Shirley that is misspelled...

    17. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone can send any packet with any headers.

      Yes, but it's not likely to get routed very far with forged headers. Even if the edge network isn't doing BCP38, someone along the transit path almost certainly will be, and your packet will get dropped on the floor. IP spoofing is largely relegated to the history books; to do it, you have to find a routing scenario where every single AS from origin to destination will pass your bogus packet. Good luck with that.

    18. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm kind of surprised that the author _didn't_ think of that. It seems pretty obvious, particularly in light of the fact that we know other botnets are being controlled through celebrity blogs etc.

    19. Re: Botnet? by nachtelfjeiu · · Score: 1

      Few people change their string, so in large numbers the figure is pretty reliable.

    20. Re:Botnet? by vipw · · Score: 1

      Forged HTTP headers, not forged IP headers. The traffic will route just fine.

    21. Re:Botnet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for wombever it was that Modded me up. In return:

      "Blush me Farber for I have skimmed, it's been seven days since my last Confusion" And so it goes.
      Anybody who says this in the riot of the Confusional just before Confirmdamnation is sent right to the Jesuits by the Church, and so I was. My Pairents found this very funny.
      Brother Francis wasn't much older than I was in retrospect; just out of the Semenary. He took a likeness to me, and when I should have been refiring my Vatican Too Catechism, we instead discussed Literature and Astrophysics. Quite luckily and fortunately for me, he was a Confirmed Heterosexual, which could be an issue, Jesuitically.

      Our paths crossed often later in life like the tracks of tires left in mud, ridden by a drunken uncle on a bicycle. Francis gave up the Jesuits as a hole for one particular Jesuit, and followed him instead. (He dated and later married a next-door neighbor of mine ho, (Who? Ho!), was ingenuously insane.)

      When at University, he was my T.A. in the Chemistry department, and we got reacquainted once again over Burghers served at Clown Alley in Frisco, Burghers that he broiled himself while greasingly fingering papers by Georges Lemaître. I had switched Majors once again, now more interested in Electrical rather than Electronic elocution.
      Fingering... Two decades after burghering, he was working with a Smoot at a Berkeley, a Berkeley where Berkelium did not rhyme with Helium. I was then developing some new Ion-Implant technology, some of it based on his observations long before concerning Astrophysical Helium Hydride. We deepveloped the Parfait Detector. A Parfait is a dessert with many different different layers and flavors. Most Detectors back then were Wideband, depending on Bandbrass Filters jammed Up-Clothes and Personnel just in front.
      A Parfait Detector is layered; Photons may pass through the upper layers where the Band Gaps render them transferrant, and get stopped in the deeper layers, just where they need to be stopped, thus germinating Elocutions. Damnedbrass, Bandbrass, Brandpass... Spectroscopy without Philters. Each new Parfait Detector of hours was fingered out of obstinacy; delicate Golden whores linking each layer to a Burr-Brown.

      Philters. On April 19, 1949, for her 15th Birthday, unecertain Girl was allowed to see a new Production of a new Jack Butler Yeats play at the Abbey in Dublin- "In Sand". On stage in the role of "Aldredge", witten especially for him by "Uncle" Jack was Noellig, only much later to gain frame as the Author of the Seventy Two COLREGS, instructions for Sheeps pissing in the night.
      A Good Philter. And so it goes.

    22. Re: Botnet? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Unless it's a bot, trying to deceive the server.

    23. Re: Botnet? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Yes, but who'd want to extort money from goat herders?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    24. Re:Botnet? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      This.

      Actually, /. would make a great botnet C&C server. It's notorious for not deleting anything, no matter how inane, it's publicly accessible, not well known enough to be blocked by any national entity (or blacklisted in any corporate proxies)... /. would be the perfect C&C server. Just make your trojan read certain topics that invariably pop up where people post mostly bullshit and nobody really reads anything anyway (Trump comes to mind. Or global warming), encode what you want your trojan to do, sign it with your key to ensure that only you get to send out commands and you're set.

      Oh, before I forget...

