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Please, Do Not Misuse "Report Abuse"!

We see odd abuse issues reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - like blog owners reporting a blog with recycling abuse status.
My blog was locked one day, unlocked the next, then locked again the following day. Help!
Generally, this will be a simple case of borderline abuse / spam content or techniques.

Sometimes, the cause of the recycling status is more subtle, than being solely the fault of the owner.

Abuse classification is fuzzy and heuristic. Sometimes, the fuzziness involves unknown third parties.

Account / blog recovery, with demographic verification, is a frustrating process.

Recovery of blogs, when the account details are forgotten or the owner travels, is a frustrating process. Some well meaning persons have been known to provide misleading advice, to someone unable to recover control of their Blogger account.
If you can't recover control, have the blog deleted, by reporting it as abusive.
This was a last ditch effort, that occasionally yielded amazing results.
The blog is gone! Yes!!
But not always were the long term results pleasant.

Occasional malicious abuse blog reporting contributes here.

Occasionally, a blog may be reported as abusive by a devious third party - and the innocent owner would have the blog reviewed, and restored. And Blogger Policy Review improved their abuse reported deletion standards.

And fuzzy, heuristic classification and review can cause side effects.

And another scenario may be seen. Since abuse classifications are fuzzy, and heuristic, any activity in the abuse classification - review process, initiated by reversed abuse reports, can still affect automated classification.





A blog being reported as abusive can affect the classification filters - and cause other blogs to be similarly classified. Similarly, a blog reviewed and restored can cause other similar blogs, deleted or locked as abusive, to be reviewed and restored. And there, we see the repeated, contradictory email from Blogger.

All of this starts so innocently, with someone who can not delete their blog because they lost control of the owner account. And that person, maybe having their unwanted blog deleted, will never know of the confusion, caused by their misuse of the abuse reporting process.

Comments

dolorah said…
Thanks for all your helpful posts over this last year nitecruzer. They have been a valued service. Happy New Year :)

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