The Real Blogger Status

Not all blog owners are willing to accept their blog being accessed behind a reader applied Content Warning. We see occasional signs of lack of understanding, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Why is my blog blocked, by Google? It is a legitimate blog, with a serious subject!! This blog owner considers the needs of his blog above the general Blogger reader population. For best results, the desire to display, without the warning, needs to be accompanied by a willingness to remove content, when necessary. Right now, the readers have spoken .

From time to time, we've had various queries about content segregation, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger How do I publish adult content, in a section of my blog? Previously, the best answer would typically start with a blog cluster . Publish a second blog, with different content - then merge the two blogs. That's an interesting answer - but it's messy - and two blogs don't aggregate search engine traffic properly. Using a combination of custom redirects, label searches, and static pages, you can make a blog within a blog, to host your mildly adult content.

Some blog owners keep coming back, requesting review, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . My blog has been deleted and restored, repeatedly. Last time, after Blogger unblocked my blog, I received this email ....Upon further review we have determined that your blog was mistakenly marked as a TOS violator by our automated system and, as such, we have reinstated your blog... That was just last month. This month, the same thing, my blog is gone again. This blog owner is failing to read the handwriting on the wall. Unfortunately, to have any future, a blog requires continual new material.

Spend some time surfing Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - both in detail, for recent periods - and random sampling, over long periods. Read the comments, and questions. You'll see both complaints about spammy (aka "abusive") content - and objectionable (aka "adult") content. And, you'll see review requests, referencing previous abusive and adult content penalties. Given enough surfing, you'll discover that each is simply the other side of the same coin.

We've been providing advice for blog owners, unhappy about unfair spam classification, for a few years, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Some blog owners have similar questions about unfair objectionable content classification. Content Warning Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger  Terms of Service . These blog owners, seeing how objectively we are able to evaluate spam classifications, request similar service for content classifications.

Not all blog owners understand the necessity of having unique content , as the basis for a healthy blog. We see questions periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about inappropriate use of content from other blogs and websites. Why was my Blogger account deleted? I never argue when given copyright notices! or Why don't I have any readers? I have great content - the other blogs, where I get the content, get lots of traffic.

We see many questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about blog content, and (lack of) appreciation by the readers. Occasionally, people become concerned about activity of the people reading their blogs - why they get so many new visitors (but nobody returns later, to read more), or why the main page is so well read (but nobody reads the archived posts). In other cases, they wonder why the blog was deleted - even though it had the required warning protecting it - or maybe why the content warning is there . And sometimes, they may wonder why so many people read the blog, but nobody comments on the posts.

We've been helping Blogger blog owners deal with spurious fuzzy content classification , for many years. We started out, long ago, with blogs deleted because of spam classification. Later, Blogger added malware classification - and most recently, porn classification ("adult content", with objectionable advertisements). These three classification categories involve fuzzy blog content analysis.

This week, we're seeing some reports from a few blog owners who recently received a disturbing email message, mentioning their blogs and adult advertisements. I received an email stating I have adult content on my blog, and that a new policy will cause certain blogs to be deleted. Is my blog vulnerable to deletion, under this new policy? Like many spammers, these blog owners may be asking for a whitelisting of their blog - which is something that Blogger just won't provide .

Some blog owners find evidence of opinion from their viewers, but cannot accept the opinions expressed. Why is there a "Content Warning" on my blog? They don't understand the collaborative opinion being expressed, when this warning is displayed.

In the latest round of controversy about the interstitial warning display, we see reports from more publishers of "adult content" blogs, reporting inability to try the dynamic templates on their blogs. Why are Dynamic Views not available for my blog? Is this yet another conspiracy against "adult content" blogs? From what I can tell, it's simply another scenario where the interstitial warning causes problems.

Just last month, we observed a problem with Blogger Stats displays, which was diagnosed to involve the "Content Warning" Interstitial display . The problem was escalated to Blogger Support - who fixed the underlying problem, and who is now working on a second problem , possibly a problem which resulted from the fixing of the first problem. Many blog owners who suffered from the first problem are also suffering from the second problem - and some blog owners are confusing the two problems. Some of the latter are not being objective, and are angrily accusing Blogger of ignoring them, in their hour of need. Very few of the people reporting the second problem have spent a great deal of time objectively evaluating the urgency of that problem. Stats is not a major functionality in Blogger blogs. It's a feature that helps the blog owner evaluate blog traffic. Lack of a Stats display (let alone one portion of a Stats display) does not affect blog functionality. The reader...

