Not all blog owners understand the necessity of having unique content, as the basis for a healthy blog.
We see questions periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about inappropriate use of content from other blogs and websites.Why was my Blogger account deleted? I never argue when given copyright notices!
orWhy don't I have any readers? I have great content - the other blogs, where I get the content, get lots of traffic.
Google describes the overall issue, about copying content from blog to blog, quite plainly, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger.Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.
Spam classification is one of several penalties, which involve copied content. I've seen various content penalties, that are reported, from time to time, in the forums.
Some penalties involve copyrighted material - but non copyrighted material, improperly used, can cause problems. And unrighteous charges will inconvenience you, and cause other problems.- Content Warning
- DMCA Violations
- Spam Classification
- Search Engine Reputation
Content Warning
If you copy controversial content, that does not belong in your blog, some of your readers will object. Originally used to block "adult" content from being viewed by younger readers, the "content warning" / "objectionable content" classification is broader in scope than it appears to be. This accusation is sometimes used by readers, who may object in quantity, to any irrelevant subject in any blog.
A Content Warning interstitial will damage your search engine result listings. You'll have to request a review of the blog, to get the warning removed. The people who review content warnings may not do so with high priority.
DMCA Violations
If you improperly copy copyrighted material, and the lawful owners complain, you can be cited for DMCA Violations. You will end up with posts - and later the blog - deleted or locked.
You'll have to search the ChillingEffects database, for details, and appeal the citation. If you don't appeal a citation, and if you continue to make the same mistakes, you can be classified as a "non repentant" abuser - and your Blogger / Google account will be deleted or locked.
Spam Classification
If you unwisely copy material, or supply material to be copied, your blog can be classified as a spam host, with the offense described as "scraping / syndication". This will require a spam review. Until the review is concluded, and the verdict is satisfactory, your blog will remain offline.
If you publish multiple blogs concurrently, with the same content, you can be classified as a spammer. If you publish multiple blogs sequentially, with the same content, you can be classified as a "non repentant" spammer - and your Blogger / Google account will be deleted or locked.
If your blog consists mainly of copied material - even if properly attributed, you will need your own material also. A blog with only copied content is still subject to classification. I strongly recommend no more than 10% copied content, to 90% original content - if you want any decent reputation.
Search Engine Reputation
If you copy or share content - whether cited for content, DMCA, or spam - your blog's search engine reputation will suffer. Multiple blogs and websites, with the same content, will result in higher reputation blogs and websites getting better placement in a SERP. Your blog will end up at the bottom of any relevant SERP listing - and your traffic level will drop.
Using Dynamic Content
If you copy a script from a third party website, that references dynamic content owned by that website, you are responsible for ensuring that the script works - or deal with the consequences. If you host videos served from the website in question, on your blog, this is similar to hot linking. If the video in question is removed by the website owner, and stops playing from your website, you must contact the owner of the website.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that blog content needs to be informative, interesting, relevant, properly targeted, and unique. If you push the limits, you will regret your decision, eventually.
Your blog will need a good search reputation, to get readers. Start with good content, based upon what you know, and are willing to share.
Some blog owners find evidence of opinion from their viewers, but cannot accept the opinions expressed.Why is there a "Content Warning" on my blog?
They don't understand the collaborative opinion being expressed, when this warning is displayed.
Long ago, the "Flag Blog" link, in the navbar, was a misunderstood feature.
The "Report Abuse" navbar link provides offense classification selections.
The "Flag Blog" button was later replaced by the "Report Abuse" link, with multiple classifications of offenses.
Enough readers, reporting "Objectionable content" - and the blog gets a warning.
Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable.
The text of the warning is somewhat self explanatory.Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable.
The conclusion here is simple.- The opinion is collaborative - multiple readers have expressed this opinion.
- The blog content is offensive - the readers object to this content.
A warning, in front of your blog, can have several causes.
If you are seeing this warning displayed in front of your blog, there are several possible causes.- You are accepting contributions from other people, and not carefully checking what you accept.
- You are pushing the limits - a bit too far.
- You are marketing your blog, inappropriately.
And you have several options.
You have several choices.- Objectively examine the content in your blog, and remove anything objectionable.
- Market your blog more carefully, to a more appreciative audience.
- Set the voluntary "Adult Content?" option to "Yes".
- Accept the involuntary warning.
You publish your blog to educate or entertain your readers, right? Why spend time providing content that your readers don't appreciate?
In the latest round of controversy about the interstitial warning display, we see reports from more publishers of "adult content" blogs, reporting inability to try the dynamic templates on their blogs.Why are Dynamic Views not available for my blog? Is this yet another conspiracy against "adult content" blogs?
From what I can tell, it's simply another scenario where the interstitial warning causes problems.
