In mid January 2008, Blogger started to do something about a major problem.
Blogger blogs have been long used for illegal purposes - hacking, porn distribution, and spam distribution - in massive numbers. Cleaning up the hacking, porn, and spam is not an easy task - there's nothing on any one blog that says
Detection of such illegal blogs, like detection of malware in general, has to be done by heuristic analysis and signature comparison. Unfortunately, detection of illegal blogs, like detection of malware, using both methods, are subject to two major problems
As Blogger tries harder to reduce the population of illegal blogs, and based upon the massive size and deviousness of that population, more legitimate blogs are going to be falsely flagged as illegal.
In the past, false positive detection was handled on a one by one basis.
Any complaints, about unrighteous accusation, were generally responded - if at all - with a casual explanation. Now, with more false positives anticipated, bloggers must be better informed about Blogger policy.
Blogger is providing resources to keep the blogging population better informed, when their blogs are removed - whether falsely or genuinely - based upon blogging behaviour detection, or content analysis. Blogger has three referential documents.
None of these will address each situation, but taken together, they are a good start. Only by knowing the limits, can we identify the legitimate bloggers, and avoid helping the illegitimate ones.
Depending upon how your blog was detected, it might have been locked (visible to authors only, or visible to everyone but not updatable), or removed (visible to no one). In odd cases, you (the blog owner) may be able to update the blog, but you'll have to solve a CAPTCHA each time you publish.
In some cases, you'll get an email from Blogger, containing a link to click on, to get the blog reviewed - but email cannot be guaranteed, for all blogs. You'll be asked to authenticate yourself, and verify your need to have the blog unlocked - by logging in (again) and / or by solving (another) CAPTCHA. If the link contains "blogger.com", it's the genuine article - it's not a phishing attempt. Follow the link, and do what you're asked to do.
In a variation of the latter scenario, you may see a CAPTCHA when you try to publish a post. If there's a question mark accompanying the CAPTCHA, you'll be able to request review of the blog. If there's no question mark, or "request review" link, you're being targeted for excessive posting. This CAPTCHA should go away on the following day, and if you post less that day, won't return.
Blog Locked For Suspected TOS Violation
When your blog is locked, there is a Dashboard link, leading to a form which is used to request review and unlocking.
You won't be able to do anything, with your blog, but request unlocking. That's to keep a spammer from cleaning a splog before it's reviewed, to avoid conviction. It evens out the 3 Card Monte playing field just a bit.
Blog Removed For TOS Violation
I can't find my blog on the Web, where is it?, offers a number of helpful references, similar to what I provide in Help! My Blog Is Gone!
When the blog has been removed, you won't have anything on the dashboard. Your only recourse is to review the Help Database articles referenced in the links.
Blog Locked For TOS Violation
In a variation of the above, you may see the notice
This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only.
If you are an author of this blog, tell us who you are! Sign in using your Google Account.
As a last resort, Blogger now offers a Final Appeal Spreadsheet, where you can also submit your URL for review. Blogger states that only blogs which actually have been locked / removed, and which have already been submitted for review, will be accepted in the appeal spreadsheet.
When your blog is locked, or removed, you'll have a bit of work to do, and it starts with following the instructions. In a perfect world, none of this would be necessary.
Here, it is necessary, and the only useful solution to the problem starts with the blog administrator reading the offered advice, requesting blog review, and subsequently requesting appeal. No amount of posting in the online forums
This is currently a 3 step process, and each step should be executed in order. If you skip a step, you'll be told to go back and do it.
(Update 2015/01): Blogger updated their spam review / appeal process, significantly, to make life slightly simpler, for publishers of non spam hosting Blogger blogs.
Blogger blogs have been long used for illegal purposes - hacking, porn distribution, and spam distribution - in massive numbers. Cleaning up the hacking, porn, and spam is not an easy task - there's nothing on any one blog that says
This blog is used for hacking, for porn distribution, and / or for spam distribution.
