The Real Blogger Status

Blog owners do not always understand the reasons behind the mysterious blog security check (following "suspicious" / "unusual" activity account lock). We see periodic complaints about deleted blogs and locked accounts - and the inconvenience involved, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I get the security and all - but I don't get how a blog is just deleted. This blog owner, like so many, does not understand how Blogger is trying to keep our blogs under our control - even after detection of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity.

Blog owners periodically report seeing "their" blog online - but not being able to access Blogger, to control it. It's my blog - but when I login, I'm forced to an older blog, that I don't care about! The person reporting this discrepancy may or may not own the blog in question - and we need to diagnose the reason for the discrepancy . Similar to spam review , we employ a diagnostic technique known as triage. Triage starts with standard diagnoses.

We see the frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , almost daily. My blog has disappeared from my dashboard, and my subscribers are getting spam! How do I get my blog returned to me? and I got a new computer, and now I can't access my blog. Who can I call at Google, to get this fixed?? These are two blog owners who have the same problem, but do not understand the connection.

Some blog owners keep reporting problems with comment replies never posting to their blog - or being received by the comment publisher - in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When I reply to blog comments through GMail, the reply doesn't show up on my blog. or My readers never get my replies, to their comments! This blog owner is trying to use a feature that should exist - but simply is not available.

We see evidence of naivete, about responsibilities of Blogger custom domain publishing, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Why does Google not support the blog owners properly, with a telephone number to call, so they can fix domain publishing problems? Some blog owners don't understand the concept of third party products, and Blogger. Just as your Blogger (and Google) account is your own property , so is your domain manager account.

My Blogger account, and my blogs, are my property. Your Blogger account, and blogs, are your property. This is a concept that not everybody seems to understand. Just as you cannot login to my account, I cannot login to your account - nor can Blogger Support or Google Security login to your account. If you have a problem with your account, we will do our best to advise you how to resolve your problem - if at all possible. You have to do the work, though.

Google has been playing games with their online products, so much, that some people seem to ignore the seriousness of the issues. We see the occasional naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I feel like Google has gone over some sort of security event horizon -- trying so hard to evade hackers that too many authentic account holders are getting locked out, irreparably. This would be blog owner (or possibly, blog thief) feels that she should not be responsible for remembering the necessary details , to login to her Blogger account. Alternately, she should cruise through account recovery, with no challenges.

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. 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.

Some blog owners make no effort to remember their account name / password - then become unhappy when Blogger won't bend their rules, to accommodate them. Google cut off my access to my account, when it went through changes several years ago. I can't login - and I really want access to my blog! As long as account / blog recovery has to be restricted, to protect us against blog theft, some blog owners will be unable to use the recovery process - because they don't have the necessary details, to verify themselves.

Too many would be blog owners (blog thieves?) complain how unhelpful Blogger is - and even, that Blogger is fraudulently denying them access to their Blogger account, and their blogs. They fail to acknowledge that Blogger / Google has a responsibility to millions of blog owners, who remember their login details - and who do not want thieves stealing their blogs . If you need assistance recovering control of your account and your blog(s), you need to help Blogger to help you. Prepare to provide proof that you are (should be) the account owner.

Someone publishing a blog, that supports a web based business, may use email to communicate with the customers - and possibly, to distribute the product. With a Blogger blog involved, use of email, to communicate with people who you don't know, creates a security risk . A blog, supporting a web based product, may look more interesting to hackers. If it's worth publishing by the owner, it's worth stealing. If the owner uses email, to communicate with customers or distribute the product, some owners may casually use their Blogger account email - and make their Blogger account vulnerable to brute force account hacking. Some owners may even include password hints, in the blog content - making the hackers job easier. At minimum, a successfully stolen blog may be worth a ransom demand, since the blog likely has commercial value. What enterprising hacker wouldn't invest a few extra dollars to buy a product, to learn an email address and possibly a Blogger account na...

Occasionally, we see a cry of anguish, about account recovery, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I need to publish my blog, but I forgot the password. I can access my WordPress account though - and my photo - -on my WordPress blog - clearly is me. Can I speak to a real person, so I can get my Blogger blog back? Here, we have a blog owner, who does not understand the relationship between Google, and non Google, services. Different companies, which use the Internet, and / or provide services which let people use the Internet, have their own standards for account maintenance and recovery.

One of the hottest US National news stories, this month, is about Hillary Clinton and how she endangered the security of this country by using an insecure email address . One of her mistakes involved her having a friend who had her email address in his address book, when his email account was hacked. And that is how your friends email accounts can be used, to attack your email account. Even if your email account is not revealed, openly, a friend - or fellow blog owner - who reveals her / his email address, can have his / her Blogger account, blog, and email account stolen. And with the possibility that you and your friend exchange emails, there is vulnerability to your email account, your Blogger account, and your blog .

If you use GMail for your email, you may have seen the opportunities in GMail Settings, which let you manage and use multiple email accounts. GMail lets you use both GMail, and non GMail, email accounts from one - or from different - GMail desktops. This lets you manage multiple email identities from one single GMail account - and gives you opportunities to cause yourself various problems.

We continue to see complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , from people not receiving acceptable help in recovering account / blog control . Some supposed blog owners accuse Blogger of unlawfully denying them access to their blogs , when refused personal attention.

We're seeing reports from people who claim to be traveling, and who can't login and access their blogs. Google appears to now authenticate us using current location, as well as account name / password . We see occasional reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about new security procedures. I am traveling, and I need to access my Blogger account from another country. I know my account name and password - and I logged in successfully. But after logging in, I am still being asked to prove my identity!! This blog owner is finding a problem, with Google taking extra measures to protect our accounts and blogs.

Every day we see the complaints, of the hundreds. Your instructions, for recovering access to my Blogger account, don't work! And alternately, we see the anguish. I can't login to my Blogger account, because my account is locked!! And the final complaint, which is the most heartbreaking. I can login, but my blog is not on my dashboard - and someone has filled my blog, with spam!!! These are all reports about the same problem , in alternate universes. Any time Blogger Engineering changes their account / blog recovery options, and cuts down on the numbers of one of the three, the other two will surely increase in number - because all three are symptoms of the same problem. People simply refuse to remember their account names and passwords .

Most of us, as we surf the Internet, are going to surf some websites, repeatedly. Everybody has favourite websites. When we surf the same website, over and over, some of what we do and see may not change a lot. To keep us from wasting our time, and generating unnecessary network traffic, our browsers keep track of the websites that we visit over and over, save records of what we do and copies of what we see, and note what has changed. The website content, stored locally, is known as "private" data.

Blog owners continue to forget the account name and / or password of their Blogger accounts, then demand alternate recovery options. Every week, we see the reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , claiming that changing their email - or getting a new phone - caused somebody to unfairly lose access to her / his blog. Too many blog owners refuse to understand that the email address and phone number are simply backdoor accesses to their Blogger accounts .

We've seen a few reports, recently, about stolen blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Why is my blog not on my dashboard - and why is somebody else publishing, and using my name? There are so many reports from people who are not using Google "One Account" login properly , that the significance of this problem report was initially overlooked. More than a few such reports started with the blog owner email address being openly disclosed - generally on the blog, or in comments. Too many blog owners want to be contacted - and they innocently provide their email addresses as a contact point. We've known, for years, about disclosed email addresses, and brute force password guessing . That is not the only way your email address can be used, to gain access to your Blogger account, however.