Export / Import Requires Administrative Control Of Both Blogs

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see the naive query

How do I merge my two blogs, using Export / Import?

When given the simple advice

Use the "Export blog" and "Import blog" wizards, both in the dashboard Settings - Other menu.

the immediate response is

I don't have that menu item!

This person has, most likely, lost control of the Blogger account.

In order to avoid encouraging scraping of blog contents, both the Export and Import wizards are only available to blog administrators. Not everybody wishing to use "Export blog" has blog ownership, however.

Too many people, denied immediate recovery of control of their blog, just start another blog.

With a new blog, the first thing needed is the content from the old blog. This is not easily had, however - because both "Export blog" and "Import blog" are part of the Blogger dashboard - and can be accessed only by blog owners.

If anybody could use "Export blog", and export the comments and posts from any blog, "Export blog" would be a very popular wizard - to blog thieves. To encourage Export / Import to be used for legitimate purposes, Blogger made it part of the Blogger dashboard - where it is accessible only to blog administrators.

This does not provide a solution for people who have lost control of their Blogger accounts - and who naively figure to start a new blog, and move the contents of the old blog to the new blog. If you're in this situation, you have only two possibilities.

1. Recover comments and posts using blog feeds and online cache.
2. Cluster the new and old blogs - but asymmetrically.

You can link from the new blog back to the old blog, using any combination of imaginative techniques - but without control of the old Blogger account, you're simply not going to be able to link from the old blog to the new blog.

Sorry. Once again, you have to always retain control of your Blogger account.

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Choosing A Name For Your Blog - The Rules Are Simple

The first task in starting a new blog involves picking an available blog name (aka "URL").

The rules for picking a blog name are reasonably simple.

1. Pick a blog name.
2. If "Create a blog" gives you that name, it's yours. Continue with #4.
3. If "Create a blog" shows "Sorry!", pick another name, and continue with #2.
4. Setup your new blog.

Some folks need even simpler rules.

1. If "Create a blog" gives you the name of your choice, it's yours.
2. 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.

There are several reasons why "Create a blog" may not give you the name of your choice.

Some people think that deleted and dormant blogs should be subject to different rules.

I see

Sorry, the blog at thenameofmydreams.blogspot.com has been removed.

Who do I contact, at Google, to have "thenameofmydreams" re issued, to me?

and

The blog at thenameofmydreams.blogspot.com has not been updated for over a year. Who do I contact to have it re issued, to me?

There are several reasons why a blog may have been deleted - and each reason produces different availability issues.

1. If you are (were) the owner, and you deleted it under 90 days ago, you are allowed to un delete it.
2. If you are (were) the owner, and you deleted it over 90 days ago, it is gone.
3. If someone else is (was) the owner, and they deleted it, they likewise have up to 90 days to un delete it.
4. If Blogger deleted it, the owner (you, or another person) has eternity to have it reviewed (and possibly, recovered).

Dormant blogs are simpler to discuss - since dormant blogs, in reality, do not exist. There are no requirements for posting frequency or volume.

If the name is made available by Blogger, then "Create a blog" will be able to assign it to you - if it is available, when you request it. If it's not made available, you can't have it.

Blogger Support said it, so simply.

Blogger accounts and Blogspot addresses do not expire. Therefore, we can't take away somebody's blog address to give to you.

If it's not available, they will not re issue it to you.

If you have a blog to start, pick an available name, today - and get started, today.

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Abuse Reporting Is Not For Deleting A Blog For Which You Lost Control

Sometimes, people lose control of their blog, with no ability to regain control - and simply want the blog deleted.

How do I have Blogger delete the blog, for me, since I can't prove ownership?

When advised that Blogger does not delete blogs on behalf of former owners, the next thought by the former owner is to have the blog deleted as abuse.

What category of Abuse should I use, to have a previously owned blog, deleted?

While not genuinely fraudulent, the latter approach is misuse of the Abuse reporting process.

The Abuse Reporting process is properly used to report blogs owned by another party, for TOS Violations.

Blogger currently provides the Blogger Help: Report abuse form, which has specific categories of abuse.

• Legal issues
• Hate speech, violent or crude content
• Harassment
• Spam, phishing, or malware
• Nudity
• Posting of private information
• Impersonation

All of those categories refer to content published by another person. Nothing there is for reporting a blog previously owned, with control lost by negligence.

Whatever the loss of control, it's yours to correct.

• Corporate blog, control lost.
• Personal blog, control lost.
• Team blog, control stolen.

None of these scenarios warrant abuse / TOS violation reports.

Note a very specific warning, about misuse of the DMCA Violation complaint.

Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

If your company publishes a blog, you are responsible for retaining control of the blog, as with any corporate asset. If you lose control of a corporate asset, you don't contact the vendor, and demand that they delete the asset that you lost. Your problem is with the current owner - whether it's a civil or criminal issue, it's not the responsibility of the vendor to correct an ownership problem.

If the blog was personally yours, and you forgot the account name and / or password, it's your responsibility to regain control.

If the blog was under team ownership, and another team member stole the blog, your problem is with the former team member. If the team member was (righteously or spuriously) classified as a non repentant spammer, you may have to get the blog reviewed, to regain control.

If you believe that you can prove your right to control (or delete) the blog, you may hire a lawyer, and have a judge certify your identity. None of these cases can be resolved, using abuse / TOS violation reporting.

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Empty Or New Blogs Can Be Classified As Possible Spam Hosts

We're seeing a few recent reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from owners of empty and / or new blogs, about spurious spam classification.

Very few owners of empty or new Blogger blogs understand why their blogs should be classified as possible spam hosts, by the Blogger anti-spam processes. Most blog owners seem to think that only blog content is considered, in spam classification.

Spam classification considers many characteristics of a Blogger blog, in classifying any blog as a possible spam host.

Blog content is an obvious - but not the only - factor in spam classification. Given previously observed behaviour of spammers, many characteristics of blogs, besides simply the extracted and analysed content, are used in classifying possible spam blogs. Using fuzzy spam classification techniques, one might also consider

• Overall behaviour in Google, by the owner.
• Past posting habits of the owner.
• Previous classification of similar blogs.

Some spammers are active in multiple Google activities and features. It's possible that some spammers even try to make their spam in Blogger harder to detect, by spreading their activity across other Google functions. Some spammers may not realise that spammy activity in other Google areas can be tracked, and included by Blogger spam classifications processes.

Blog owners who use one or more techniques involved in setting up and maintaining spam blog farms may be classified as spammers - and their blogs then classified as possible spam hosts. The term "blog owner" must itself be considered fuzzily, as some spam blog farms contain blogs owned by multiple Blogger accounts and profiles. Some Blogger accounts, similar to known spammer accounts - even with no blogs owned, or with empty blogs published - may then appear as possible spam hosts.

Empty blogs, that appear similar to blogs in known spam farms, may themselves appear as possible spam hosts. Various details such as blog name, blog design, and use of various blog accessories and features, can make a blog appear similar to known spam blogs - with no other content.

Given the need for Google to reduce the volume of spam blogs, fuzzy spam classification might use any of the above details, in classifying any empty or new blog as a possible spam blog. This will, unfortunately, lead to spurious spam blog detection. Given the ability of spammers to publish multiple blogs in the Blogger name space, classifying empty and new blogs is necessary, in making it possible for Google to keep up with spammy activity.

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Custom Domain Publishing, And Spam Classification

We see the naive question sometimes, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about avoiding spam classification by publishing to a non BlogSpot URL.

Can I keep my blog from being deleted, by publishing to a non BlogSpot URL?

This is a complex question, because custom domain publishing provides several possibilities. But will the possibilities provide an opportunity for avoiding spam classification?

Custom domain publishing, in its simplest form, offers only one immediate benefit.

• The ability to publish to a non BlogSpot URL.

Even when the Blogger blog is published to a non BlogSpot URL, the blog is still subject to spam classification. The Blogger spam classification process, which looks for spammy content, will look for spammy content in any blog, regardless of published URL.

If your blogging activity is centered around several different subjects, as mine are, you may do well to make several different blogs.

• Blogger blogs.
• Cooking.
• Microsoft Windows networking.
• Miscellaneous jokes and musings.
• Reminiscences of days long gone.

Having created a cluster of Blogger blogs, you can aggregate a cluster more easily by publishing each to a different host, in a domain. This is merely one technique, used in a strategy to combine multiple blogs and websites.

Given the ability to separate blogs of different content, you may be able to avoid one known reason for spam classification.

Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.

If you host malware or spam in your Blogger blogs, however, you won't necessarily avoid classification. Since a properly published Blogger custom domain blog starts with a BlogSpot URL - and since the BlogSpot URL remains active, even with the blog published to the domain URL, the blog will still be subject to the spam classification process.

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Blogger Cannot Provide Advance Warning Of Malware / Spam Hosting Deletions

One of the more intriguing tales, in the never ending saga of malware and spam interdiction, would have to be the confusion about the proper procedure for deleting or locking blogs, when suspected of hosting malware or spam. We periodically see, as part of a "Please unlock my blog!" request in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, the naive suggestion.

It would be better if Blogger Support had immediately alerted me of this problem, before deleting my blog!

The irony here is that, from a purely "customer service" viewpoint, I have to concur with the principle here.