Detection of such illegal blogs, like detection of malware in general, has to be done by heuristic analysis and signature comparison. Unfortunately, detection of illegal blogs, like detection of malware, using both methods, are subject to two major problems
- False Negative Detection - Many illegal blogs are not detected, because the authors of such blogs are very skilled at making their blogs like normal blogs.
- False Positive Detection - Many legitimate blogs are falsely detected, again because the authors of the illegal blogs are very skilled at making their blogs look like normal blogs.
As Blogger tries harder to reduce the population of illegal blogs, and based upon the massive size and deviousness of that population, more legitimate blogs are going to be falsely flagged as illegal.
In the past, false positive detection was handled on a one by one basis.
Any complaints, about unrighteous accusation, were generally responded - if at all - with a casual explanation. Now, with more false positives anticipated, bloggers must be better informed about Blogger policy.
Blogger is providing resources to keep the blogging population better informed, when their blogs are removed - whether falsely or genuinely - based upon blogging behaviour detection, or content analysis. Blogger has three referential documents.
- Blogger Content Policy
- Google Privacy Policy
- Google Terms of Service
None of these will address each situation, but taken together, they are a good start. Only by knowing the limits, can we identify the legitimate bloggers, and avoid helping the illegitimate ones.
Depending upon how your blog was detected, it might have been locked (visible to authors only, or visible to everyone but not updatable), or removed (visible to no one). In odd cases, you (the blog owner) may be able to update the blog, but you'll have to solve a CAPTCHA each time you publish.
In some cases, you'll get an email from Blogger, containing a link to click on, to get the blog reviewed - but email cannot be guaranteed, for all blogs. You'll be asked to authenticate yourself, and verify your need to have the blog unlocked - by logging in (again) and / or by solving (another) CAPTCHA. If the link contains "blogger.com", it's the genuine article - it's not a phishing attempt. Follow the link, and do what you're asked to do.
In a variation of the latter scenario, you may see a CAPTCHA when you try to publish a post. If there's a question mark accompanying the CAPTCHA, you'll be able to request review of the blog. If there's no question mark, or "request review" link, you're being targeted for excessive posting. This CAPTCHA should go away on the following day, and if you post less that day, won't return.
Blog Locked For Suspected TOS Violation
When your blog is locked, there is a Dashboard link, leading to a form which is used to request review and unlocking.
You won't be able to do anything, with your blog, but request unlocking. That's to keep a spammer from cleaning a splog before it's reviewed, to avoid conviction. It evens out the 3 Card Monte playing field just a bit.
Blog Removed For TOS Violation
I can't find my blog on the Web, where is it?, offers a number of helpful references, similar to what I provide in Help! My Blog Is Gone!
When the blog has been removed, you won't have anything on the dashboard. Your only recourse is to review the Help Database articles referenced in the links.
Blog Locked For TOS Violation
In a variation of the above, you may see the notice
This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only.
If you are an author of this blog, tell us who you are! Sign in using your Google Account.
As a last resort, Blogger now offers a Final Appeal Spreadsheet, where you can also submit your URL for review. Blogger states that only blogs which actually have been locked / removed, and which have already been submitted for review, will be accepted in the appeal spreadsheet.
we do filter to make sure that users have already submitted a request and use that info
When your blog is locked, or removed, you'll have a bit of work to do, and it starts with following the instructions. In a perfect world, none of this would be necessary.
Here, it is necessary, and the only useful solution to the problem starts with the blog administrator reading the offered advice, requesting blog review, and subsequently requesting appeal. No amount of posting in the online forums
Free my blog - it is not spam!will help, in the slightest. When Blogger employees have to read the forums, they are wasting time that could be better spent reviewing and unlocking another blog.
This is currently a 3 step process, and each step should be executed in order. If you skip a step, you'll be told to go back and do it.
- The first step has 3 possibilities, per the above 3 pictures.
- Blog Locked For Suspected TOS Violation. Here, you won't be able to do anything, while you wait for Blogger to act.
- Blog Removed For TOS Violation. Here, you review the linked Help articles. Click on the link.
