//(from @JKatzWMF , via email:)//
I think there is possibly something wrong with how referers are currently classified:
If you look at the data, the none/internal are closely coupled and the external/unknown are as well (see [[ https://turnilo.wikimedia.org/#pageviews_daily/3/N4IgbglgzgrghgGwgLzgFwgewHYgFwhLYCmAtAMYAWcATmiADQgYC2xyOx+IAomuQHoAqgBUAwoxAAzCAjTEaUfAG1QaAJ4AHLgVZcmNYlO4B9E3sl6ASnGwBzYkryqQUNLXoEATAAYAjABspD4ArKQAzD4iPj54/nE+AHQxPgBaksTYACbcvn4AHMFh4X7RsfExyTHpAL4AujUMalo6rmg0EPaShsYEcA7YaOYtknDkGDjcnZJgiDCOKiAwUAogdUzYmJ5SiCuNzdrcbh1dBkbcmjSYAFbE46PjWLgE5DjunUpMswjzTsogAHcIABrCDaLIQOBrDZbfA7BB7dauTRINB/A6tY6dOySCFsbBQJ7cHoKBQmcgIOBQT6uTB0fCgHrcSDEAHkzAwQa4iCGR6TAhZRzkTIQrqNQgQFgQTzYGAIBD7ZgjXSS/QgPGZQn8kBmCxMOw0Wxy2jS9TcAAKfgAIpIoHTPIzzgRdarubyJs8QFThdlsSBxUgpTK5QqkWwqTBDE5QNAALJyjBw3bEJiE+wIVostmvTn0JgsBMQRZZ9m5tbizSdEhZK2qglPP5IyvYasAZXtzIgrNLXKYGYGOTwoA19e1JMMNHJlOpkkD0vwIXFlAgdkoSFXwflNSAA== | link ]] or chart below).
Based on user behavior I would expect the internal referrals to be highly correlated to the total number of non-internal (as the pages per session remain roughly constant). However, I don't expect that the internal pageviews are so tightly correlated and nearly equivalent to the "none". This consistent near equivalence seems like a very odd coincidence. The new distinction between the two in the last month is due to a known mobile Safari-related bug being resolved, but I don't think it explains what we're seeing.
Aside from being tightly coupled, the % of "none" seems incredibly high to me at 35% of total traffic. If you look at external-only traffic, that says that for every 6 google referred pages there are 4 unknown links (email/app links, direct urls). For another website I volunteer for, the % of known external traffic is 95%. For us, it is 60%. I know we don't have the tools/infrastructure that uncle Google has, but this seems to be a very big difference.
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Note: All the %s I derived are from exporting the turnilo link shared above, using division and eyeballing a mostly flat daily % over the course of 2 years.