Don't Publish To A Custom Domain, Purely Because Of Unavailability Of The Perfect BlogSpot Name

Setting up a new blog can be frustrating - for those who have planned the subject of the blog so carefully, that only one blog name will satisfy.

We see the frustration, almost daily, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

How do I contact the owner of "mydreamname.blogspot.com"?

or

The blog at "mydreamname.blogspot.com" isn't in use. Can Blogger issue it to me?

Neither of those questions will end well, for the would be owner who can think only of publishing to "mydreamname.blogspot.com".

When you prepare to publish a new Blogger blog, you have to be flexible, when choosing the name.

When we reply, in the forum, we typically advise the would be owner that we are permitted to publish our blog anonymously (so no, Blogger won't contact the current owner), that there is no minimum posting activity required (so a blog long dormant, is still valid), and that even deleted blogs are not available for re issue (because the blog owner owns the URL, for eternity).

Some helpers like to sweeten the rejection, by suggesting to the bereaved would be owner that, if "mydreamname.blogspot.com" is not available, "mydreamname.com" could be purchased from a registrar, as an alternative.

I've been advising people on custom domain publishing, for years. Custom domains are great features, for blogs. However, I do not believe that they should be used purely for getting the URL of one's dreams, when the dream BlogSpot URL is not available.

Custom domain publishing is an exciting way to integrate a Blogger blog with the non Blogger world.

However, I don't see custom domain publishing as a universal second choice, when the DreamBlogSpotName is not available - for several reasons (and I have advised on all of these).

• Custom Domain Publishing is not for the weak at heart. Creating a Blogger blog is substantially easier than setting up a domain.
• Custom Domains are not free, as Blogger blogs are. In some cases, substantial amounts of funds are required - particularly to blog owners in third world economies.
• Using a custom domain won't always get you the "name" of your dreams. "MyDreamName.Com" is no more likely to be available, than "MyDreamName.BlogSpot.Com". Indeed, more people buy domains outside Blogger, than publish to "BlogSpot.Com".
• You still have to have a BlogSpot name, and a Blogger blog, to publish to a "custom domain". Some people require the BlogSpot name to match the Domain name.

My advice, to the bereaved, is that a compromise may be necessary - and that they should act promptly, and pick a name that is currently available.

Get started on your new blog, today - using a URL that is available, today. Good content, published today, is better than the same content, published tomorrow.

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Your Right To Be Forgotten Does Not Supersede My Right To Retain Ownership Of My Blog

Thanks to a recent decision by the European Courts, many people are claiming the right to delete their blogs, and to have the search engines stop indexing their blogs.

Some people believe that this newly defined right entitles them to recover control of their blogs, published long ago, with access (account name and password) long forgotten. A few such people even have blogs owned by "legacy" Blogger accounts, never converted to Blogger / Google accounts.

Nobody has the right to unilaterally take control of a blog that may belong to somebody else. If you cannot prove yourself to be the owner of a given blog, Blogger Support should not provide to you control of that blog. Whether you want to delete a blog, or to change the content, you have to prove ownership of the blog.

So called "legacy" blogs are a concern, because even Blogger Support cannot authoritatively identify all "legacy" accounts. All that they can say is

If your blog was created before 2007, you may have a "legacy" Blogger account.

More properly, since some blogs were converted transparently (without realisation of the owner), they should say

If your blog was created before 2007, and never converted, you may have a "legacy" Blogger account.

The "legacy" account conversion took many years - and everybody was given many months of warning, to get their accounts converted. This was not an overnight process.

All that you can do is to try to convert your Blogger account, and see if you get control of your long forgotten blog. Even if converted, though, you have to be able to prove ownership of the account, once it's been converted - just as you have to prove ownership of any Blogger account.

Too many people try to steal ownership of someone else's blog, by claiming to own the blog - but conveniently forgot the account name or password.

Since there are more people working on their blogs (maybe not today, but sometime in the past), than are trying to recover control, people trying to recover control (or to steal someone else's blog), are going to get less support.

The term "actively working on their blog" implies no specific activity level. A blog, published once, 10 years ago, is just as valid as one published once daily for 10 years.

Blogger blog owners are entitled to the same courtesy and security - as long as each blog owner acts responsibly, and remembers the account name and password of an owning Blogger account. Similarly, blog owners are entitled to Blogger not providing clues, to blog thieves, that could assist in blog theft.

If Blogger / Google does not agree with your claim, and if you believe in the right to be forgotten, you hire a lawyer, and get a court order. Let the courts decide your special rights.

