The Real Blogger Status

If your blog does not get a lot of comments, you may be unused to receiving multiple comments, for the same post, in one day. If you do one day get multiple comments, in the same day, for one post, you may not be prepared for the effect of Conversation email formatting, used by GMail. When an email message is received in your Inbox, on the same day as a previous email message with the same Subject line, GMail will display both email messages as one message, in a "Conversation". This gives you two or more email messages - such as comment moderation (or notification) - displayed under the same GMail index entry. When you click on the index entry, you will see both comment moderation (notification) messages displayed, one after the other, in the "message".

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.

Some blog owners install an email based "Contact Me" form on their blogs - then worry if the contact attempts are getting to them, when sent by their readers. Occasionally, blog readers may wonder if their contact forms, which they submit, are actually being read. In both cases, besides the chance that the messages are not being read because of a full email Inbox, there is the chance that the messages just are not getting to the email Inboxes. The Blogger supplied "Contact" form uses email for contact delivery - and this is where many contact delivery problems start. Whether you are a blog owner, or reader, these are issues which involve you.

We've been discussing the problem of email filtering , and missing email, for some time. Some blog members / owners are certain that their missing email isn't caused by filters. I looked in "Bulk" / "Spam"! The email isn't there, either - it simply does not get delivered!! These people are certain that Blogger just is not sending the email. In some cases, the problem is not with "Bulk" / "Spam" filters - it is with anti-spoofing filters - and email detected as spoofed, generally, is "bounced".

Long ago, when diagnosing a problem thought to involve email, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , we would ask a very simple question Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address? And we would carefully add Please, do not state your email address, here! The latter request was to prevent theft of peoples Blogger accounts .

Blogger blog owners may have productive action, when their Blogger accounts are successfully hacked through an attack on their GMail accounts. GMail account owners can get detailed instructions on recovering a successfully hacked account, and on preventing future hacking attacks from being successful. Some of the instructions are specific to GMail use - but overall, Blogger account owners will benefit from their use.

We've known for a while about the limited ability for Blogger to restore a deleted blog . Recently, we learned about a second, and possibly more severe, restore limit. Google Accounts: Deleting or restoring a Google account warns us that the ability to restore a deleted Google account is limited. If you accidentally deleted your Google Account, you can attempt to restore it by going to our password assistance page within a limited window of time after deletion. Without any authoritative source to quote, I am told that the "limited window" is less than a business week. If you delete your Google account, you have to have the account restored - not recreated - if you hope to regain use of your Blogger account - and (if necessary) have your blogs also restored. If this happens, you will need to act quickly - and hope that you can provide the necessary details , to regain control of your account and / or blogs. >> Top

Blogger uses the Google "One account" login to identify you, when your identity is important. Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we still see evidence of confusion. Some time ago, Google started making users to sign in with a Google address. I did not want a Google email address, but since Blogger was requiring it, I had to make one. I never had any intention of using it, but only wanted to use Blogger. Why did Google make the sign in procedure for Blogger the same as Google mail? This person, as with other Blogger blog owners, does not understand the difference between a Google account, and a GMail (Google email) account .

This week, we're seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , of disabled Blogger and GMail accounts, again with ominous warnings of "suspicious activity" or "unusual activity" on your account. Besides a disabled Blogger account, loss of AdSense, Blogger, Picasa, and other services is reported. This is similar to an earlier experience from May 2011 .

We've known for some time, about problems with GMail based Google accounts, and reports of disabled accounts with mysterious mention of "unusual activity on your account". This problem gives frustrated Blogger blog owners yet another exercise in frustration, where they spend time getting their Google accounts reactivated. This month, we are seeing reports of another, rather alarming detail, now involving Picasa.

We've been seeing too many complaints from blog owners who never bothered to remember their Blogger account name or password, and who now cannot login to Blogger . Help me! My email address changed last month, and now I can't sign in to my blog! Everybody makes mistakes - but not all mistakes are equal in consequence.

This week, we're seeing another round of GMail accounts being disabled, again (in some cases) with mysterious mention of "unusual activity on your account". Besides the GMail / Google account being disabled, the predictable loss of AdSense, Blogger, Picasa, and other services is reported. This is similar to an earlier experience from February 2011 .

Right now, we are seeing a small but steady stream of blog owners who are reporting disabled Google accounts, which are causing widely varied secondary symptoms. Some blog owners report disabled Blogger accounts, with either locked or deleted blogs. Other Google services, such as Orkut, Picasa, and YouTube, may or may not be affected. This scenario is similar to - and possibly confused with - the earlier reported Problems With Spam Classification - February 2011 , but with one notable difference - the earlier problem involved instructions to authenticate ownership of blogs affected. In this case, it's not possible to do that, as the Google accounts are then described as disabled. There is no forum rollup discussion, as the symptoms are too varied, and too easily confused with normal spam deletions / locked blogs. If your Google or GMail account is disabled, I'll ask that you start a new discussion or post into an existing discussion started by you (please, no piggybacki...

The Mail-to-Blogger feature of Blogger has intrigued me for a while. It's a neat way to get people to send email to your blog, and can even be used to have more than 100 named individuals publish to a private blog. But there are several limitations that have always bothered me.