- Blog Locked For TOS Violation. Here, you sign in, if necessary. Click on the link.
- Submit an entry to the Appeal Spreadsheet. You shouldn't expect a reply from the review request, so do this as soon as you can after you submit the review request. You simply have to submit the review request (if possible) first.
- Post a report in BHF: Something Is Broken. Provide the URL of the blog, be brief, and be polite. Brevity and politeness count, in BHF. I state that from experience.
(Update 2015/01): Blogger updated their spam review / appeal process, significantly, to make life slightly simpler, for publishers of non spam hosting Blogger blogs.
Comments
It was not spam or porn. It was a legitimate blog maintained by the blogger's brother after the original author passed. ( He will be writing as well.) Both of us contributed to the blog after the author's death and many grievers came to the blog as grief therapy. I haven't the faintest idea why Blogger would remove this beautiful blog when there are so many spam and porns are out there. The administrator received no warning--just one day it was gone when it had been there the day before. I want it to come back.
Only the blog administrator can help here, and only by following procedure.
Have the blog admin submit a request for review, by following procedure.
I believe my blog has been locked, as I cannot edit or make any new posts. My only option is to "restore" my blog or to appeal for a review of my blog which I have done. It has been almost a week now and I've not heard back about either.
I can view my blog and others can too by going to the direct link, which makes me wonder if it actually is locked? But if it isn't, then why can't I post?
http://www.epcotadventure.blogspot.com
Can you possibly tell me how long it takes for people to review blogs? I have waited since 7th June. Thanks.
I have lost all confidence in blogger, I fear Organized Rage will end up being deleted. What is the point of blogger help when it is blogger who is mucking your blog up.
Is there any help out there?
I didn't remove this blog. I don't think the blog is offensive or pornographic or spammy, nor does it contain any links to malware. Its just a simple, straightforward blog.
I put a lot of work int this blog and I want to see it back. Please restore loveglobalwarming.blogspot.com to service. Or at least tell me why it has been "removed".
I first saw that my blog had been removed today, August 28, 2008.
Have you posted yet in GBH: Something Is Broken? If so, and I missed the post, my apologies. The online forums are much easier to use, then Blogger Blog Commenting, for interactive problem solving, and for dealing with problems like deleted and / or lost blogs. Any Blogger Employee, in particular, is more likely to help you there.
I am disappointed how this thing is progressing.
I'm following procedure and as far as I know following Blogger/Google rules. Any suggestions on how else can I get reviewed and make this stop??
I've been locked out of my non-spam blog (http://seigokanusa.blogspot.com) for 4 days. I requested a review. Now I'm waiting with no idea of when the blog will be reviewed and/or unlocked.
We're talking about Google, the company with the mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," yet the only message I received says "Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam." That's not adequate. Even the airlines now provide regular flight status updates to ensure that passengers are informed of delays.
Likewise, Blogger should generate an email indicating the issue detected and a timeframe for review. And instead of locking me out of the blog, they could simply make it unviewable to others. That would allow me to keep working until the issue is resolved. Thanks.
You're right, in general. In a perfect world, Blogger should politely give all bloggers the benefit of the doubt, before inconveniencing them.
Unfortunately, the Internet is far from perfect. Blogger axes thousands of blogs daily, 99% of which are genuine spam. They could never maintain such an effort if they were to follow your recommendations (which have been echoed by many others). And there's still too much spam.
David, what's unacceptable is the activity by the spammers, and their activity affects all of us.
Amen. Give spammers life in prison.
That said, I didn't suggest giving any bloggers the benefit of the doubt. I realize that would open up a Pandora's box of spam.
How about just an automated status report of our position in the queue? (e.g., "You are now 89,234th in line for review.")
I just don't accept that the status quo is the best that Blogger/Google can do.
But thank you for your reply and for this blog. Much appreciated.
Dave
Good point. I've been thinking, for some time, that some sort of queue position status would be a good idea, at least let the bloggers waiting for attention that there is some progress being made.