It would be better, if Blogger Support could do this. Like many "it would be better" observations, this is probably never going to happen.

What would happen, if Blogger were to provide advance notification of any malware / spam classification? Many spammers would certainly appreciate this option - to remove the dodgy content, before the blog is deleted or locked. The typical spammer would have several options.

1. Remove the dodgy content, immediately.
2. Copy the entire blog to a second blog in the spam blog farm, and wait until receiving advance notification for that blog. Lather, rinse, repeat.
3. Possibly, do nothing. Later, claim indignantly

   I never got the notification!

   and hope that the kind souls at Blogger Support would give him another chance, since he had not been properly warned.

Option #1, used wisely, could even be used to "map" out the current spam mitigation strategy, and let spammers publish hundreds of spam blogs, staying below the radar. Essentially, we would see self whitelisting of spammy blogs. What spammer would not go for that, in a second?

Besides the spammers benefiting hugely from advance notification, not all genuine blog owners would benefit. Not every blog owner uses a properly registered Blogger account, or will read email from Blogger Support.

So, we have two downsides to the option of advance notice.

• Spammers would love it.
• Not every non spammer would appreciate it.

I, for one, don't see an upside - or certainly not any upside with benefit to counter the downsides.

In Utopia, there would be no spammers, and no need for any of this. Unfortunately, the Internet will never be part of Utopia.

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Everybody Won't Get Proper Notification When Their Blog Is Deleted Or Locked

One problem that we're seeing in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners, who recently discovered their blogs deleted or locked, by Blogger - and without any notice received.

The account actions may be required with the blog deleted for a suspected TOS Violation, such as hosting malware, porn, or spam - or locked because of "suspicious activity" on the Blogger account.

Why was my blog deleted? I never got proper notice!

Too many people depend upon email notification - and may not receive proper notification, in all cases.

Blogger provides a dashboard based malware / porn / spam classification notification / recovery process, which may not be available for everybody. Similar to malware / porn / spam classification, there will be issues with DMCA violation notification.

This is also a problem when accounts are locked for "suspicious activity", and when blogs are locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets.

There are several reasons why some blog owners won't get notification of their blogs being deleted or locked, by the various Blogger / Google security processes. Besides notification limitations, nobody should expect to get advance warning of action being taken - as this would simply encourage the intentional spammers to never request review.

Intentional spammers, if permitted, would play 3 Card Monte, endlessly, with their spammy blogs. Both the notification, and advance warning, limitations contribute to confusion about the various Blogger / Google security recovery options.

All email based notifications may not be properly delivered. The owner of any email account, which may not deliver email properly, is still responsible for reading any important email messages.

Too many Blogger blogs are owned by Blogger accounts which are based on inactive or nonexistent email addresses. Owners of these blogs will never see email notification, when they - intentionally or not - make themselves anonymous.

In other cases, some people may get the email notifying them of problems - but their email program may misfile the email, in a folder which they may not check, regularly. In some odd cases, somebody other than the owner may get the email.

In team blog ownerships, any blog owned by the team is subject to action against any team member accounts. Blogs affected will simply disappear from the dashboards of all team members - with no opportunity provided for appeal or review.

Finally, too many blog owners maintain multiple Blogger / Google accounts, and are not completely sure which Blogger account may own a given blog. These owners may not even see the dashboard based "Deleted Blogs" button / link, because they will be logged in to the wrong Blogger account.

Not all of the above scenarios are entirely the fault of the blog owners - but the blog owners are the ones who will have to make the effort to resolve the resulting problems.

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Stats Time Ranges, And Pageview Count Recalculations, Cause Confusion

Periodically, we see evidence of confusion about Stats and the pageview counts, as provided in the various displays and time ranges, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My pageview counts keep going down!

or

My counts go up during the day - but in the afternoon, they drop to zero!!

or

My counts keep going down! There's no end to the drop!!

All of these complaints - and more - involve blog owners, who don't understand the relationships between the displays and time ranges.

We've explored the results of the ongoing referer spam war, of normal viewer activity, and of the daily pageview count reset which is applied, simultaneously, to all blogs. Besides those 3 issues, there is some confusion about the relationships between the various time ranges.

There are 6 different displays - and opportunities for confusion.

1. The Dashboard "Overview" page.
2. The Posts "All time" per post pageviews count.
3. The Stats "Overview" page.
4. The Stats "Posts" page.
5. The Stats "Traffic sources" page.
6. The Stats "Audience" page.

The 4 Stats display pages each offer 5 different "Time range" displays.

• Now (the last 2 hours).
• Day (the last 24 hours).
• Week (the last 7 days).
• Month (the last 30 days).
• All time (since May 2008, when Stats pageview counts were first extracted) - though possibly missing one year or another.

