>On April 21, 2009, I received a note from Blogger informing me that my blog was locked because its robot spiders have characterized my blog as a spam blog.
It seems that a disgruntled reader or someone unhappy with my response to his or her comment reported my blog as spam and Blogger automatically locked my blog to prevent me from spamming.
On the same day I received the notice from Blogger, I notified them that my blog was not spam. According to Blogger, they would review my case in one or two days. After two days, I sent Blogger an email and received no response.
On April 28, one week later, I sent another note to Blogger requesting them to unlock my blog. They responded by saying that I would receive a reply in one or two days. Since then, I have sent two more emails and have received no response from Blogger.
Today is Monday, May 4, 2009. According to Blogger, in 7 more days they will delete my blog because this is what they do to blogs they consider to be spam.
A note to Blogger: My Blog Is Not Spam.
Since I have sent three emails to Blogger with no response, I expect that my blog will be deleted in the next few days.
I have been considering moving my blog to WordPress and I think that this action taken by Blogger is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. In the next few days I will be evaluating my options. I will keep you informed.
In the mean time, I will say again: My Blog Is Not Spam.
Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary
Tags: Blogging 
var addthis_pub = ‘claude mariottini’;
Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament 
>Dr. Mariottini,You may consider — very soon! — to open a WordPress account and transfer your blog material over there. It would be a shame to lose all your posts for this. I read and enjoy your blog and I hope that you’re able to resolve the problem. But if not, WP may be one option. I’ve transferred my blog once over to WP and it worked out nicely.All the best!
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>Jeremy,Thank you for your comment. There are a lot of people unhappy with Blogger. I am seriously considering transferring to WordPress. If you can, send me an email and tell me whether you had any problem transferring from Blogger to WP.Once again,Thank you.Claude Mariottini
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>It would be very pity to see disappearing your blog. In the mean time, backup all your articles (there is an option in blogger) and I suppose you can import them in wordpress.
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>I would make haste to transfer your posts, especially considering blogger’s threat to delete them. This is a way to protect your work even if blogger changes their mind about your blog. And WP makes transferring blogs as easy as possible.
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>Claude,I now have another reason for hosting my blog on one of my own computers. What blogger is doing seems crazy. I agree with those who say you should move elsewhere and very soon.Duane
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>I agree with Duane. I used wordpress.com for quite a while and was very happy. I have since moved to my own servers for my blog. Hosting a blog on your own server may require a little bit of technical know-how, but WordPress.com is very easy to use.
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>J.P.,I am not abandoning my blog. I will delete Blogger before Blogger deletes me.Claude Mariottini
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>Doug,I am already in the process of making copies of my post. Once this is done, I will consider my options. I will review WP tonight.Claude Mariottini
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>Duane,Your suggestion is probably the best way to go. I may not have the technical know-how that Calvin mentions but that can be learned. I will do something by the end of this week.Claude Mariottini
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>Calvin,I may have to learn how to develop my own server to host my blog. Maybe I need to do some reading and develop the technical know-how you mentioned.Thank you for your suggestion. I also thank Duane for his.Claude Mariottini
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>Caro Claude, Em The Real Blogger Status, eu encontrei algum material que talvez possa servir para você enfrentar esta situação absurda. Li dois posts e, se entendi bem, o seu caso de “False Positive Detection”, pode ser resultado de um “splog”. Tome todas as precauções de Backup, talvez deva ir mesmo para o WordPress, mas, antes, veja:Bloggs Are Being Removed For Just Cause – February 13, 2008Detection of such illegal blogs, like detection of malware in general, has to be done by heuristic analysis and signature comparison. Unfortunately, detection of illegal blogs, like detection of malware, using both methods, are subject to two major problems:. False Negative Detection – Many illegal blogs are not detected, because the authors of such blogs are very skilled at making their blogs like normal blogs.. False Positive Detection – Many legitimate blogs are falsely detected, again because the authors of the illegal blogs are very skilled at making their blogs look like normal blogs.As Blogger tries harder to reduce the population of illegal blogs, and based upon the massive size and deviousness of that population, more legitimate blogs are going to be falsely flagged as illegal (cont.)Blame It On The Fuzz – January 24, 2009Every day in Google Blogger Help, we see the confusion. Having read the definition of a spam blog, I fail quite to see how my blog can fall into this category. And “My blog is not spam! It is nowhere near spam!!” all reports, such as these, are coming from people who don’t know about fuzzy logic. You spend a lot of time publishing, and publicising, your blog. You want a blog that’s interesting, innovative, up to date, and / or useful, and you want readers who appreciate your effort. Spammers are very innovative, and they constantly adapt their product. The typical spammer doesn’t worry about content that’s interesting, innovative, up to date, and / or useful, he just wants content that looks like it’s legitimate. All that the spammer has to do is find your blog, scrape the content and put it into his blog, and then add the spam to his blog. Voila! A splog that looks legit!! (cont.)Outro bom local é o Blogger Help Group. Na seção “Something Is Broken”, digite na caixa de pesquisa (Search) o seguinte: “your blog is spam”. Há uma grande discussão sobre esta ocorrência. E possíveis soluções.Eu, pessoalmente, nestes casos, nunca “entrego os pontos” sem antes tentar entender o que está acontecendo… Um abraço.Airton
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>Airton,Muito obrigado por esta informação. Eu vou ler a discussão no forum e ver se consigo encontrar uma solução para o meu problema. Eu não estou “entregando os pontos” ainda. Eu tenho uma ideia do que aconteceu: uma pessoa la na China robou dois dos meus posts e parece que é isto que está causando os meus problemas.Um abraço do seu amigo e irmão em Cristo,Claude Mariottini
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>Claude,Então está parecendo “splog”, ou seja, “spam blog” ou falsos blogs que, na verdade, usam o Blogger apenas para vender mercadorias, muitas vezes ilegais, e que podem, em determinadas circunstâncias, conter links para páginas perigosas.E: estou colocando o comentário que fiz acima – consciente de sua compreensão – como post em meu blog. Isto porque acho que pode servir para outras pessoas que venham a enfrentar a mesma situação. Que você recupere e mantenha estável o seu biblioblog, que é muito apreciado por todos nós.AbraçosAirton
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>Dr. Mariottini,I am sorry that your fine and outstanding blog has been treated as though it were spam. Your blog has been a valuable internet resource because of posts by you and links to articles about the Bible, ancient history, archaeology, and other subjects, and also because your blog has been a forum through which scholars and interested laypersons can learn from each other. I hope that you are able to continue your blogging efforts somehow and soon, without much further inconvenience.Adam StuartJacksonville, Florida
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>The world of wordpress welcomes you!
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>Claude, transferring your backup from Blogger to WordPress is fairly easy and (for me) worked well. The only reason I have not actually completed the transfer is because we began to sell and buy a new home 😉 But the actual copying to the new system worked well.I am very sorry you have had all this worry!
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