Last week, we observed a problem with Blogger Stats displays, which was traced to the involvement of the "Content Warning" Interstitial display . The problem was escalated to Blogger Support - who fixed the underlying problem, to some degree. Now, we have reports which show that Stats is now displaying figures for "Traffic Sources" and for "Audiences" - but not for Posts. The details of the displays for the different time ranges - "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", and "All time" are interesting - and noting the varying reports, from the different blog owners affected by the problem, is also interesting. One of the more obvious observations comes from the nature of what has been fixed, to date. I see counts for Audience, and for Traffic Sources - but my Posts display still shows No stats yet, check back later. This is because the Content Warning interstitial display has apparently been corrected to allow...

Recently, we're seeing quite a few owners of "adult content" and private blogs reporting problems with their Stats displays. Blogger Stats are no longer counting! and On my Stats display, the pageview counts have not changed since this morning!! and Stats aren't loading, for my blog! These reports are coming from owners of various blogs which have an Interstitial Warning display in front of their blogs - either because the blog is subject to an "Adult Content" warning , or because the blog is published privately . The Interstitial Warning has been known for other instances of interference with visitor information . We have a rollup discussion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where this problem is being explored, in detail. From what we can tell, this problem started sometime late 3/26 Pacific time. >> Top

Occasionally, a blog owner may find his blog prefaced by one of two possible content warnings. The two warnings may look the same (to some folks), but they are set - and removed - in completely different ways. Blog owners need to understand the differences.

Magic shows have been around for centuries - the world is full of magic, when we don't understand what's going on. URL redirection is a Blogger magic trick , similar to the disappearing quarter - a common sleight of hand trick in stage magic performances. Another Blogger magic trick, and one which not all bloggers or blog viewers appreciate, is the interstitial warning display. Interstitial warnings pop up like magic, where you (or your prospective viewer) would least expect them. In front of a "private" blog, where you have to identify yourself to continue. In front of a blog that contains (or is reputed to contain) objectionable material (naughty pictures or such). In front of a blog that is (or appears to be) published off site. In front of a blog that has been blocked, for TOS violation, or maybe for hosting hacking content.

Recently, the political blog "The Girl In Short Shorts" was judged by a number of bloggers to contain objectionable visual content, and was flagged by a substantial number of would be readers. Its readers are now greeted by an interstitial warning, and are forced to click once on a button before being able to view the blog. Many readers of the blog are now protesting in Blogger Help Forum , in ignorance of the reasons for the interstitial warning. Their actions are similar to those of the readers of The Daily Coyote, last year . To the owners of the blog: You need to contact your readers, and advise them to knock it off. You aren't bothering Blogger (this is a weekend) - but you are interfering with other bloggers being helped, because of your Denial Of Service technique (intentional or not). If you don't want your readers to have to click on the interstitial button (once per reader, only), remove the problem pictures. (Update 7/21): Rick Klau, Blogger Product Ma...

The "Content Warning" advisory page , appearing ahead of blogs with questionable content, protects the casual blog surfer from viewing content which may be objectionable to some readers. It's presence on any given blog is supposedly the result of voluntary action by a blog owner, who can set "Adult Content?" to "Yes", at his / her discretion. The presence of the advisory page, supposedly has slight effect upon prospective readers of the blog. Prospective readers must read the notice, and decide whether they wish to view possibly gratuitous content, and that after they click through the notice. The blog, when listed in a search hit list, will show the text of the content warning, in place of the blog description and post extract. Recent claims by some readers make it appear that this setting may be, in some cases, not set voluntarily, and that it has additional consequences. The warning page also seems to interfere with the ownership verification pro...

For many years, using "Next Blog" for surfing through the Blogosphere has been a dodgy activity. No matter when you surfed, you were sure to find something pretty nasty , and frequently hazardous to the health of your computer (and maybe to you). In January 2008, that changed . Blogger started scanning blogs for undesirable content, and blocked many nasty blogs from being targeted by "Next Blog" surfing. Besides using automated blog scanning, they also provided a voluntary classification of our blogs.

Until January 2008, Blogger maintained the Blogosphere very loosely. As a result, the "Next Blog" link in the Navbar would, quite likely, load on your computer a blog which you wouldn't want your kids to view. This was the result of what I believe to be a well organised criminal, hacking campaign which used BlogSpot.Com to host blogs that led, intentionally, to hacking content designed to make your computer part of another botnet . There was a side effect to the hacking activity. The front end to that activity used porn - in various forms - to entice the reader to click into the blogs containing the hacking activity. And, with the thousands of blogs that were part of the hacking activity, came the smaller operators, who innocently provided adult content, though not with illegal activity intended. Personal blogs, that contain porn.