Some blog owners try to compare the Stats "Overview" histogram (in its 5 time ranges), with the "Overview" counts ("today", "yesterday", "last month", and "all time history"). Unfortunately, the graphs and numbers are recalculated (by Blogger) on various schedules.

• Some are recalculated on a minute by minute basis.
• Some are recalculated hourly.
• Some are recalculated daily (but not necessarily at midnight, for everybody).

Confusion arises, when a blog owner refreshes a display, without understanding when the numbers behind the display may have been recalculated, relevant to reader activity.

• When reader activity occurs, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate an increase.
• When reader activity expires from relevance, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.
• When reader activity is removed because it was bogus, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.

Like the inability to balance the various per post pageview counts, the task of balancing the various graphs and numbers may be beyond the ability of some blog owners. Each count or graph has to be considered on its own.

Understanding any two displays, in context with each other, simply may not be possible.

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Fluctuations In Stats Pageview Counts Are More Obvious, To Owners Of Newer Blogs

Some owners of newer Blogger blogs spend time reading their Stats logs, and worry that their "All time" pageview counts don't always go up - they go down, too.

Why do the counts go down? Is there one number, that I can believe?

They don't understand that with Stats, you need to look for trends - not absolute readings. In the beginning, fluctuations are more obvious, and trends are less obvious.

Thanks to the referer spam war, and to normal visitor activity, even the "All time" numbers will go up and down - for newer blogs, which have less genuine and constant visitor traffic. And the constant rise and fall is scary - until you get used to it.

Newer blogs have less established readers, which makes both the periodic referer spam and normal visitor activity generated spikes more visible. With the 4 limited time ranges (Now, Day, Week, and Month), the spikes will "move" in and out of context - and make pageview counts in these time ranges fluctuate. When a spike in numbers "moves in" to a time range, the pageview counts will rise, suddenly. When a spike "moves out" of a time range, the counts will fall, just as suddenly.

With newer blogs, the fluctuations exert a "double whammy".

1. The fluctuations are more visible, because overall genuine visitor activity is lower. Less readers = less visitor activity.
2. Worrying over the fluctuations takes time away from working on the blog. Less time working on the blog leads to less blog content, attracts less new readers, and leads to less visitor activity.

More experienced blog owners know to use Stats to watch for trends - not immediate numbers.

The answer is simple, really. Monitor Stats periodically - not constantly. Watch for trends, and know how to interpret the trends. Spend more time working on your blog, because that's where the value of your blog lies.

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The Internet Has Created Various Opportunities For Conflict

Most physical threats used to require physical proximity, to be seriously considered by the authorities.

Before the Internet became a reality, if you were to report a crime which involved a physical threat to you or some one whom you knew, chances are that you would be reporting a friend or relative - or at least a neighbour or somebody geographically close to you.

Now that the Internet is part of our daily lives, many Blogger blog owners, readers, and comment publishers - all of who use the Internet for various networking activities - have no idea of the possible international challenges involved in their activities. With the Internet involved, these dangers can come from somebody in another city, state, or country, who is a complete stranger to the potential victim.

Many people, offended or threatened by an abusive comment or post in a Blogger blog, immediately report their concern, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

The assumption made is that Blogger, when informed in the forum, will immediately remove the offensive or threatening content.

Not everybody realises that the varying nature of any given abuse, even when expressed in a Blogger blog, won't always be the responsibility of Blogger / Google to provide action. Some abusive content will require contact, with somebody in your local area.

Some abuse can be handled by your reporting it to Blogger / Google - and other abuse must be handled by the courts system - lawyers and judges, or by law enforcement.

• Assault, or serious threat of imminent physical damage / death, is a criminal issue, and should be handled by your local police.
• Battery, or actual physical damage / death, is likewise a criminal issue, and must be handled by your local police.
• Defamation (ridicule, slander, trash talk) is a civil or criminal issue, and must be handled by a lawyer and the courts system.
• Impersonation (identity theft) is a Google TOS issue, and can be reported using the Google Content Removal procedure.
• Harassment is a mild type of assault. It's generally a civil offense - and should be handled by a lawyer.
• Spam is a Google TOS issue, which generally cannot be reported, as it is automatically detected by the Blogger / Google Spam Classifier.
• Stalking is a criminal offense in many locales. It is a type of assault - and if you feel seriously threatened, may be handled by your local police.
• There are a variety of other Blogger / Google TOS issues, which are reported using the various Blogger / Google Abuse Reporting procedures. And, there are a variety of other civil and criminal issues, which must be handled by the courts system, and / or your local police.

You are responsible for reporting any offense accurately, and to the right agency - not solely to Blogger / Google. The above list is based upon USA legal terms. Other countries may use different definitions.

