The Real Blogger Status

Over the years, we've seen various problem reports mentioning attempted use of SMS for identity verification, for emergency Blogger account access. It's possible that SMS based identity verification is one more service that has been replaced - by Google 2 Step Verification.

In BlogLovin, the ownership verification process is termed "claiming your blog". Claiming your blog involves installing a BlogLovin link, with embedded token, on your blog where it can be seen, by the BlogLovin claim verification process. Getting the claim link, from the BlogLovin dashboard, is not an obvious process.

We're seeing a few blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , reporting new custom domains that don't work - or that worked for a while, then stopped working. Domains purchased through Google Domains, and other registrars, need ownership email verification. When you buy a domain, you get various email messages - from your registrar, and your bank, for instance. Some, you file without opening.

One devious way of attacking people, before the Internet, was to drown them in mail, such as unwanted magazines. Long ago, people with too much available time would fill out forms in their victims name - and subscribe her / him to assorted unwanted magazines. Nowadays, one might do that with email, to people unwise enough to publicise their account name or email address . Blogger has similar options that may let us annoy people, also - possibly, inadvertently .

Part of the spam review process involves verifying that a spam review request is needed. Not every blog owner understands the reason for not requesting spam review, needlessly. A blog has to be owned under the Google account being used, and locked as a suspected spam host, for a spam review to be useful. A spam review, when properly conducted, starts with the "Restore" / "Review" buttons, in the "Deleted blogs" section of the personal Blogger dashboard. As of December 2014, the "Restore" / "Review" buttons are not working for everybody - and this is causing some confusion.