Spam Checking is one queue, and Custom Domain Resets is another. Both are very inconsistently operated, and frequent complaints by people who have been waiting for weeks, and occasional remarks from others who had their problem cleared in hours.
May I suggest that you use the Blogger WishList form, and let Blogger know of your concerns.
And I don't accept the status quo either. Not accepting the status quo is why this blog is here.
It's a THREAD, not a threat. ;-)
I don't release blogs. You have to post in GBH: Something Is Broken, for complaints about blogs not being whitewashed.
I'm all over your posts today :) This one has me particularly concerned. Is it only blogspot addresses that they can shut down or custom domain as well?
After putting in about 500-600 hours in 3 months on my blog and getting adsense approved about 3 weeks ago, they already disabled me. After some time in the forums, I realized that Google does this to many other innocent people as well. If they can take my blog too...I think it's time for a Wordpress on a independent host.
Alan
What they are doing, I believe, is scanning all blogs published to BlogSpot or Google, and yes, this includes custom domain publishing.
If your content is marginal, and you suspect that you could be in violation of TOS, you probably should move. Let WordPress handle the hassle, and the loss of reputation.
But understand this. In the forums, you see people complaining. Some of those complaining are sploggers, newly whacked. The sploggers want Blogger to loosen the scanning, and leave them to publish their hacking, porn, and spam.
You see a lot of complaints because there are immense numbers of splogs. The number of false detection complaints, compared to the number of splogs, is small.
GoogleBot, which indexes your blog, runs on computers in Mountain View. Get Google Webmaster Tools setup, to monitor its activities on your blog.
http://salimnourallah.blogspot.com/
this is outrageous and criminal!!! what can we do? they have to be stopped...
I can access nothing and all the effort of the past 3 years is gone!!! I still can't believe it. It is so frustrating!
I just don't understand how I can request a review when I can't even verify ownership??? How can I verify ownership when I can't access my site any more???
Please give us a step-by-step guide on how to restore a removed blog where ownership was not verified before it was removed.
I will tell all my friends not to blog on blogger!
That has something perhaps to do with why my life's work vanished...oh well, the "free" coffee and doughnuts just became very expensive
I think you should penalize goodcounter and not us. Why do you allow third-party widgets from the first place, when you know they can cause harm without the owner even noticing it!
This isn't a trivial situation. The spammers are well paid, to make blogs that look like legit blogs, to attract bloggers to the blogs that distribute the malware. The spammers continually tune their blogs to look legit.
As Blogger continually tunes their spam detection process, they will always falsely detect some legit blogs as spam. This won't ever end.
What Blogger badly needs to do, though, is improve their response to legit blogs, when they are falsely detected.
even worse, the address is unavailable for any new blogs !
The original blog had no spam, no embeded links whatsoever, and the content was boring at best.Ok,I will accept the blog being deleted for being boring, but any other justification is outrageous.
The notification that the name itself is blocked as a new blog addresses is suggesting a very serious issue with the original content, witch is outlandish.
The blog itself contained several pictures, with people wearing normal clothing, in casual situations, a pic taken on the street, and in the links area pointers to a Dallas club and an art site. So - how a blog showing few people wearing street clothing, no embeded links whatsoever, a corresponding email address never ever marked for spam has been deleted and the name banned is beyond any reasonable justification.
The posting method suggested ( through Google docs) implies an a final appeal for the spam issue, wich is not the case here.
So.. dear Google... what is to be done ?
Care to cite details?
"The posting method suggested (through Google docs) implies an a final appeal for the spam issue, wich is not the case here."
Have you submitted the review request, and the appeal?
Bill Gates hasn't even answered my texts, time is running out, and I want to read my blog and LOL again; and, if my "intellectual property" is gone forever, I will sink into a depression so deep that I will never be able to hold a job again, and will have to seek compensation from Google, Blogger (and Dell computer, because it was their machine which informed me that my work of 3 and a half years had been "removed.")
But seriously, I still hold out hope that my blog can be retrieved. How can I "verify" that I am the owner of the blog when all I get is the HTML for the page that tells me that the thing has been removed??
