Friday, August 1, 2008

Locked Out!

I've been locked out! Blogger, the host of my blog, locked me out of my blog! I received this email today:

"Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog."

Apparently, Google, the owner of Blogger, sends out "robots" looking for spam blogs which can be recognized by their "irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site."

Why my blog fit their "algorithm" for spam I do not know. I hope my posts aren't irrelevant or nonsensical, since I've authored over 750 posts, all different, and containing over 1500 photos!

I then "appealed" and received this email:

"Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive. We received your unlock request on August 1, 2008. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam."

Since you are reading this, it means I have finally been "unlocked" and am back in business! Hooray! Maybe I am relevant and "sensical."

NOTE: Blogger posted this today:

"... sometimes we have to step in and admit a mistake.

"We've noticed that a number of users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.

"We hope to have this resolved shortly, and appreciate your patience as we work through the kinks."