Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Insult


This morning in my email was the following message:
Hello,

Your blog at: http://surgeonsblog.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at [link deleted by me.]

Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and your readers will see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, your blog will be deleted in 20 days.
But the real insult was in following the link to explanations, finding this (emphasis mine):
As with many powerful tools, blogging services can be both used and abused. The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site

So much for my assertions that this blog has been of value, or, at least, once was.

I should add that in order to perform any action in posting, I now have to do a word verification. The distortion of the letters is so extreme that I can barely read them. So you might not actually be seeing this. I await the judgment of the blogger overlords. Meanwhile, I'll have the words in my brain:
irrelevant, repetitive, nonsensical. Alas, it is I.

13 comments:

Jens Knudsen (Sili) said...

It could conceivably be because you've just started posting again after a long hiatus. They may suspect hijacking in that case.

At least I don't recall you linking the same thing twice.

JSnowden said...

"Meanwhile, I'll have the words in my brain: irrelevant, repetitive, nonsensical."

They obviously have you confused with the former administration! Hang in there, we who read you know all too well how relevant and common sense you are, even if you do have to repeat yourself.

Not Important said...

There should be some kind of award with a gold statuette for this honor.

Another blogger I know told me that a disgruntled reader complained to Blogger, and similar things happened to her. I wonder if any of your Cutting Through the Cr@p "friends" greased the skids for this auto-tagging.

rlbates said...

Agree with the above. Hang in there as I am glad you are blogging here again!

Unknown said...

just voicing my support as well ;)

Clinton said...

just make sure that you don't give out your username and password through an email... they can get hijacked and no respectable organization will EVER request that of you.

Glad that you're posting again, in spite of the additional roadblocks... love your blog! :)

Bongi said...

ditto comments

Anonymous said...

I would be very very surprised if what you just described was not a phishing scam of some sort. I'm not asking for your username or password at all, but if you email me the link they wanted you to click on, I can tell you for sure one way or the other.

Sid Schwab said...

Mike: that was my first thought. So I went to my blog "dashboard" directly, not using the link they sent, and there, in red, was the warning that my blog was being tagged as a possible spam blog. So I think it's real. Not serious, but real: I assume when a human looks, instead of some sort of screening software, it'll be okay.

But it's interesting that after 2+ years, something triggered it. For that I have no explanation. I provide lots of links, but they're to varied sources, all related to my topic.

SeaSpray said...

Well...could we all storm blogger on your behalf?! I go MIA for a bit and now you're spamming! ;)

You have one of the best med blogs and are a gifted writer.

Obviously it is a glitch... or someone feeling competitive with you.

I have a friend who's e-mail was reported as spam by a disgruntled former co-worker underling. She had been sending out mailings to her regular business group, there was a falling out of sorts and woman then reported her as spam.

Apples and oranges..I know... but point is an individual was behind it. I don't think that is likely in this case tho and you just triggered a warning.

Seriously... can we help?

Sid Schwab said...

Seaspray: I'm thinking it's just a glitch in their screening software. I'm expecting to be fine when they get around to having a human look at it.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Sid. Those words certainly do not apply to your blog. I hope they correct it soon!

Bardiac said...

I got the same message a year or so ago, and know some other folks did also. I think it's just an attempt to clear out spam blogs and old un-attended blogs.

I, too, am glad to read this blog (though I liked the other, too).

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