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Blogger Supports Their Customers

Every week, in Blogger Help, we see the cries of frustration.
Many years ago I had a Google account with a "gmail.com" e-mail address. But I deleted this account, because I didn't need it anymore. Later, I wasn't able to login to Blogger, to delete my blog. And I also wasn't able to remove it by contacting Blogger. Why doesn't Blogger support their customers?
The point being overlooked here is that both Blogger and Google do support their customers.

Blogger / Google, like every commercial enterprise worldwide, simply supports their active customers more than their not-so-active customers.
  1. They have millions of customers, who spend much time maintaining and publishing their blogs.
  2. They also have some customers, who start blogs, and leave them dormant for many years - then require assistance recovering access to their Blogger accounts, because they have forgotten the account name or password, and the backup email address can't be used.
Considering that Blogger / Google is not a non profit organisation, and needs to support customer activity, which group of customers should they support most readily?

Blogger / Google wants to encourage us to maintain and to publish our blogs regularly.

Blogger can't support inactive blog owners, to the needed level.

People who don't use their services regularly, then demand special assistance when needing to use their services, are not going to receive the same level of support.
  1. People who use Blogger regularly will develop a level of proficiency - and won't require special assistance as much as those who don't use Blogger regularly.
  2. People who use Blogger regularly simply require a working Blogger interface, and a level of security that keeps their blogs under their control. People who don't use Blogger regularly need a different and more complicated Blogger interface - and a lower level of security, so they can continue to access their Blogger accounts.
The needs of the few (who don't use Blogger regularly) have to be considered against the needs of the many (who do use Blogger regularly).

Blogger can't support inactive owners, over active owners.

Recently, we had a series of well organised hijackings of actively published Blogger blogs.

After Blogger / Google recognised this ongoing threat - which endangers all Blogger blog owners - they tightened down their security, and restricted assistance to those needing help recovering access to their Blogger accounts. People who don't use Blogger regularly don't understand the reasoning behind this reduced level of assistance, and increased level of security.

Unfortunately, understand it or not, we all have to learn to live with it - if we wish to continue publishing Blogger blogs.

Comments

Katney said…
Well thought out and well stated, Chuck. It is a pleasure to help active bloggers who encounter a problem and ask politely for the keys to resolving it. It is frustrating to deal with people who get huffy because they refuse to remember the details of an old blog.
Unknown said…
I understand--however, all Blogger's tools don't work! The only thing I did originally was go through the process of changing my e-mail address. Ever since, I have been unable to get to my blog, even when starting from the original address, and going though all passwords and security questions they asked for. WHY can't there be a way to get back to square one, if that's the only way, and reinstate a blog that was never stopped?

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