      55326c7559 3255676557 3931494864 686333526c 5a43423562 3356794948 5270625755 6764473867 5a47566a62 32526c4948 526f61584d 7349456b6 7644768706 26d7367655 739314a334 a6c4947567 564476c306 247566b494 8527649484 a6c5957516 7633239745 a58526f615 7356e49473 16c5957357 0626d646d6 4577773494 84e7649476 86c636d556 761584d676 5573931636 942745a584 e7a5957646 c4f69425464 4739774948 6468633352 70626d6367 6557393163 6942306157 316c494852 7965576c75 5a79423062 79426b5a57 4e70634768 6c63694274 5a584e7a59 57646c6379 427562324a 765a486b67 5a326c325a 584d675953 427a61476c 3049474669 6233563049 4746755a43 426e5a5851 67596d466a 6179423062 7942336233 4a7249486c 7664534273 5958703549 475a315932 7368

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    25. Re:Botnet? by Megane · · Score: 1

      About 15 years ago, a print comic (as in newspapers, remember them?) mentioned a name of a hypothetical web site for a joke. It basically matched the name of a domain that I have had since 2000. The initial spike wasn't much (like 100 hits a day for the first week, to nothing after the second week), but this was also 15 years ago, before every normie had a web browser in their pocket, especially the kids.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    26. Re:Botnet? by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      before every normie had a web browser in their pocket

      Just a friendly word of advice, but using the word "normie" makes you sound like a stupid fucking twat.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  5. I can has by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ladyboys?

  6. Another surge on July 5 happened by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

    It is called slashdot effect. It used to be huge, back in the day when people were the first to welcome the overlords and talking about how the government controls commerce in Soviet Union and people had check marked lists in fixed point font describing why the proposed spam fighting solutions won't work.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hey hey hey, now wait a minute.....

      Everyone knows in Soviet Russia, the commerce controls YOU.

    2. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by GlennC · · Score: 2

      Not to mention inquiries about one's preferred brand of crack and references to Natalie Portman.

      Ah, the good old days.

      --
      Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.
    3. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by technoid_ · · Score: 4, Funny

      If only I had a beowulf cluster of the posts.

      --
      Two wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do - Lew of GO magazine
    4. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      I had a beowulf cluster of those posts, you insensitive clod!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    5. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hot grits?!

    6. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hot covfefe, anyone?

    7. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could I possibly get all this converted to Library of Congress units in a car analogy?

    8. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Russia, car analogy has YOU.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re:Another surge on July 5 happened by Megane · · Score: 1

      Those lists go back to Usenet, and pre-date Slashdot.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  7. Obligitory links (or cheap karma whoring) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:Obligitory links (or cheap karma whoring) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One more, the wikipedia page
      Wikipedia page on XHamster

    2. Re:Obligitory links (or cheap karma whoring) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to karma whore, you probably shouldn't post as AC

  8. Pre-Loading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps someone begins to type in their browser xhamster.c

    And then browsers are pre-loading, either the Wikipedia content directly, or by proxy through a pre-search with a search engine.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. XHamster on Kodi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must be some free stream addon on a super cheap chinese tvbox that is hardwired to use Wikipedia to check for version update availability or something like that.

  11. They've really started branding their videos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    XHamster has started aggressively branding and marking the videos on their site. These videos are then uploaded elsewhere and suddenly, people see them. Given they started doing this about 2-3 months ago, it would coincide perfectly with this surge.

    1. Re:They've really started branding their videos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those scrolling watermarks are f*ing annoying though...

    2. Re:They've really started branding their videos by KingRatMass · · Score: 4, Funny
      Fuck you... Pay for your porn then!

      Back in my day, we had to use Zmodem to download porn PICTURES. It once took two days to masturbate because mom kept making phone calls and interrupting my download. We sometimes had to wait 16 hours from the time we saw nipple until we got bush.

      Fucking ungrateful assholes... Get off my lawn!

  12. Also a surge of weird Russian propaganda about CNN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check reddit, it's off the rails today.

  13. Malware/Dead drop by henry.cow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gut guess is the page being used to help infected clients find their C&C server, like this - http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-hackers-turla-communicate-malware-britney-spears-instagram-comment-2017-6

  14. Probably for C&C by wulfhere · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Something like this is my guess:

    https://arstechnica.com/securi...

    --
    -- Sent from a computer.
    1. Re:Probably for C&C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My god, I was upset over the whole attempt to sabotage Western democracy with its own freedoms while heavily propagandizing with the notion that it's not happening at all, but this ... no, this is a new low. I've had enough of these Russians.

    2. Re:Probably for C&C by unique_parrot · · Score: 1

      Something more like THIS https://arstechnica.com/gaming... :D

  15. India? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As a frequent visitor of xhamster I can say that in the last weeks a big amount of Indian porn was uploaded. See explanation #1 in source.

  16. Search / Toolbar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably the wiki page has jumped to the first result when searched from a certain search engine or popular toolbar.