You need to understand the differences between Defamation and Impersonation, and other abuses, before attempting to report any threat to Blogger / Google. And, take action depending upon the medium used by the threat. Blogger / Google won't accept complaints about comments - as comments are jointly the property and responsibility of the blog owner, and of the comment publisher.

The bottom line here is that some Internet conflicts may take time and effort to resolve. The courts system, which is currently based locally and nationally, may have to evolve, as the Internet brings strangers together - and creates opportunities for conflict.

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Blogger Won't Censor Comments, Or Accept Abusive Comment Reports

We have seen this question, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?

When will Blogger provide me with the option to block an abusive commenter, from my blog?

This is a request that simply cannot be fulfilled.

The issue of blocking individual commenters won't be solved by a new Blogger feature.

• It's technically impossible.
• It's contrary to Blogger policy.

Any abuser of Internet services (aka "hacker", "spammer", or "troll"), with any ability, knows how to create multiple Google accounts without effort. Blogger Engineering is unlikely to spend time developing a new feature ("Block this comment publisher") that will simply provide you with a false sense of security, have no effect in the long term, and require an unproductive use of their time.

If you realistically feel that a comment publisher represents a legal and physical threat to you, you should report the threat to your local police agency. Other than physical threats, Blogger regards comments as a "freedom of speech" issue. Comments published on your blog are jointly the property - and the responsibility - of the comment publisher, and you.

As the blog owner, you are allowed to choose which comments publish, or remain published, on your blog. You can moderate before, or after, comments are published.

If any comments offend you, moderate or delete them promptly. Concentrate on publishing your blog, and ignore the abuse. Eventually, the person abusing you will get bored, and move on.

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You Cannot Have The BlogSpot URL With Your Business Name, If That URL Is In Use

We see the naive queries by small business owners, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about setting up a blog with their business name, too frequently.

The BlogSpot URL for my business is in use. Can Blogger have it re issued to me?

and

I own "xxxxxxx.com", can Blogger give me "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" so I can publish my Blogger blog to match?

These are all people who do not understand the reality of the Blogger policy

First come, first served.

If somebody already owns the Blogger blog with your desired URL, it's their blog - and it's their blog until they tire of owning it.

The Blogger "Create a blog" wizard assigns BlogSpot URLs based on availability - and it identifies unused URLs in real time. How quickly could the wizard work, if it was required to search every country business directory worldwide, before assigning an unused URL to a person trying to setup a new blog?

What would happen if a business owner from England demanded a required BlogSpot URL, which was in use by a business owner in the USA? Should Google setup a URL assignment court, for deciding upon the merit of anybody demanding a given BlogSpot URL?

If you seriously believe that the identity or reputation of your business is threatened by the existence of a Blogger blog which you don't control, and you can convince a judge of that fact, then you (or your lawyer) can serve a properly issued court order to Google. That's not going to get you the BlogSpot URL of your dreams, unfortunately.

What a court order will get is a deleted blog, with the URL locked to the current owner, for eternity. And neither of you will have a blog, published to that URL.

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Blogger Supports Their Customers - But They Support Their Active Customers More

Every week, in Blogger Help, we see the cries of frustration.

Many years ago I had a Google account with a "gmail.com" e-mail address. But I deleted this account, because I didn't need it anymore. Later, I wasn't able to login to Blogger, to delete my blog. And I also wasn't able to remove it by contacting Blogger. Why doesn't Blogger support their customers?

The point being overlooked here is that both Blogger and Google do support their customers.

Blogger / Google, like every commercial enterprise worldwide, simply supports their active customers more than their not-so-active customers.

1. They have millions of customers, who spend much time maintaining and publishing their blogs.
2. They also have some customers, who start blogs, and leave them dormant for many years - then require assistance recovering access to their Blogger accounts, because they have forgotten the account name or password, and the backup email address can't be used.

Considering that Blogger / Google is not a non profit organisation, and needs to support customer activity, which group of customers should they support most readily?

Blogger / Google wants to encourage us to maintain and to publish our blogs regularly. People who don't use their services regularly, then demand special assistance when needing to use their services, are not going to receive the same level of support.

1. People who use Blogger regularly will develop a level of proficiency - and won't require special assistance as much as those who don't use Blogger regularly.
2. People who use Blogger regularly simply require a working Blogger interface, and a level of security that keeps their blogs under their control. People who don't use Blogger regularly need a different and more complicated Blogger interface - and a lower level of security, so they can continue to access their Blogger accounts.

The needs of the few (who don't use Blogger regularly) have to be considered against the needs of the many (who do use Blogger regularly).

