My sister site, Bookmarks4Tech.com, has either been kidnapped or assassinated (after 3 years) by Google’s Blogger service and marked as a TOS (Terms of Service) violator by Google’s automated spam detection system. I am awaiting a review from Google to get the site back. The process to do this is not a friendly or easy process. It does not give you that warm and fuzzy feeling. As a matter of fact if anyone feels violated, it is me!
Contained in my site was scripting language that I suspect their automated system identified as suspicious. The scripting language was used on my part, in good faith, to automate the content of the site. There is nothing suspicious about it and if a real person would have looked at it then none of this would have occurred.
For the past several weeks I had received notices that my site appeared suspicious and was possibly being looked upon as a spam host. Each time I posted on the site I had to go through a “human identifier” process to prove that I was a human maintaining the site and that the site was not a bot of sorts. I played the game, yet Blogger’s automated system still was not satisfied and killed my site. I woke up on Monday morning to find the following message in my email with no indication on how to contact Blogger support or any instruction whatsoever to recover the site. Needless to say, I was not happy!
Hello, Your blog at http://www.bookmarks4techs.com/has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: SPAM. In accordance to these terms, we’ve removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible. For more information, please review the following resources:
Blogger Terms of Service: http://blogger.com/terms.g
Blogger Content Policy: http://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy
-The Blogger Team
I especially liked how they signed the email; “The Blogger Team”. I would have felt much better, and part of the “team”, if they provided a method to contact the “team”.
Apparently, like in my case, there are many false positives where sites get locked out. This goes to show that I really have no control over my own content and the “team” really does not care.
In the meantime, I’ll be counting the hours and days to see if Bookmarks4Techs has been kidnapped by Google or assassinated by Google.
——————————————-
GEEK BONUS AREA
Bookmarked Tech Sites: 550 Total – Dead In The Water
Intel unveils the latest Core i7 Extreme, 3970X, and “Stormville” Motherboard
Sony rolls out update for Xperia T and Xperia TX
TECH DEALS
Computer Accessories & Peripherals
——————————————-
I have the feeling the “blogger team” is in fact a script, and that no human was ever involved… But more to the point, your site is (I refuse to say “was”) a terrific resource, and it’s (unnecessary) loss would be a crime. As a blogger myself, I think – too – I can understand the angst you are going through. I hope the matter is quickly and happily resolved.
TechPaul,
You are correct… The Blogger Team is definitely a “virtual” team with no human makeup (or consideration for others). It will be quite interesting to see how long this draws out. Their process for getting the site reviewed, in itself, had me suspicious. Just terrible business on their part.
Thanks for commenting… Rick
A lot I could say here.. but I will merely say again, I am pulling for you, and hope you get happy redress mucho muy mas pronto.
[...] * Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? [...]
Rick,
I’m sorry this has happened to your site, and hope there’s a quick resolution to this stupid mistake on the part of the “Blogger Team”. If Google wants to audit sites against their Terms of Service, they should fund that activity with living beings instead of relying on faulty software. I’m in your corner, hang in there.
Best,
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for your concern… I’m just rolling with this to see how this plays out. Not too big of a deal, but Bookmarks4Techs is where I liked to change it around once in awhile.
Hope all is well with you…
Rick
WOW! Anything the minions can do?
Hopefully Google gets their head out of their A$$ soon. Another example of automation gone wrong again.
Delenn13,
I especially liked the “A$$” in your comment, because that is exactly what it is all about.
Rick
A friend of mine got his YouTube account suspended the other day, and all his YouTube videos deleted. Apparently Google claimed one of the videos has violated their TOS. 5 years of hard work, 275 uploaded videos and more than 50k subscribers, all gone without any warning. He went through a lot of hassles finding ways to contact “The YouTube Team”, and now he’s waiting for their reply(if they’ll ever reply). Another reason not to depend too much on Google’s products I supposed. I hope you will be able to get Bookmarks4Techs back, Rick. Fingers crossed.
Peter,
Wow…275 videos! That would hit me wrong, as well.
