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Filters Interfere With Private / Team Blog Membership

We see occasional reports of people unable to accept membership in a private or team blog.

Even when an invitation is sent repeatedly, and accepted properly, some prospective blog members can't achieve membership.
This blog is open to invited readers only

http://myownbloggerblog.blogspot.com/
It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog.
We see this periodically, when trying to view a private blog - or access a team blog as an administrator. Even after accepting membership, some people may see this message.

Like problems with posting comments, with Reading List access and maintenance, and with restricting and viewing Stats, accepting and maintaining membership in a private or team blog requires identification.

Identification requires the Blogger / Google authentication cookie. And as with other Blogger applications, access to the Blogger login and blog membership cookies is affected by cookie and script filters.

There are 3 essential tasks, in accepting membership in a private or team blog.
  1. Locate, and open, the email message.
  2. Accept the invitation.
  3. Access the blog, after accepting the invitation.
Each of these tasks is vulnerable to filtering, in some way.

Locate, and open, the email message.
Email messages are vulnerable to filtering, by the various email systems. Even GMail is known to filter email from other Google hosts, inappropriately.

Accept the invitation.
The invitation is a time sensitive certificate, which offers membership to one person. Aggressive script filtering may prevent proper execution of a membership acceptance.

Access the blog, after accepting the invitation.
Access to a private or team blog requires a membership cookie. Aggressive cookie filtering may prevent identification of the new member, similar to one problem with the Reading List.

Cookie and script filtering components can be found in ad blockers, in malware / spam filters, in performance optimisers, and in every security suite that can be added to any computer. And filters can become a problem because of updates, and various other reasons.

None of those problems will be foreseen by the computer owner, who will complain
I didn't change a thing! It was fine last week - but it's broken, now!!
And in this case, the owner will be correct - but will still have a Blogger account, unable to access the blog when invited.

Like the latest Reading List problem, if the account owner can't be identified, he / she may not be able to join a private / team blog - or even if able to join, may not be able to use the new membership.

If the account is broken on one computer, it may still be usable on another. If this is true, the computer owner needs to take the responsibility for identifying the errant filter, on the problem computer - and configure it properly.

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