Recently, we had a series of well organised hijackings of actively published Blogger blogs. After Blogger / Google recognised this ongoing threat - which endangers all Blogger blog owners - they tightened down their security, and restricted assistance to those needing help recovering access to their Blogger accounts. People who don't use Blogger regularly don't understand the reasoning behind this reduced level of assistance, and increased level of security.

Unfortunately, understand it or not, we all have to learn to live with it - if we wish to continue publishing Blogger blogs.

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The Old "Another blog ..." Problem - Will It Ever Be Fixed?

The ability to publish a Blogger blog to a non BlogSpot URL - also known as "Custom Domain Publishing" - has been a Blogger option for over 5 years. We have, similarly, observed the problem which is collectively described as "Another blog ..." for almost that long.

Every week, we see the signs of frustration in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why does Blogger never fix the "Another blog" problem?

or

Why can I never get a straight answer here, about my inability to make my custom domain work?

Both of these questions ignore the reality - that "Another blog ..." is actually a symptom, with many different causes.

One of the challenges of dealing with "Another blog" starts with the different problems which cause this symptom - and with the different parties involved in the problems.

The most common cause of the symptom, originally - which contradicted the wording of the message - came from the domain DNS addresses being improperly setup by the blog owner. There are many ways to break the DNS addressing.

With domains purchased through the Blogger / Google "Buy a domain" wizard, a problem with the purchase process can cause incorrect / missing DNS. Trying to use an unsuitable bank account will cause payment refused by the bank.

With the domain properly purchased and setup, and pointing to the proper Google servers, the various mappings within the Google database, which connect the various services to non Google domain URLs, can cause problems. Services like AdService, Google Sites, and Start Page, like Blogger, can be mapped to a non Google domain. An existing database pointer to any such service, for the domain, will cause the Blogger Publishing wizard to report "Another blog ...".

A recently observed variation on the existing database pointer involves the domain, previously used by another Blogger blog owner, who simply stopped paying for the domain registration. The domain expired (which is how the domain was just re published) - but existing Blogger / Google mappings remain.

The causes of the first two problems (DNS addressing errors, and domain registration payment) are completely the responsibility of the blog / domain owner.

In some cases, the latter two problems (AdServices / Sites / Start Page / previously published Blogger blog) can be reset by submitting a "Magical" Custom Domain Reset request. In other cases, the new domain owner ends up recycling domain settings, using Google Apps.

Both the Custom Domain Reset request, and the Google Apps based domain settings recycling process, can cause problems. We were, long ago, advised by Blogger Support that not all mappings can be cleared by use of the form. And the complexity and lack of structure in the recycling process, can motivate some blog owners to try other, inappropriate solutions.

The bottom line is that the "Another blog" "problem" - even with carefully documented workarounds - will never be completely understood, let alone eliminated. Some magicians will suggest unilateral solutions, which will satisfy specific blog owners - but a universal solution is highly unlikely.

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Fluctuations In Reader Activity Level Are Normal

One sign of panic, seen regularly in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, comes from people who spend a lot of time viewing their Stats logs.

My pageview counts are always going up and down. Why is Stats so flaky?

It's good to monitor your reader activity - sometimes this will warn you of a major problem in the Internet, or with Blogger. But keep it in perspective.

No matter what time range you view, in Stats - "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", or "All time" - you can expect to see fluctuations - peaks and valleys - in pageview counts.

• If you spend time working on your blog this week, and your work is successful, your readers may enjoy the blog more next week. Conversely, if your work is unsuccessful, they may enjoy it less.
• As Google deals with the constant waves of referer spam, you'll see a drop in counts across all time ranges. And as new referer spam campaigns come online, you'll see the counts rise.
• Unless your blog is completely homogenous across all world wide cultures, you'll have one or two predominant audiences. Your audiences will eat, sleep, and go to work - and all real life activity will affect their viewing of your blog.

It's good to watch the counts, understand your audience, and be prepared to take action if you see a significant rise or fall - but don't obsess over the details.

Remember that your readers will appreciate content, so keep publishing to the blog. And, learn to understand the trends.

And, to best avoid confusion, use more than one visitor log / meter.

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Blogger Does Not Have An FTP Server

One sign of confusion, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, involves the use of FTP - and options for updating our blogs.

How do I publish my posts using an FTP desktop program?

and

How do I upload a custom home page (sitemap, .htaccess, etc)?

People who are used to publishing a website see these options as a normal feature in any website maintenance process.

Blogger, however, is a blogging platform - and provides none of these options.

Until several years ago, Blogger used FTP as a publishing process - for externally hosted blogs. Having developed Custom Domain Publishing as a feature to replace FTP Publishing, Blogger later discontinued FTP Publishing.

Blogger does not provide for custom files, such as an uploadable home page, sitemap, or .htaccess file. The Blogger infrastructure makes those features irrelevant. Nor does Blogger provide an FTP server for uploading custom files - or even posts, for publication.