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Help Me! I Can't Access My Blogger Account!

Every week, we see the anguished cry of blog owners, who don't have access to maintain, or publish to, their blogs.

Help me! My email address changed last month, I dropped my phone into the sink, and now I can't sign in to my blog!

If you look at the fine print, you see the full story.

Ask enough questions, and the details will come forth.

Help Me! I never bothered to remember my password - I used the Forgot Password wizard to reset my password every time I wanted to sign in to my Blogger account. My email address changed last month, my phone number changed last week, I can't get the email from the Forgot Password wizard, or the new Blogger Account / Blog Recovery wizard - and now I can't sign in to my blog!

As I have repeatedly advised folks, and previously pointed out in 2010, Blogger lets us maintain our blogs anonymously, and promises anonymous access and ownership for eternity. There is no magic token attached to our blogs, that let us conveniently email Blogger and ask for a second (or a third) back door access to our accounts.

If you can't access your Blogger account, you can't maintain your blog. Use the Forgot Password wizard, when you have access to the email account - or the new Blogger Account / Blog Recovery wizard.

And learn how to use the Google "One account" login wizard, properly.

Blogger wants to protect us, and our blogs, from attacks from people who claim to be us, but are not. Help them to protect our accounts, and our blogs - don't require that they gratuitously allow you access to your blog when you forget the password, and have no second - or third - back door access to reset the password.

Identifying An Available URL - #2

The issue of URL availability has been a subject of intense debate, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, for several years.

Many would be blog owners URLs learn that neither "dormant" blogs, nor deleted blogs, nor spam locked blogs, are automatically available for the curious nor desperate.

Those denied the URL of their choice ask

How do I find an available URL? All of the good ones are taken - and picking one that's available is way too much work! I'm moving my blog to WordPress!

And that complaint is somewhat valid.

Under the Classic GUI, picking an available URL was a pretty painful process.

Here is the first really helpful and innovative improvement, in the New Blogger GUI.

When you use the "Create a new blog" wizard under the New Blogger GUI (2011), you paste or type the blog name or URL into the "Address" window, as usual. What's different about this wizard is that the "Address" is verified, for URL availability and validity, in real time.

Check it out! Enter a Title, and select a Template, first. Then, get started.

Paste (or type) the name which you have chosen (only the "xxxxxxx" portion of "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com") into the window, and see what it displays. If you see a yellow exclamation mark, and

Sorry, this blog address is not available.

Try a variation on the URL - add a letter or number - or some very specific characters. See what happens, as you type.

• "a" - "z" (lowercase alphabetic characters).
• "0" - "9" (numeric characters).
• "-" (dash character, which may not be the first or last character in the name!)).

This is a limited character set - but you want a reliable name, not a showy one. Your Blogger blog has to depend upon directory services from thousands of DNS servers, all over the Internet - so try and pick a name that will work everywhere. See Blogger Help: About URLs for additional advice.

As soon as you see a blue check mark, and

This blog address is available.

Hit the "Create blog!" button, now - and create your new blog.

Note that with the "Create a blog" sequence made simpler, you'll take less time choosing an address. Unfortunately, as long as you take longer than 0.00 seconds choosing a given address, there's always some slight chance that another person can choose the same address, simultaneously.

If you hit the "Create blog!" button after somebody else, and both of you have entered the same blog name - even with "This blog address is available." visible - one of you will still get an error message, with the bad news.

Sorry, this blog address is not available.

or

The subdomain name is not available.

The chance that someone else could "steal" your chosen address, while you are choosing it, will never be zero. It will simply be lower with the New GUI, then with the Classic GUI.

Only one person - the person who hits the "Create blog!" button first - gets the URL. If you're creating a blog based on some recent new trend or news story, there will probably be other people doing the same. You'll have to move quickly - grab an available URL immediately, when you see one. Wait .050 seconds, instead of .025 seconds, and you may miss your chance.

As with renaming your blog, please note that addresses previously taken will not be reissued to you by Blogger - a 10 year old blog remains valid, whether published once daily for 10 years, or once 10 years ago and never again.

If you're setting up a new blog, and you pick a popular subject for your new blog, you're still going to have to do some experimentation, to find an available URL. With the New Blogger GUI, you'll simply have a slightly easier time finding one.

Deletion Is Not Alternative, If You Cannot Authenticate

Some supposed blog owners, unable to login to their Blogger accounts because they forgot the Blogger account name or password (or never bothered to remember either), try to compromise.