This goes to show examples where “cloud computing” can go wrong. Thanks for the comment and keep up the great work at ComputerHowToGuide.com
Rick
Hey Rick,
Just a thought….you and your informative service are hindered…do you or did you pay for the ability of the provider to arbitrarily determine content on your site? Better question and one you are infinitely qualified to answer …Is there a better service out there for Boolmarks4Techs?
This reminds me of no-contract phone service providers. Try their customer service some time if you want real frustration.
keep your head up, Rick and best to you and yours,
Lucien
Lucien,
Thank you for your input and concern.
The Blogger (blogging) service is owned by Google that is a FREE online blogging service. They can pretty do what they want and I know that going into this; however, this automated process they have in place to fight the spammers is hurting the good guys. My site was a tech resource and nothing on the site was offensive… Just a waiting game at this point until a actual human reviews the site.
Thanks,
Rick
Rick,
Having twice been “suspended” by WordPress for supposed violations of their Terms of Service – and, being forced to deal with an unyielding bureaucracy before WordPress relented (finally admitting an internal error), I can well appreciate your frustration.
I’m sure, once a “semi-live” member of the “Blogging Team” gets involved, this issue will be resolved in your favor. Small consolation, I know.
Bill
Bill,
Thank you for your wisdom and words of encouragement… I cannot believe they would kick Bill Mullins’ Weblog – Tech Thoughts off the net for anything!
Hope all is well, that you are prepared for winter, and nice to see you here!
Rick
[...] Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? [...]
Hey Rick,
I felt the same way when I tried to contact an owner of an exclusive school to complain. It’s website is just a Facebook page with not one contact address.
Pochp,
Makes one feel helpless, doesn’t it? I am still waiting for the Google Review.
Thanks for the “reblog”…
Rick
I forgot. What Blogspot did to you, Tumblr did to me. Suddenly suspended my account without giving any reason and refusing to let me contact.
Reblogged this on Poch Peralta and commented:
Add your thoughts here… (optional)
Thanks Pochp… I appreciate the “reblog”.
Rick
I forgot. What Blogspot did to you, Tumblr did to me. Suddenly suspended my account without giving any reason and refusing to let me contact.
[...] Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? Now 3 Days Missing [...]
[...] Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? Now 5 Days Missing [...]
Rick,
I am so sorry to learn about what Blogger (Google) did to Bookmarks4Techs.
Really, I wonder why Google can’t hire real human for auditing sites before suspending them without warning, when it earns billions of dollars of these services.
What amuses me more is Google really calls these automated faulty bots “Blogger Team” or “(name any Google service) Team” in its email.
I hope Bookmarks4Techs will be back online soon…
Best,
Mezanul
S.K. Mezanul,
I really want to thank you (personally) for your concern!
I am still waiting to hear from Blogger Team (Google) on this matter. It does appear that many people get caught up in this trap and it further appears it takes awhile.
Again — THANK YOU!
Rick
Rick,
Also try to contact Blogger Team via http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/blogger (Google Product forums)?
I hope you will get some answers from the forums…and the issue will be resolved soon…
Mezanul
S. K. Mezanul,
Yes, I am currently working through the product forum to try and get this straightened out. The forum, in itself, is a nightmare and the moderator, I guess from dealing with this on a constant basis, is not very friendly. This has definitely been a challenge.
Rick
[...] Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? Now 7 Days Missing [...]
Rick,
I know… :/
Even I had similar kind of experiences but I couldn’t give you any better suggestion to contact someone at Google other than the forums…
I thought may be…fingers crossed..your issue will get resolved soon in the forums.
Mezanul
SK. Mezanul,
Fingers and toes crossed…
Rick
Good Luck Rick! It can pretty tough to get a hold of a real person at Google unless you are using adwords. Hopefully you can get it all figured out.
Acitodg,
Thank you for the support. Hey… I notice you just started your blog! If you are interested in a link exhange, let me know. I may be able to help point some traffic your way.
Rick
Sure thing! I added What’s on My PC to my blogroll. Thanks!
[...] Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated? Now 8 Days Missing [...]
[...] may have read my recent article, Has Bookmarks4Techs Been Kidnapped or Assassinated?, where the host of the site (Google’s Blogger Service), through an automated classification [...]