Confusion About Referer Spam Can Have Unexpected Consequences

As referer spam continues to be reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we see occasional signs of confusion.

Some blog owners, knowing how to use WhoIs lookups and similar online utilities, to their advantage, are looking up the referer spam targets - and are reporting the targets to their registrars and hosts. What these blog owners may not realise is that not all apparent "customers" of referer spam "services" may have actually contracted to be featured in the services.

Why Does Referer Spam Get Reported, Primarily, By New Blog Owners?

One of the details of referer spam, that intrigued me for a while, involved who was reporting the spam.

Most - but not all - referer spam is reported by newbie owners. People who just setup a blog, and are anxiously waiting for their first readers outside their own country, are suddenly astounded

Wow, thousands of people are reading my blog - from China and Russia! I am an international celebrity, in my first week!!

The euphoria quickly vanishes, when told in the forums

Nobody is actually viewing your blog from these sites - and nobody knows about these links but you, since only you can see your Stats logs.

The general response to the cold water, dashed in their faces, is generally acceptance

Thank you for the prompt and informative reply - I'm very relieved to learn that the site is not actually linking to my blog.

The latter is the general response - but not the only response. Nobody should be surprised at that, as not everybody is the same. What is surprising, though, is who is not so accepting of my advice.

The Google Apps "bloggeradmin" Password Reset Uses A Standard Google Account Reset

As Google Apps updates their limited function ("bloggeradmin") account setup process, we see reports from confused Blogger blog owners.

After I reset my password, I still get

The username or password you entered is incorrect

when I try to login, later!

and

I reset my password - and it changed my Blogger and GMail account - but I still can't login to Google Apps!!

The Google Apps password reset uses a standard Google account reset process - and is subject to normal account reset behaviour. If you don't reset the right account, you won't be able to login, later.

Comment Moderation In Blogger Blogs, Using Google+ Comments

With more Blogger blogs being updated to use Google+ Comments, we're seeing a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about comment moderation.

How do I moderate comments, with Google+ Comments enabled on my blog?

This is a question for which there is no easy answer - and this is one of the most undesirable feature limitations of Google+ Comments.

Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "opromo . com"

This week, we're seeing a new stream of problem reports, from blog owners whose blogs are, once again, mysteriously redirecting their readers to unknown destinations.

When I open my blog, it automatically directs to another search engine display.

This appears to be yet one more gadget, willingly installed by many Blogger blog owners, which is now redirecting uninterested viewers. The target of the redirection, this week, is a parked domain website (ie, "search engine display") - for a product which was apparently installed, willingly, by the blog owners.

Empty Or New Blogs Can Be Classified As Possible Spam Hosts

We're seeing a few recent reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from owners of empty and / or new blogs, about spurious spam classification.

Very few owners of empty or new Blogger blogs understand why their blogs should be classified as possible spam hosts, by the Blogger anti-spam processes. Most blog owners seem to think that only blog content is considered, in spam classification.

The Google+ Comments Feature Was Recently Updated - And Is Now Broken

We are seeing an abrupt flood of reports from Blogger blog owners who have accepted Google+ Comments, in their blogs.

It appears that Blogger has fixed the observed problem with the Comment Count not displaying - and has possibly at the same time, broken Google+ Comments, in general.

Renewing Your Custom Domain Registration

Some Blogger blog owners, having experienced the anxiety of custom domain setup, intend to carefully maintain their domain registration.

We see a few queries, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about domain registration renewal.

How do I make sure my registration gets renewed?

or

How do I renew registration before it expires?

or, possibly

My blog now displays a search page! Have I been hacked?

The Mysterious "Deleted blogs" Dashboard Link

Occasionally, we see signs of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Where is the "Deleted blogs" link?

or

How can I recover my blog, if there's no link on the dashboard??

These blog owners don't understand that "Deleted blogs" only appears, when there are deleted blogs that can be recovered.

Unfold Widgets Selectively, Instead Of All At Once

The new Template HTML Editor has been with us for just under 2 weeks.

Not every blog owner sees the new editor as an improvement. Some folks don't understand how to find the code sections, where they need to apply changes - and would probably be happier if "Expand All Widgets" were an option.

Recovering And Protecting Your GMail Account

Blogger blog owners may have productive action, when their Blogger accounts are successfully hacked through an attack on their GMail accounts.

GMail account owners can get detailed instructions on recovering a successfully hacked account, and on preventing future hacking attacks from being successful. Some of the instructions are specific to GMail use - but overall, Blogger account owners will benefit from their use.

Problems Being Observed, In Blogs Now Using Google+ Comments

A few blog owners, eagerly opting to use the latest Blogger enhancement, Google+ Comments, are seeing some changes which they did not anticipate.

Even after checking all of the settings, some blogs, with Google+ Comments enabled, may not show the comment form - or may show the form, but comments may not be visible. Besides the visibility of the form, there are other changes which some blog owners don't appreciate.

URL Availability Competition, During "Buy a Domain", Is Similar To "Create a Blog"

Some Blogger blog owners, trying to setup a new blog, discover the hard way that other people are trying to do the same thing.

When I try to use "Create a blog", I keep seeing

This name is not available.

or

Blogger is saying it's available - but as I begin to register, it says that it has already received a request for this name.

Other blog owners discover that the competition between Blogger blog owners, when using "Create a blog", also applies to "Buy a domain". And worse yet, "Buy a domain" involves competition with would be website owners outside Blogger / Google.

Blogger And Google+ Continue To Move Ever Closer Together

Today, Blogger announced the most innovative step in integrating Blogger and Google+, since sharing of Blogger posts to Google+.

The December 2011 sharing option lets us publish our blog posts to Google+. Today, Blogger added the ability to do the same - and more - with our blog comments. Like basic Google+ post sharing, Google+ Comments will be shared, and be visible, on a Circle by Circle basis.