On Thursday, I received an email from Blogger stating that the site was identified as a potential spam blog and had been "locked." I had to request a review in order to regain the ability to post or do anything else on the site. At first, I thought this to be a phishing scam. Turns out it wasn't.
Upon investigation, locking sites has become commonplace on Blogger, which is owned by Google. Many blogs have been targeted (examples here, here and here) and now it was happening to me. Frustration set in, then anger. Just try reaching somebody — anybody — at Google, whose customer service is nonexistent.
After requesting the review, much of Friday was spent calling, emailing and faxing Google offices in Mountain View, Calif., and New York in order to regain access to the site. Every attempt led to a dead end, but late Friday night, the site was unlocked. No email, no explanation.
Due process is nonexistent in any of this and once you are locked, all you can do is sit and wait. In essence, you are guilty until proven innocent.
Blogger is huge, with growth estimated at over a million blogs a month. If you're considering using the platform, take note of what happened to us and countless other Blogger sites.
Good will come of this. A backup plan has been launched in the event the site is again locked. It will be up and running soon in case of another bump in the road.
We're quickly getting caught up and thanks for your patience during this unexpected setback.
4 comments:
ditch blogger. pretty simple.
A backup plan has been launched
Sounds like he already is (ditching blogger).
About time to turn the "backup plan" into Plan A.
Um...Wordpress.com. But I guess you can't put ads on there.
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