18 March 2009

Buck Flogger

At about 6:00 AM yesterday this blog was "locked" by Blogger, some idiot algorithm having apparently concluded that it was a "spam blog". I could not write any postings but could , at least, approve comments -- hence the comment I put on the posting below this one (now removed) to notify people of the problem. I was told the blog would be reviewed and, if I turned out to be a real person, the lock would be removed within two days.

This morning the lock notifications were gone, so if this posting appears, I'll assume I can post again, although Blogger didn't even have the courtesy to send me an e-mail stating that the problem was resolved.

Reading their description of how these algorithms work, I suspect the "link roundup" postings are the problem -- the robots just flag any blog that has a high ratio of hyperlinks to postings. If that's the case, since I'm not going to stop doing link roundups (they seem to be popular), I have no assurance that the problem won't recur.

If that ever happens, needless to say, I'm moving to a different hosting service. There's no excuse for locking down blogs during the two-day inspection period. Yes, send the blog owner a notice that the blog is flagged as spam and let him request a review, but leave posting open during that time. The internet will not blow up if a real spam blog is allowed to stay working two days longer (and has anyone ever actually seen one of these alleged spam blogs? I never have), but blocking posting shows a real disdain for the people that use the service.

I might move anyway. I have all the archives of this site stored on my computer and backed up on CD-ROM. I have no idea how much hassle it would be to move everything over to a different service, but obviously Blogger isn't reliable. Yes, I know some other hosting services charge, but I can afford a few bucks a month and as a paying customer I might be treated better. I'll have to think about it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

This was certainly educational for me Mr.Infidel..I had no idea about any of this stuff...I still dont know much about this cyberspace stuff...even though next month will be one year for me, I just never take much time out to figure everything out is all...I am consumed for hour's on surfing,reading,and such.I must admit though..I love the internet! The sad thing is...I rarely buy a newspaper anymore I noticed, which is "odd" for me...even I have declined to buy zine subscription's which I done for year's. "Sad" because...if everyone were to think or act like me...newspaper's and zines would probably become obsolete. But thanx for the posting, cause I learned a lil something from it.

18 March, 2009 04:27  

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