  17. If you use a family-friendly search engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If you use a family-friendly or filtered search engine like DuckDuckGo (on its default settings), if you search for a porn site you'll get its Wikipedia page, but not the site itself. I wonder if something like that is involved here.

    1. Re:If you use a family-friendly search engine by PPH · · Score: 1

      family-friendly or filtered search engine like DuckDuckGo

      Hmm. DuckDuckGo puts the Wikipedia entry way down near the bottom of the first page (in addition to the Wikipedia frame on the right). Google puts it at around #4. Both search engines return the web site URL first.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  18. simplest explanation: Google SEO change. by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

    It shows up as the 4th link in the google results when I do a google search for 'xhamster' It could be even higher for certain users. What position did it show up at 2 months ago? My guess is that google changed their sorting algorithm to give wikipedia more prominence, articles more prominence, or something of the sorts. A large percentage of people search for websites instead of going directly to the url even if they know the url.

  19. Systemd connections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently systemd is making connections to the wiki when a unit file with User=1day is defined.

    1. Re: Systemd connections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't make any sense

    2. Re: Systemd connections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I agree. Does not make any sense. Systemd only make bogus connections with User=0day.

  20. Re:And now there will be even more views.... by slashdice · · Score: 1

    confirmed. they have natalie portman -- naked and petrified -- with a bowl of hot grits down her pants.

    --
    Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
  21. And so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the hamster revolution. I have began to practice storing food in my cheeks. They are militant and angry and probably russian.

    1. Re:And so it begins... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hear the syrian hamsters may be helping them.

    2. Re:And so it begins... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      He looks harmless, but he came from Syria and now he's spread all over the globe. And we don't know his affiliation, what we know is that most of the time he's sleeping, we currently list him as a "sleeper".

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  22. Re: Also a surge of weird Russian propaganda about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Russian propaganda on Reddit? Where's the proof?

    Next thing you'll be saying that half the Trump supporters/Hillary opponents on Slashdot are Russian propaganda.

  23. If only Wikipedia made it a requirement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That to be an admi one the site, you must have the social skills necessary to get laid. It would cut down a lot on reverting and WP:OWN admins. Since porn is popular on Wikipedia, there is obviously a lot of people not getting any.

  24. Possibly related to Eroshare shutdown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Eroshare - a popular service used by Reditors for hosting those videos of you (or you and yours) that you'll want to disown one day - is shutting down. Since XHamster allows ppl to post content it is entirely possible that Redditors and others looking for a cheap place to post their vids and link back to the various subreddits are doing some research before picking a new host. They are fairly smart ppl so it wouldn't shock me if a bunch of regular posters were individually reading the Wikipedia articles as part of their decision making process. Of interest would be things like how long the company has been around, if they've had notable data breaches, if they have an unusually shady history, etc.

  25. Iframe in pop-unders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or something. A friend told me.

  26. Viral advertising by LetterRip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps the person 'noticing' the phenomenon, is the originator of the phenomenon and trying to increase traffic to the said porn sites by calling attention to this 'mystery'.

  27. Not command and control by FeelGood314 · · Score: 1

    Look at the page edits. There haven't been any edits in the last 6 months that look as if they could be hiding any information. There are some pretty stealthy forms of Steganography but I can't see any evidence of it on this page.

  28. Re:And now there will be even more views.... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    Mae Ling Mak, naked and petrified.

  29. Maybe just social... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Alternatively a web comic may have referenced it and a bunch of their audience had to look it up to understand the reference.

    Nope... I cannot buy that... got to be botnet...

  30. BOTNET C&C Next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The answer is obvious. Somewhere in the page are C&C instructions for a botnet.

  31. britney spears substitution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and no one knows... could you plesse just to be suree if any crapware is using wikipedia articles like britney's instagram accous was used before? maybe it's thee same guys who uses bots to makee views on youtube channels, that are obvioously being used to gather money by criminal. because the videos are too ridiculous to get 2 milions views in just a few hpurs

  32. Re:simplest explanation: Google SEO change. by doconnor · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't be surprised if a Wikipedia page shows up in the top 4 link of 1/3 of all Google searches. There is nothing unusual about that.

  33. XWhat? by snookiex · · Score: 1

    I didn't know what XHamster is, so I visited its Wikipedia page and... Oh, wait.

    --
    Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
  34. Re:Also a surge of weird Russian propaganda about by sexconker · · Score: 0

    As opposed to CNN's LULZaganda about Russia?

  35. I was one of those Wikipedia views by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Maybe the bulk of the surge is for the same reason as my visit: Katy Perry came out with a new video that has a cute hamster in it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gsGhdZDC-0). When I searched Google for "Katy Perry hamster," I got a bunch of porn in my results - thanks to Google's helpful "search for what we think you meant rather than what you typed" algorithms.

