Some moments come fleetingly, and never again.
One such moment may be, when you receive a blog membership invitation.
The purpose of this message is to inform you that xxxxxxx has invited you to join their private blog "xxxxx xxxxx". To accept this invitation, click on the button below.
or
The purpose of this message is to inform you that yyyyyyy has invited you to contribute to their blog "yyyyy yyyyy". To accept this invitation, click on the button below.
Unless you know the blog owner, this may be your one chance.
If you get an invitation to be a designated reader on a private blog - or an author on either a private or team blog - decide, and act as soon as possible.
Any invitation that you get will be temporary. Blog membership invitations expire, after a fixed amount of time.
Accept the invitation, to view and note the URL.
If the blog is private, and you accept the invitation as a reader, make a note of the URL too.
Long ago, you might get a "preview link" in the invitation - allowing you to view the blog, and bookmark / copy the URL for later. The "preview link" feature was abused by too many owners - and appears to be gone now.
No preview = no URL until after you accept the invitation.
Become an author, on a team blog!
Become a reader, on a private blog!
There's a limited amount of detail, in the invitation.
How useful is either invitation, if you don't accept, when viewed later? You can get the owner name (as provided by the owner), and the blog title - and that's it.
- Invitations contain only the author name, the blog title, and a membership token.
- A reader invitation, for a private blog, may not produce an entry in the dashboard "My blogs" list.
- Both author and reader invitations will expire.
Act promptly, for best result.
If you get an invitation, and you file it away so you can "think about it", don't think about it too long.
Once the token expires - and if you don't know the owner - you'll not be able to contact the owner. And until you accept the invitation - and actually view then bookmark the blog - you won't find out the URL.
Act quickly - or never.
If you get an invitation to be an author on a private or team #Blogger blog, or a reader on a private blog, act promptly. Invitations expire too soon - they contain few details - and won't be very useful later.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/z-lKeqO-ssA
Every day we see the complaints, of the hundreds.Your instructions, for recovering access to my Blogger account, don't work!
And alternately, we see the anguish.I can't login to my Blogger account, because my account is locked!!
And the final complaint, which is the most heartbreaking.I can login, but my blog is not on my dashboard - and someone has filled my blog, with spam!!!
These are all reports about the same problem, in alternate universes.
Any time Blogger Engineering changes their account / blog recovery options, and cuts down on the numbers of one of the three, the other two will surely increase in number - because all three are symptoms of the same problem. People simply refuse to remember their account names and passwords.
There is one solution, which would be 100% effective, and drive the numbers of each of the hundreds, to zero.Everybody, without exception, would simply remember their account name and password.
Were that to happen, Blogger Security could remove all "backdoor" accesses and recovery tools, and blog thieves would have to go back to Barista College, or Hamburger University. There would be no more stealing control of peoples accounts or blogs - save maybe by watching somebody in public, as they login.
The recovery instructions do work, for people who make some effort.
The recovery instructions do not work, because you, the blog owner, simply don't make enough effort to remember / retain control of your accounts, or to protect your accounts. And in some cases, you simply have protected your identity, to make you completely anonymous - and can't identify yourself, because you are anonymous.
Remember your login details, and be one of the millions who work on their blogs.
If you remember your account name and password - and do not ever let your account name and password be known in public - you will never have to worry about account / blog recovery. You would then be one of the millions who do not care about account / blog recovery, because they never need to use the recovery tools.
Be prepared to re authenticate, when you travel!
And if you travel, be prepared! Setup Google 2-Step Verification before you step out the door. And whether you travel, or stay in the same place, use your account, and publish your blog, regularly.
Millions don't worry. Become one of the millions. Reduce the numbers of the hundreds.
If you're learning this concept too late - as many are, periodically - start a new blog, and combine the old and new blogs, in a blog cluster.
In a recent statement in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, Blogger has confirmed our right to publish our blogs anonymously.Our policies aren't pro-stalker, they are pro-respecting the privacy of user information. We simply can not release information without due process.
Since this is a legal issue, you'll have to follow appropriate legal channels. Sorry we don't have an easier answer at this point, but I hope you can understand where we are coming from in terms of the importance of respecting privacy.
The promise of anonymity is an important reassurance for those who wish to publish blogs, without fear of being identified.
Anonymous blog owners can only be identified based on proper court order.