Blogger keeps changing their spam notification / appeal process. I'm continually having to sort it out, in different ways.
All that I can advise right now is subscribe to this comment feed, and wait.
What we're told is that if Blogger decides in your favour, when you appeal, they will restore the blog back in service. Obviously the sooner you get the blog back the better, but there's no stated time limit for restoration.
my missing url:
http://sweepyinheaven.blogspot.com/
PeeEss
Since I can still go to my dashboard, I opened a new blog:
http://sweepyisnotinheaven.blogspot.com/
which my hoomans says is NOT GOOD. De pipol say I might not be able to recover my old blog! Is this true, people?
Please. I am just a dog who blogs.
A SuperDog nonetheless.
I restored my old dusty blog where I am barking now just to let my friends know Sweepy is still alive:
sweepyheaven.blogspot.com
woofy thanks.
two-phase locking:
1. Send the warning "your blog looks like a splog, you have to request a review … etc …".
But do not block the posting!
2. If you have no request for unlocking during XX days, or splog detected — then kill/block the blog.
We had to write series of posts, which we had been written at Google Docs for a long while,
we published first post, one minute after we tried to publish the second one — and since the 18th of June we (http://team.custis.ru) are automatically locked ("…TOS…").
We've made unlocking request — nobody cares.
We've made unlocking "final appeal" — nobody cares.
BTW, we used Google Adwords to make announcements in the locked blog — nobody cares.
I hate myself for choosing Blogger…
Because giving the spammers warning would just encourage them to keep on playing their shell game, and publish another thousand splogs.
Blogger is constantly trying to simply catch up with the spammers.
Because giving the spammers warning would just encourage them to keep on playing their shell game, and publish another thousand splogs.
Сhuck, damned spammers have no problem — they have a big splog networks (consisting tens of thousands of splogs).
And if 1% of they splog are blocked — the special software (+human capture recognizer) — sends automatic unlock requests.
(otissima.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html — russian splogger have no fear)
Spammers not suffer!
Only good people suffer!
I have submitted request for review for several times, I have submitted appeal and posted to Google Support Group: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=2fe568f8b8c982ae&hl=en
Is it possible to restore my blog? Are any more actions required from my side?
Thank you,
Alex
* backup their blog after every post
* never link all their blogs to one email account
* create a Gmail account for every blog
* create backup blogs
Further complicates the problem - bloggers protect their material adding more blogs and other protective measures which create more issues for the spam detection bots which aren't functioning 100% (the heart of the problem).
http://yophat.blogspot.com/
I've closed my adsense acct because this is ridiculous and unprofessional.
I'm looking at other options.
I just spent 51 days in jail here for "open container" violations, so I haven't been in a position to try to to restore my blog...
300 bucks a day to the county for holding me; viva America!!!
Blogger’s unreliability is nothing new. In 2006, our home page (at another blog) disappeared. The posts are still there. We’ve been at Google on this, on an annual basis, to no avail. So I say we should expect a three-year wait at the minimum.
Having said all that, this page is incredibly useful and the author seems to know the subject well. Let’s hope it all works out.
I suppose that I would start out by making sure that I am not a turkey.
Shawn
You may wish to read the FAQ My Blog Is Locked As Spam - What Do I Do?, for complete advice.
"Your blog at http://rush-limbaugh-speaks.blogspot.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/content.g"
I have reviewed both of the above and find nothing that was put on those blogs was in violation of the "terms" or "content" rules.
It seems instead that your paradigm is allowing people who DO NOT LIKE Rush Limbaugh to flag the content when there is nothing wrong with it.
Rush sends out a free email each day called Rush-in-a-Hurry for those who do not have access to his website.
I find them informative, controversial and educational as did many hundreds around the world who wanted to be able to read a lot of them at a time rather than clutter up their gmail account with more email on a daily basis.
Blogger seemed the ideal solution until I got this notice today Wednesday, May 12.
Please unlock and undelete a totally inoffensive blog and do not allow others to censor its content.