The interstitial warning display, another Blogger feature which appears to involve third party cookies, will be yet one more Blogger feature that will be problematic on computers with overly restrictive security settings.
Complaints about inability to post comments to blogs which use the embedded comment form, a well known problem with third party cookies, are seen daily in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.
To prevent needless frustration from yet one more "third party cookie" filter problem, it's possible that Blogger decided to block use of dynamic templates with blogs that are accessed through the "Content Warning" interstitial display. We should note that private blogs, a Blogger feature that are accessed through the "invited readers" interstitial display, are blocked because the dynamic templates build their display using the blog feed - and the blog feed is not published with private blogs.
There's also a problem with the interstitial display itself, and the redirected display. The redirect will make "Adult Content" blogs, blogs published to badly setup custom domains, and private blogs, all unusable with the dynamic views.
Like it or not, it appears that neither blogs involuntarily classified as "Adult Content" (by Blogger, responding to reader complaints), nor blogs voluntarily classified as "Adult Content" (by the owners, from Settings - Other), will be permitted to benefit from the new, dynamic templates. Nor will badly setup custom domains, or private blogs.
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The "Content Warning" advisory page, appearing ahead of blogs with questionable content, protects the casual blog surfer from viewing content which may be objectionable to some readers. It's presence on any given blog is supposedly the result of voluntary action by a blog owner, who can set "Adult Content?" to "Yes", at his / her discretion.
The presence of the advisory page, supposedly has slight effect upon prospective readers of the blog.- Prospective readers must read the notice, and decide whether they wish to view possibly gratuitous content, and that after they click through the notice.
- The blog, when listed in a search hit list, will show the text of the content warning, in place of the blog description and post extract.
Recent claims by some readers make it appear that this setting may be, in some cases, not set voluntarily, and that it has additional consequences. The warning page also seems to interfere with the ownership verification process, in Google Webmaster Tools.
>> Forum thread links: bX-*00079
>> Copy this tag: bX-*00079
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For many years, using "Next Blog" for surfing through the Blogosphere has been a dodgy activity.
No matter when you surfed, you were sure to find something pretty nasty, and frequently hazardous to the health of your computer (and maybe to you).
In January 2008, that changed. Blogger started scanning blogs for undesirable content, and blocked many nasty blogs from being targeted by "Next Blog" surfing. Besides using automated blog scanning, they also provided a voluntary classification of our blogs.
Not all potential readers will be encouraged, when seeing a content warning.
If someone genuinely wants to host possibly offensive content, he can do that - inaccessible from "Next Blog" or casual surfing, and behind a warning page.
In some cases, this is a voluntary classification, accessible from Settings - Other - "Adult Content". In other cases, this warning is applied to your blog by a faceless bot, similar to the much hated anti-spam bots.
The "Content Warning" screen, that your readers are now faced with, every time they surf to your blog, has its downsides.
The warning does not block the spiders - though it does limit indexed content.
One of the problems of the "Content Warning" screen is that the search engine spiders, when they index the blog, pick up the text of the warning, rather than the blog name and description.
When you look at the search hits that include such a blog, that's what you will see. That won't be good for your reader confidence, unless they expect to see objectionable content, anyway.
Even though a blog is behind a "Content Warning", though, it is still being indexed.
You can use Search Console to understand this better. If there is any problem with indexing the web site (blog), a GWT / SC report will help you sort that.
The warning also interferes with crawling redirected blogs.
Another interstitial warning comes with redirected blogs, published to either a custom domain (sometimes), or to an external server by FTP (frequently).
The Content Warning interstitial advice also appears to interfere with private blog access. If you have a restricted access blog, you may want to avoid involvement with the interstitial warning, voluntary or involuntary.
And recently, we've noted that it degrades the quality of information from visitor meters.
One popular feature of better visitor meters is the ability to see what web page your visitors are coming from (the "referer"). When the interstitial warning page is displayed ahead of the blog, it is shown as the referer page, and you lose the ability to tell what actual web site your visitors really come from.
All that aside, remember one detail - just because a blog is indexed, in the search engine of your choice, does not guarantee it good visibility, in a search hit list. A search hit list indexes web pages in order of popularity.
If your blog covers a popular topic, through no fault of yours, other more popular web sites may appear in the list above yours. If the description of your blog, in the search hit list, shows simply the interstitial text, you may not get as many new readers, as you would hope for.
Content Warning Some readers may find the content of this blog objectionable. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog.
That warning doesn't tell people anything useful about your blog. Less readers = less reputation with the search engines - and less readers still.
So, if you have a Content Warning in your blog, you may lose search engine reputation, and you may not see your newer posts listed in the search hit lists as promptly. But check Google Webmaster Tools, to see if there's actual indexing problems. Chances are - there's not.
