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.

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.

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.

The first task in starting a new blog involves taking an available blog name (aka "URL"). The rules for picking a blog name are reasonably simple. Pick a blog name. If "Create a blog" gives you that name, it's yours . Continue with #4. If "Create a blog" shows "Sorry!", pick another name, and continue with #2. Setup your new blog. Some folks need even simpler rules. If "Create a blog" gives you the name of your choice, it's yours. If "Create a blog" does not give you that name, you have to pick another. Which ever rules you wish to go by, the "Create a blog" wizard has the final say .

We are currently seeing frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about new blog creation. Would be new blog owners have various concerns I can't create a blog - the "Create" button is grey (inoperative)! or It keeps saying Verifying availability when I enter a blog name!! or even It said This blog address is available. until I hit "Create blog!" - then it changed to Sorry, this blog address is not available.

Too many Blogger blog owners, seeking recovery of a long dormant account, overlook the realities of the Blogger business relationship . I started the blog 10 years ago, I have forgotten the password, the email address is long gone - and I need the blog deleted now. When told that deletion is not possible , if you cannot provide proof of ownership, they next ask for personal assistance. But isn't there a person to whom I can explain my problem? Surely we can reach some understanding! The reality is that Blogger wants to help their customers - when helping their customers provides them some business benefit.

The practice of " Due Diligence " is a responsible precaution, taken by all businesses that have any future as businesses. Blogger / Google, being a business, subscribes to this practice. This affects their involvement with us, their "customers", in various ways - though not all "customers" understand the implications. Some blog owners find out about the limitations unwillingly, in discussions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken .

The process of "bidding" determines who is best suited to take on a given task, in some multi party games and relationships. In the game of Contract Bridge , the players of the game get a chance to assess their personal holdings of the cards dealt to them, and the probable holdings of their prospective partner and opponents - and predict the number of rounds ("tricks") that they expect to win, in the game to come. In the "game" of construction bidding , contractor firms get the chance to predict how much funds they will require, to perform a given project, given the chance by the firm bidding the project. In both cases, different parties bid for the right to perform a task. Some would be blog owners think that procedure should apply to blog ownership. I want this URL - It's the perfect URL for my needs - for my blog. The URL is in use, but it hasn't been updated, recently. Why can't Blogger give me that URL?

The controversy continues, in that many bloggers cannot think of a URL for their blog, other than ones that are already taken. Some are so desperate that they think of imaginative but Pyrrhic solutions. Solution here would be a way to report this as a kind of abuse (Yes I know it's not really abuse in any form) or otherwise get in contact with the owner. And I don't mean hunting down the contact information from the web as it practically newer works. I mean there should be an option "I would like to contact the owner of this blog" or something similar. Here we see two alternatives, neither with any future.