It would certainly be nice if anyone flagging a blog would automatically trigger a reason for the flagging and an email to the owner so that the owner can take action immediately if someone has hacked the blog.
Instead we have unjust censorship I expect by liberals who do not want anything from Rush Limbaugh to be heard by anyone else in order to censor him.
If this is not the case, I see absolutely no reason for the notice from Blogger Team
It is absolutely a total waste of time to go through these changes with the Discussion page. I see on there where some people haven't received a response for thier issue. Trying to work this out just adds to already existing frustration!...grrrr!
I think I will see out another engine to blog to see if I get better results. I don't want to take a chance of getting my blog back only for it to happen again and again with no guarantee or solution towards it NOT happening again. I don't know what else to do.
This is SOOOO ridiculous!!!
Please post your report in BHF: Something Is Broken.
I have requested an actual person look over the blog to ensure that it's not a spamblog, so I'm pretty confident I'll get it back.
What irks me most about all this is the following:
(1) it happened for no reason that I can see. Nothing has changed on my blog, I've not added anything, or removed anything, I just got deleted out of the blue. Maybe there was a reason for it, but I sure can't see it. How did I trip the spam filters?
(2) It happened without the decency of a warning first.
(3) There is seemingly no recourse, no way of telling I'll get anything back, no way of telling how long it will take, and no way of accessing my own information until then. Reading through the responses on this and various other forums, I may never get it back, so I have to count on losing it forever.
Google's famous line of "don't be evil" sure took a knock for me today. Even if I manage to get my data back, I don't know if I want to trust a host again that deletes my stuff for no reason and no recourse.
My question for you is this - how can I get to my blog, even if I have to wait before I can post to it again?
If you have any influence over any of this, please ask "them" to keep people more informed. This was a huge shock to me, and even more so when there was no "click here for the next step" process for me to follow.
My blog started out as a hobby but it's become a part of my life. I can't imagine i'm the only blogger to feel like this. Google ripped out a part of me today. Sure feels evil to me.
- Jack Machiela,
http://nznoldor.blogspot.com/
ps - please don't ask me to post to "BHF: Something is broken" - it's telling me it's closed to posting since it's become an archive. Another dead end.
I am in your BHF discussion, and I'm working on getting your blog reviewed. I hear your frustration, and believe me, I have been there. This issue has many, many details. Ask any questions, I'll try to answer them, but I'll give you lots of reading, too.
Just like Jack , my email and blog was disabled by Google this morning. Only thing recently I added was a voting button from
"http://ta.indli.com/"
Lots of bloggers in India have this voting button in their blogs. I have emailed google and they say my email account has disabled because of violation of terms and Conditions. I have not done anything. Can anyone help me
If your blogs are attached to your email account, and your blogs are classified as spam, your email account is vulnerable.
You're going to have to start with the Blogger 4 step process in BHF: Something Is Broken, and get the blogs reviewed.
The last blog to go, I just changed the design and put one post per page AND WITH IN HOURS IT WAS PULLED BY THE BOT !!... This blog had a personal story on it so HOW COULD IT BE SPAM?????????????????????
I GIVE UP... I'M DELETING MY BLOGS MYSELF because my main blog which I have spent years getting a following COULD BE NEXT !!!!!!
GOOGLE is no longer a great place to blog from!
Thanks for your thoughts.
Advice on the different styles, graphics, structures and functions a website will be at least as complex as advice on advertising a blog, or developing content for a blog, or publishing a blog to a non BlogSpot URL.
I appreciate your confidence in me. Why not start with my general advice, on getting started? I suspect that won't give you the details - but based on how Blogger Engineering develops and supports their platform, that will provide a framework so you can research the details, and ask the necessary questions.
Keep an open mind, as you ask the questions - and subscribe to my Magic email feed, as a start!
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Getting%20Readers%20and%20Traffic
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Content
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Custom%20Domains
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/search/label/Getting%20Started
https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Nitecruzr-Blogging-Magic&loc=en_US