Blogger provides us the Posts Editor (for editing and publishing posts), the Template Editor (for choosing and editing the template), and a host of miscellaneous dashboard utilities (for making various settings changes). And, we have Google Webmaster Tools, for publishing a sitemap and other search engine related adjustments.

Everything that we need, we can find from our dashboard, at http://www.blogger.com - or from using recognised third party desktop programs like Windows Live Writer.

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Custom Domain Publishing Does Not Use The Post Feed Redirect Setting

One of the benefits of custom domain publishing, for a properly setup domain, is that the BlogSpot URL is automatically redirected to the domain. Not all blog owners realise that this redirect includes the blog feed - once the Transition period ends, and the blog is republished to the domain.

Some blog owners think that the Post Feed Redirect setting needs to be used when re publishing their blog to a custom domain. This is not true, however. Use of the custom domain redirect, plus the post feed redirect, can only result in one of two problems.

• A feed redirect loop.
• A feed URL that points to invalid content.

In neither case will any newsfeed client, such as a Dynamic Template, Google Reader, Reading List, or any third party feed program, find a feed that can be used.

The Post Feed Redirect setting is used to redirect feed references, to a separately existing feed file. It's not used where it is not needed - and with a properly setup custom domain published blog, it's not needed.

Let's look at an HTTP trace, showing the blog feed for a custom domain published blog, that uses a post feed redirect - in this case, we have the feed for "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com" redirected to "mybloggerblog.com".

Start with the BlogSpot based feed URL, for "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com".

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1

Host: mybloggerblog.blogspot.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.224.106
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)

Content-Type:·text/html;·charset=UTF-8(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default(CR)(LF)

With a properly setup custom domain, and no PFR setting used, the next display would be the XML file, for the feed. Here, the PFR was set to "http://mybloggerblog.com/".

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1

Host: www.mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.127.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://mybloggerblog.com/(CR)(LF)

Now, we are looking at a typical custom domain root to "www" alias redirect.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1

Host: mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 216.239.32.21
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://www.mybloggerblog.com/(CR)(LF)

And now, we are looking at the formatted blog contents - not the newsfeed.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1

Host: www.mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.127.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

Unfortunately, the blog itself is not a proper XML file (required for a feed), it's HTML / XML.

<!DOCTYPE·html·PUBLIC·"-//W3C//DTD·XHTML·1.0·Strict//EN"·"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">(LF)

<html·dir='ltr'·xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'·xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b'·xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data'·xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr'>(LF)

<head>(LF)

...

<link·href='http://www.mybloggerblog.com/'·rel='canonical'/>(LF)
<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="In·the·Studio·-·Atom"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/rss+xml"·title="In·the·Studio·-·RSS"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="service.post"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="In·the·Studio·-·Atom"·href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2302596229887627781/posts/default"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="EditURI"·type="application/rsd+xml"·title="RSD"·href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=2302596229887627781"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="me"·href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12619425977406185402"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="openid.server"·href="http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="openid.delegate"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/"·/>(LF)

And if the feed client is, for instance, a dynamic template, the would be reader is looking at the old spinning gears. Until he gets bored, closes the browser, and emails you

Your blog is down - again.

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Legacy Accounts Are No Longer Supported - The Final Chapter

Today, I was advising the latest legacy Blogger account holdout.

I got the email that says

You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date.

Upon reporting this latest support need to Blogger, I was advised of the sad reality, by a Blogger Engineer.

Legacy support has been deprecated.

We have seen this coming, for a long time - and it has finally arrived.

What this advice means is simple - if your blog(s) are owned by a legacy Blogger account, that account, and blog(s), is now frozen.

• You can't convert your account.
• You can't update your blog(s).

You have been warned, repeatedly. Now, Blogger has moved on - and you can't be helped.

• They won't delete your blog.
• They won't take the URL away from you.
• You can't delete or update the blog - or re use the URL.

It's possible that the Legacy Claim form may help you - though the queue for action can be a week, or more. Here, as always, you have a much better chance of success if you know both the Username and Password.

Alternately, if you can setup a new Blogger account, try recovering the blog into the new account. Alternately, checkout the Known Blogger Issues article, for some possible solutions.

Other than that, let Blogger move into the future - don't demand special treatment, which will only help enable future opportunity for account hacking.

If you wish to publish using Blogger, start a new blog, under a new Blogger account. If you're here because you have not published your blog since 2006, the changes to Blogger have been so extensive that you'll be starting over, anyway. Start a new blog - you can always include the old blog, in the new one, as static content.