Only properly issued governmental court orders will result in blogger identification. We also note a previous advice.we do not give out contact information for the owner of a blog
If you require the identity of any blog owner, get a lawyer, and / or an order from a judge. Or, do some detective work, on your own.
Blogger Support will not contact an owner, based on your request.
Blogger Support cannot unilaterally take your word as justification of your need to contact the other party. In addition, they cannot consistently contact all blog owners, when necessary.
You may publish a blog, in complete anonymity - but prepare for the risks.
And if you, as a blog owner, desire complete anonymity, there are more ways to protect your identity. However, please recognise that anonymous blogging requires that we accept responsibility - and always prepare for challenges, if the blog is ever deleted.
We know that Blogger allows us to blog anonymously, by promising to never reveal our identity as a blog owner.
This policy leads to mysterious scenarios, like when someone forgets the account that they used to create a blog, that they do own. And, it leads sometimes to tragic scenarios, like bloggers who don't have access to the back door email account, and can't prove blog ownership.
Even though Blogger allows us to pursue our anonymity, though, that doesn't guarantee absolute anonymity without effort.
There are things that we still need to do, to ensure that our name / identity isn't connected with a given blog.
- Setup a new Blogger account, with no personally identifying details.
- Start a new blog - published as private.
- Don't provide any visible biographical content.
- Watch how you follow other blogs.
- Use separate, multiple Blogger accounts.
- Be aware of the risks involved, when anonymising yourself.
Setup a new Blogger account, with no personally identifying details.
If you want true anonymity, make a new Blogger account, and put no personal details into the new account. "No personal details" includes no links to any existing Blogger accounts, or blogs - in either direction.
If you want to go through life with a second (or third, ...) account, please understand the risks. If you truly anonymise your new account, and blog, you will have no way to identify yourself as the owner, if you ever forget the account name, or password.
Start a new blog - published as private.
If your current blog(s) have been published for a while, you may think of making your blog(s) private.
- This change won't take effect, immediately
- Even after the blog becomes private, cached copies of the blog can be retrieved - and your personal details can be extracted from the cached copy.
The next possibility, then, would be to start a new blog - and publish your blog(s) as private.
With a blog published privately, we then disable indexing of the blog(s). This won't be 100% effective.
- Not all search engine spiders will respect the "NoIndex, NoFollow" directives.
- Not all bloggers want their blogs to be private, even if they don't want a personal and permanent connection with the blogs.
- Private blogs are not completely hidden from public view.
- RSS feeds may contain information which we do not select for appearance in the visual blog copy.
So, look at additional techniques - but be aware of techniques that will have no effect.
Don't provide any visible biographical content.
First, remove the "About Me" gadget from the blogs. Either publish blogs without a native Blogger "About Me" gadget, or make up a custom one.
Second, remove the blogs from the "My Blogs" list in your Blogger profile, or don't share your profile at all. And setup a second owner for your blog, so your Blogger profile number isn't visible, in the blog header.
Watch how you follow other blogs.
Third, and not the least of your concerns, is what blogs interest you? Be careful how you Follow blogs - both your own, and those published by other people.
Visibility of other blogs in your profile, as well as your visibility in various Following communities, may tell a lot about you.
Be aware of what profiles you use, as a Follower. For maximum anonymity, don't Follow at all - just subscribe to the blogs that interest you, using the newsfeed reader of your choice.
Use separate, multiple Blogger accounts.
If you're truly paranoid, you could transfer control of the blogs, to a secondary account that you own.
If you use a second account, it would be wise to use a non GMail account, so you can avoid a Google cookie clash caused by trying to use two Google accounts simultaneously. And please, if you want to retain control of your blogs, use a valid non GMail email address, and keep control of the email address.
And you can always Follow other blogs using a different identity.
Finally, check behind yourself, carefully. Comb the contents of your blogs, and make sure that you don't inadvertently reveal any personal details. This may be an ongoing concern, as you publish any blog, anonymously or not.
Protect yourself. These are things that you have to do, for yourself. But at the same time, remember that anonymity, when achieved, may have a price.
Be aware of the risks involved, when anonymising yourself.
Successful anonymity can mean problems identifying yourself - when you travel, or when you change computers, or especially when you forget your account name or password.
Consider setting up Google 2-Step Verification, if you want long term public anonymity - and want to continue publishing a blog.
(Update July 2001): To let us selectively share information about ourselves with some people (as we choose), Blogger / Google is giving us Google+, which lets us replace boring unshared static information with exciting selectively shared dynamic information.
