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Deletion Is Seldom The Answer

Many imaginative blog owners are finding out, from time to time, that deletion is not the way to continue - or to start over.
I deleted my blog, and now I can't recreate it!
and
My domain is offline, and the registrar refuses to help me!
or even
I deleted my post, and now I get a weird URL!
Each of these complaints are examples of people who tried to delete something to get something done, to a Blogger blog. In the first two cases, they were trying to transfer control (a blog, to a different Blogger account / a domain, to a different domain registration); in the latter case, they were trying to clear out unwanted content from a blog post.

In neither of these cases did the blog owner accomplish the attempted goal.

For many years, we have been trying to teach people that you cannot delete a blog, as part of transfer control of a blog URL to another Blogger account. To transfer control of a blog URL, you have to use the blog ownership / permission wizard, properly. Since Blogger has grown tired of dealing with people who deleted their blogs, only to see later that spammers had picked up the URL, and were now using their hard work (and accumulated search engine reputation), Blogger will lock URLs of deleted blogs to the account doing the deletion. The URL Lock is reported, in some cases, to be bypassed after 90 days - but this appears to be inconsistently the case.

Recently, we've seen hopeful domain owners, envious of the benefits of domains purchased using "Buy a domain", who have tried to transfer control of their domains by deleting them. This, too, is an attempt bound to fail. You can transfer control of a domain from one registrar to another - but the transfer is very formal, and subject to timing restrictions. You cannot transfer control of a domain, to the special eNom / GoDaddy / Google hosting.

And finally, for some time, we have been instructing people that deleting a post, to simply clear out the content before re using the post title, is likewise a bad idea. A post, once deleted, cannot be recreated under that same Title and URL.

In all three of these attempts, the goal of deletion is not accomplished. In the latter case, it's possible to recreate the deleted post, to it's exact state before deletion - simply leaving the blog owner exactly where he started, no farther. In the former case, the blog owner is left in an indeterminate state, unable to go backwards or forwards. In no case is anything better than a waste of time the result.

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Comments

kenju said…
P.S. I have thought about deleting the whole blog - but per your post today - that will not be a good idea.

I abandoned an old blog a few years back. If I go back to posting at that blog, will the warning follow me?
Kays Heavenly said…
Hi. Can u pls do me a favor. My blog shows "you're about to be redirected". It has been like since2 weeks. Need ur asst. Tqvm. www.kays-heavenly.com

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