Maybe It's Time To Start Over

I've been advising folks about spam problems, and splog detection (both righteous and spurious), for several years.

Sometimes, the advice is about cleaning up the blog, and submitting it for review. Other times, it's about blogs unjustly accused of being spam. Occasionally, it's about a spam blog, that just can't be reviewed again, or maybe a old blog, that you just can't regain control.

If the Blogger region of the Blogosphere is to have any reputation, other than "spam haven", it's simply not possible to provide an infinity of chance for people to clean up their act.

this is what i got from email:

We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding your blog. Upon review of your account, we've noted that your blog has repeatedly violated Blogger's Terms of Service (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to remove your blog.

Once forgiven, you still start over from the beginning.

We all believe in forgiveness, but having been forgiven, should you continue with the blog restored and simply cleaned up? Or maybe, isn't it better for everybody if you simply start over, with a new blog and new content?

And if you publish your blog, you want your blog to remain your blog. Just as we cannot give spammers an infinity of chances to pollute the Blogosphere with their blogs, neither can we give them the chance to steal already developed blogs, using brute force and an army of hijacked computers.

Everybody who wishes to publish a Blogger blog has to religiously maintain control of their Blogger accounts - both by not forgetting access tokens, and by not idly allowing unknown persons to seize control.

If you lose control of your Blogger account, don't demand that Blogger Support blindly tell you what you require, and possibly violate your right to anonymity.

Start a new blog - and don't repeat past mistakes.

Focus your energy on starting a new blog - and maybe connecting the new blog to the old blog. Don't waste your time (the helpers time, Blogger Support's time) trying to clean up what can't be cleaned up, or demand that Blogger help you to seize control of a blog which could be (to them) someone else's blog.

Start over, but with a clean blog - and try to avoid repeating your mistakes.

Learn to read - and heed - the warnings.

Next time, when you get the first notice about unacceptable content, heed the warning. And when you change ISPs (get a new job, graduate from school, whatever), and you get a new email address, update your Blogger account - while you can.