    I went to wikipedia to try to figure out WTF was happening, since I wasn't familiar with XHamster. So blame Google's garbage algorithms and a popular music video by a pop star.

  36. I blame Russia by Xenographic · · Score: 1

    Eh, my first thought is spammers or affiliate marketers (yes, I'm repeating myself....).

    1. Re:I blame Russia by tattood · · Score: 2

      Wikipedia should be able to see from the HTTP referrer header whether the visits are coming from a link on another site or not. This should not be a mystery.

      --
      WTB [sig], PST!!!
    2. Re:I blame Russia by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      Spammers do weird things like flooding sites with fake referrers because the logs may appear publicly. I'm not saying it's even real traffic, necessarily, but yes, it should be obvious with some more investigation.

  37. Scraping the bottom of the barrel by kelanos · · Score: 1

    Just gotta find some way not to post any story about CNN

  38. bixby by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe this is what happens when you ask bixby for xhamster?

  39. RULE 34 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People who like reading *about* pron. It's very meta.

  40. Ask.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone ask Richard Gere?

  41. Parent company by phorm · · Score: 1

    What's the parent company? Is there perhaps something going on with the stock? Maybe a market expansion planned?

  42. Referer?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only there was some way to tell where a viewer was coming from!

    If only when you clicked a link on a website, your browser would send the current page url with the request so that the server could log it, so that traffic patterns could be analysed.

    WHAT THE FUCK DOES THE FUCKING REFERER SAY YOU FUCKING MORONS?!

  43. It's obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Malware using the page to test it's internet connection.

  44. Analysis of Variance by aberglas · · Score: 1

    Almost correct. Its statistics.

    At any point in time, one of the millions of Wikipedia pages will experience a surge, just by luck. If you then look for the page with the greatest surge you will certainly find one. That's why statisticians use ANOVA.

    1. Re:Analysis of Variance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is complete and utter nonsense. You will basically never go from 100,000 hits to 300,000 hits on a page just by chance. You're talking about something like a 20 sigma deviation. The probability of it happening by chance is far, far smaller than the reciprocal of the number of pages on Wikipedia. It might happen on one page by chance once in a thousand years.

      And this is why statisticians learn statistics.

  45. if you duckduckgo xhamster the FIRST LINK is the w by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Interesting

    an actual theory.

    some country recently blocked xhamster domain for xxx censorship reasons. the people used to going there for their mobile porn fix instead end up on the wikipedia page.

    if you duckduckgo xhamster the FIRST LINK is the wikipedia page.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  46. Re: Also a surge of weird Russian propaganda about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next thing you'll be saying that half the Trump supporters/Hillary opponents on Slashdot are Russian propaganda.

    This false, comrade. Is no Russian on the Slash Dot. All pro Trump posting is real genuine American Joe Six Pack type persons like me. I enjoy watching the base ball, eat the apple pie, and strong support my legitimate elected President Trump who have no connecting to Russia and have biggest inaguration crowd ever.

  47. I'm so naive ... by quenda · · Score: 1

    I read the headline and expected a story about animated dancing rodents, set to a catchy MIDI tune.

    Ah, the good old days.

  48. I could tell you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....but... Think of the hamsters!!!

  49. xhamster and the Donald by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are several posts and tweets that link to the xhamster wiki page that are about Donald Trump.... (Something about having a hamster on his head?)

  50. Hmmm, using page as a dictionary? by Lost+Penguin · · Score: 1

    I wonder if someone or some malware is using the page as a dictionary.

    Like line x, letter y gives an encoded output somewhere.

    --
    I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
  51. Um, it's been mentioned on Colbert recently by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least twice recently Colbert has commented on stories about similar sites, making a joke out of the fact that the network won't let him name the sites by by giving very obvious hints leading to the names of several sites, including XHamster and Pornhub.

  52. Unblocked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My hypothesis is that there was some filtering software that had blocked XHamster in any part of the URL, preventing users from even visiting its Wikipedia page. If the software was fixed to only look in the domain name (or whitelist Wikipedia), it would allow lots of users who wouldn't otherwise be able to visit to suddenly be able to retrieve the page.

    dom

  53. Am I the only one... by sad_ · · Score: 1

    ... who though - what, there is an xhamster?! i only know xteddy & xpenguin!

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    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  54. Internet of Things? by ShamblerBishop · · Score: 1

    A new brand of IoT connected hamster wheels?