The Real Blogger Status

One topic of frustration, occasionally seen in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , involves home based business blogs, that may be victims of their own success . We are not spam - we are a network of blog owners, in select cities all over the country. I am tired of hearing the apologies, this needs to be resolved. The blog owner is being quite polite, but insistent. Blog clusters, whether developed by home / small business owners, or malicious spammers, create problems for all Blogger blog owners. Home / small business blogs are clearly not intentional spam - but their structure makes them easy to mistake for spam blog farms .

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 .

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.

With Blogger blogs becoming more popular in countries where English is not the native language, we've seen a lot of blogs classified as spam - both righteously, and spuriously. Most spam reviews, originally, involved blogs with commercial spam - excessive advertisements, with little subject content. As the focus of spam classification shifted to blogs with content, we've been seeing more non commercial classifications - large blogs with unfocused subjects, and content scraped or syndicated. Combining the two trends - more blogs in non English languages, and spam classifications which focus on non commercial content, we see blogs which require more people to review. And the people required need familiarity with the languages, and the subjects, of the blogs which need review.

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.

Occasionally, we see a report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , that reflects on the reader audience - not necessarily only the blog content. Why is my blog behind a Content Warning? Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable. Occasionally, a quick eyeballing of the blog in question may turn up some dodgy content, which may be suggested, in the forum, as problematic. This story may not end immediately. But, I've had that picture gallery, for years! Why did I just get the Content Warning? Here, the blog owner is not considering changing standards - or the possibility that the blog, becoming more popular, may be adding readers who don't appreciate a photo gallery started years ago.

In the modern legal system, justice is (supposedly) available to all citizens - regardless of colour, crede, or financial status - equally. In the Blogger legal system, justice (as in porn / spam classification, or URL availability ) is available to all bloggers - equally. If your blog is unjustly accused of hosting hacking, porn, and / or spam content, or if your blog is unfairly placed behind a content warning , you (the blog owner) are responsible for getting the wrong righted. Due diligence requires that the blog owner has to report any problem with any Blogger blog. Regardless of how many anxious readers your blog may serve, you the owner have to request a review, when the blog is unjustly classified, deleted or locked. And, you have to do so promptly. Blogger must serve owners of small and unpopular blogs equally, with owners of large and popular ones. The blog readers are not part of the review process. The only question is Does the blog host hacking, objectionable, p...