If a Blogger account or blog has been dormant for a while, a sudden burst of activity can just as easily indicate a blog thief at work, as a legitimate owner, recently returned.
When you go on vacation, and are going to be away from your house for an extended amount of time, you are urged to have the lawn attended to while you are gone, suspend mail / newspaper deliveries, and take other precautions. Why? So the house won't appear unattended.
Just as burglars like abandoned houses, blog thieves like abandoned accounts and blogs.
When you return from vacation and are opening the house up for the first time in weeks, an attentive police officer, protecting your neighbourhood, may stop and verify who you are.
Similarly, when you return to your blog after a long period of inactivity, Blogger may check on you.
Prepare to authenticate yourself, when publishing to a dormant blog.
If you login to your Blogger account, and start updating your blog, after the account and blog has been dormant for weeks or months, you may be asked for additional details, to prove that you are the rightful owner.
This is similar to additional details required, when you travel to a distant land, and use Blogger from a different computer. This is not Blogger being vengeful, because you have been inattentive to your blog - it is Blogger protecting your blog, on your behalf.
Research previous Google activity, before starting.
When you return to a long dormant account and blog(s), take some time and again, research your Blogger / Google history.
Be prepared to provide background information - and when you are asked, don't be unhappy. Relax - because this is Blogger, protecting your account and blogs.
And if you don't use Google 2-Step Verification, start using it. I suspect that all of this increases your paranoia - but it shouldn't.
When you go on vacation, and are going to be away from your house for an extended amount of time, you are urged to have the lawn attended to while you are gone, suspend mail / newspaper deliveries, and take other precautions. Why? So the house won't appear unattended.
Just as burglars like abandoned houses, blog thieves like abandoned accounts and blogs.
- With no owner activity, the owner is not likely to inconveniently change the account password, or update the blog, while the thief is at work.
- With no owner activity, the owner is less likely to notice any changes - and to report the theft.
When you return from vacation and are opening the house up for the first time in weeks, an attentive police officer, protecting your neighbourhood, may stop and verify who you are.
Similarly, when you return to your blog after a long period of inactivity, Blogger may check on you.
Prepare to authenticate yourself, when publishing to a dormant blog.
If you login to your Blogger account, and start updating your blog, after the account and blog has been dormant for weeks or months, you may be asked for additional details, to prove that you are the rightful owner.
This is similar to additional details required, when you travel to a distant land, and use Blogger from a different computer. This is not Blogger being vengeful, because you have been inattentive to your blog - it is Blogger protecting your blog, on your behalf.
Research previous Google activity, before starting.
When you return to a long dormant account and blog(s), take some time and again, research your Blogger / Google history.
Be prepared to provide background information - and when you are asked, don't be unhappy. Relax - because this is Blogger, protecting your account and blogs.
And if you don't use Google 2-Step Verification, start using it. I suspect that all of this increases your paranoia - but it shouldn't.
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