Okay, so you see a referrer from somebody that you keep seeing, over and over, one looking for that RSS feed that doesn't exist anymore? Possibly somebody who put in some crazy URL that your site doesn't use, but Google's site feed searcher keeps looking for it, even though it's not there? Do you finally want relief from the constant hits to something that isn't there? Here's how to do it.

Well, not "it." This is a family show. And why anybody'd be asking me for it-doing advice is beyond any capability I'd have to comprehend.

For the past few months, I've noticed Google Feedfetcher constantly hitting /?action=active&type=RSS in an effort to read the syndicated feed. Since I don't think there's ever been a feed there, it's not going to find anything. In fact, since WordPress will try to run anything after the ?, it will make it appear to you that you're on index.php.

But you aren't. Trust me on this, you're aren't. It looks like you are, but you aren't. I know these things, I'm a professional.

Well, sort of a professional.

I hear people get paid for this [Look, can we JUST get on with this? - Ed.] You know, it's been months since I've heard from you, and you wanna argue about me when I'm turtorialing over here? Jerkage.

I said something about doing it, and what you'll need is an .htaccess file. You'll also need some offending user agent, like the Google Feedfetcher. And a live chicken to sacrifice [steady] Okay, fine, you don't need that. Just funny to throw that in there every once in a while. Spoilsport.

With the afore-mentioned .htaccess file, and said offending referrer, chunk this code in there:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Feedfetcher-Google RewriteRule ^(.*)?$ http://feeds.feedburner.com/Macstansbury [R,L]

See? Simple! [Dude, you might wanna explain some o'dat]

Fine! See, the first line tells your mod_rewrite on your Apache server to turn the heck on, and stop being so lazy. [Sorta like] SHUDDUP! On to the next line.

The RewriteCond thingee...does....something. I'm pretty sure that this is the part you need to find the referrer from the eeeeevil international search engine company. Or, really, anybody. Anybody with a referrer. Think of it - the power! I really need to not take so much medicine before writing tutorials.

That last line would be where you want to send whatever it is that's going to the wrong place. I'm sending the referrer that declares its user agent to be Feedfetcher-Google to the FeedBurner link. Now, any page the Feedfetcher goes to will send it to my chosen RSS feed. You can send it anywhere you want (no, not to there, that's still un-possible, even with high-speed access).

[Uh, yeah, Brainiac, so how in the world do you know that works?]

Ah-ha! I knew you'd ask that! I have an answer!

[Wait, really? That's not like you. Usually you just point and yell, "look! a wild condor!" and run the other way.]

Well, I had to check this somehow. You get you a copy of Firefox, then in the address field type in about:config and you'll get a page of options. Didn't know that was in there, did ya? Right-click in there and right-click and you'll see a list.

In that list you'll want to add a New then String, and it'll prompt you for a new String. Put in general.useragent.override, and that new user agent would be Feedfetcher-Google.

Then, if you hit any page on this site, and BANG! Over to the Feedburner link you go. No questions asked. You can go back into Firefox's about:config and reset it back to the default, or leave it the same and enjoy endless trips to my RSS feed!

If everything works, the planets align correctly, then you can redirect any user agent wherever you want. Power and whatnot.

status: published
lastmod: '2006-11-01T18:00:54.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
custom:
  podPressPostSpecific: 'a:6:{s:15:"itunes:subtitle";s:15:"##PostExcerpt##";s:14:"itunes:summary";s:15:"##PostExcerpt##";s:15:"itunes:keywords";s:17:"##WordPressCats##";s:13:"itunes:author";s:10:"##Global##";s:15:"itunes:explicit";s:7:"Default";s:12:"itunes:block";s:7:"Default";}'
  _utw_tags_0: 'a:5:{i:0;O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:3:"tag";s:9:".htaccess";}i:1;O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:3:"tag";s:6:"coding";}i:2;O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:3:"tag";s:10:"feedburner";}i:3;O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:3:"tag";s:6:"google";}i:4;O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:3:"tag";s:3:"rss";}}'
  similarterms: feed referrer user agent google feedfetcher send feedfetcher-google page feedburner line site file http find config right-click offending htaccess rewritecond