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When Using "Buy a domain", Prevent Interruptions

One of the saddest problems reports, seen in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, and mentioning the custom domain purchase process, starts with

I had a problem with my credit card, and had to get my bank to allow my purchase. But now, I see

We found an existing order for this domain. Please contact support.

or maybe

I had to answer the phone after I started my purchase, and now the domain that I wanted isn't available. How do I get the domain that should be mine?

These problem reports are from people who did not understand how simple the domain purchase process is.

1. Select an available domain.
2. Provide registration and payment information.

That simplicity is based on a monolithic restriction.

The purchase process does not allow for interruption.

It is to your advantage, when purchasing your domain, to complete the purchase, quickly.

The domain purchase process is similar to the blog setup process, as you choose an available blog name. When you identify an available and useful URL (or domain name), you need to select (or pay for) that URL (domain name) immediately. As you purchase the domain name of your dreams, remember that there are, at any time, up to 3 groups of people looking for a domain.

1. You.
2. Other Blogger blog owners, looking to buy a domain for their Blogger blog.
3. People outside Blogger / Google, looking to setup a website.

Unfortunately, only one of you can have the domain name of your dreams.

Look again, how simple "Buy a domain" is.

1. Select an available domain.
2. Provide payment information.
3. Done. Get to work, planning the migration process.

The longer you take, between starting Step #1 and completing Step #2, the greater the chance that you may see

Sorry, this domain is not available.

as you complete Step #2.

In some cases, and when you specifically see

We found an existing order for this domain. Please contact support.

we can offer you an alternative.

1. Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (all 3!), restart the browser, and try again.
2. Wait 48 to 72 hours, and try again.

This alternative allows you to "try again". It does not guarantee that the domain that you chose will still be waiting for you, when you try again. A popular domain name, based on some major cultural news event, may be gone in a matter of minutes. Wait 48 to 72 hours - and your guess is as good as mine.

Maybe, we should rewrite the purchase process.

1. Prepare.
   • Call your bank, and get your credit card cleared for the purchase.
   • Get a cup of coffee.
   • Unplug the phone.
   • Close the door of your office.
2. Select an available domain.
3. Provide payment information.
4. Done. Plug the phone back in, and rinse out the coffee cup.

Take 15 minutes out of your busy schedule, and get the purchase done. Then, return to normal life.

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Spam Interdiction Sucks - But Not Having Spam Interdiction Sucks A Lot More

I've been writing about spam, and about Blogger blogs, for many years. In 2006, I started attacking spam in Blogger Help Forum. As I use this blog, to attack spammers, I have taken a few hits from spammers - including one from the referer spam producers, last year.

Besides the hits from spammers, I get an occasional unhappy non spammer, confusing my occasional remarks about spam, with evidence of my general lack of civility towards non spammers, falsely accused of spamming. And some non spammers seem to see this blog as a forum where they may air their gripes about Blogger, and about the Blogger spam classification policy in general.

Unfortunately, some complaints, offered here as comments, seem to ignore my published Comment Moderation Policy. As I educate and entertain a wide variety of readers, and as I try periodically to clean up my act in public (yes, I really do try), I try to make my various blogs echo my self improvement attempts. I moderate aggressively, and will not publish comments which

• Contain foul language.
• Link to controversial blogs, web pages, and web sites.
• Link to spammy blogs, web pages, and web sites.

As I am not a fan of spam, or of spammers, I am also not a fan of spammers trying to use this blog as their forum for complaining about the Blogger spam mitigation campaign. Nor am I a fan of non spammers, complaining about the Blogger spam mitigation policy. The spam classification policy is what it is, and we have to learn to live with it. The policy was borne of necessity, long ago.

I know full well what it is like being a victim of spam classification. This blog has been offline, for varying periods of time, at least half a dozen times since I started it in early 2006, for various spam classification issues. Some of the outages were at least partially, my fault.

I also know why the various spam mitigation efforts, employed by Blogger / Google, are absolutely essential to our future, as publishers of Blogger blogs.

• All Blogger blogs are damaged, by unrestrained spam.
• Spam classification has to be automated.
• Spam classification has to be fuzzy.

Considering those points, we must acknowledge that the Blogger anti spam process - though it be annoying (to some), and disastrous (to a few) - is still a righteous necessity.

The reason for spam classification is spam, being published in the Blogger Internet space. Anybody with a problem accepting the Blogger spam classification policy, and its side effects, needs to address their concerns to the nearest spammer. As an alternative, I do have a forum which supplements Blogger Help, where I attempt to permit all reasonable discourse (there too, if you are a self aware spammer, you should expect to receive no mercy).

If you consider your blog to be spuriously classified as a spam host, and you are willing to publish an objective and polite report in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, I - and the other helpers there - will do our absolute best to help you, and your review, as professionally as possible.

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