They figure that, if they can't regain access to the blog, then Blogger will be willing to simply delete the blog - and everybody will be happy. They appear to have overlooked the repeatedly stated policy, which promises us that our blogs will be ours, as long as we wish to own them.

The problem is, blog deletions are as sensitive to illegal action as account recovery - and illegal actions are a very real threat to our blogs.

Blogger exercises due diligence, in requiring proper authentication for Blogger account recovery.

Blogger can't delete a blog, any more freely than give control of a blog.

Any requested deletion, of any supposedly owned blog, must be no less controlled.

Blogger promises us

Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.

This means that our blogs will not be deleted, or transferred to the control of another person, without careful validation of the person requesting the deletion or transfer. If the other person cannot prove rightful ownership of the blog in question, Blogger is not legally entitled to delete the blog, any more than they are entitled to transfer control of the blog.

We are permitted to own and publish our blogs, without any minimal required activity, and without any required proof of our real life identity. We are entitled to publish our blogs when we see fit - and are entitled to come back to our blogs after any length of time - if we are able to authenticate ourselves.

Blogger lets us publish, at any rate we prefer.

Blogger will not harass us when we are inactive, whether or not anybody else offers to publish to our URL with more vigour. Neither will they give anybody else control of our blogs, either to publish - or to delete. Similarly, they won't give me - or you - access to somebody else's blog, or harass somebody else.

If you find yourself unable to access your blog, and delete it on your own, try using the improved Google account recovery wizard, before asking that Blogger delete your blog for you.

In limited cases, the Google tool Removing Content From Google may be useful. Finally, concentrate on making your blog or website more useful, and organically improving your reputation.

What Is The Mysterious 90 Day Period, After Blog Deletion?

We see periodic evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about deletion of our blogs.

I deleted my blog last year - can I get it back?

and

I deleted my blog last month - when will I be able to use it with my new Blogger account?

and

I deleted my blog, but it's still visible, on the Internet!

Not everybody is fully able to understand the "90 day" deletion policy.

Confusion about blog deletion, blog recovery, URL availability, and ongoing visibility have been a problem for many years.

The uncertainty started in 2011, when Blogger gave us the ability to restore our deleted blogs. That year, Blogger gave us the "90 day" provision.

From what we know, the "90 day" provision simply says that blogs deleted over 90 days ago, by the owner, cannot be un deleted. Blogger has yet to advise us, definitively, that a blog (URL), deleted over 90 days ago, would produce any secondary result.

• The URL won't be available, for use by you (under another Blogger account) - or by someone else.
• Any removal from search engine cache will happen only if you plan the deletion, before hitting "Delete blog".
• The blog will simply be un recoverable, by us, since Blogger does not archive deleted blogs for un deletion by us, over 90 days.

Further uncertainties:

• If the URL becomes available, it will be equally available to you, and to everybody else, at the same time.
• If you did not delete the blog, you may not know exactly when the 90 days clock started.
• We are not, with 100% certainty, able to predict that all blogs become available, even after the 90 days.

So don't tell your friends of the date when you will have the blog, re published under the URL - if you are depending upon deletion to make the URL available.

The 90 day period may apply only to blogs deleted by the owner. A blog deleted / locked for suspected spam hosting, by Blogger, may remain in that status indefinitely, until reviewed.

When reviewed as a suspected spam host, a blog will be either removed permanently (for righteous spam deletions), or restored (for spurious spam deletions), at the decision of Blogger Support. In neither case will this, reliably, make the URL available to the public.

Whether the blog is visible on our dashboards (or not), and recoverable by us (or not), unless we make preparation for updating services outside Blogger - for instance, Google Webmaster Tools - a deleted blog will be visible in search engine cache, for a long time.

Legacy Blogger Accounts Are No Longer Supported

Last year, Blogger made an announcement that displeased a few Blogger blog owners.

For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011.

The initial announcement was made in April, 2011, with an action date, initially scheduled, well before December 5 - and the action date was delayed, several times. The quotation that you see was edited by Blogger Support, in their article, repeatedly.

On December 6, 2011, support for Legacy Blogger accounts finally ended. Even so, we still see occasional signs of oblivious account holders, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My account doesn't have a Google address because it it is 8 years old - how do I recover access to my account?

Apparently, not everybody who needed to do so, bothered to read the announcement.

Like the long announced FTP Publishing migration, Legacy accounts support has ended. There's no known alternative, for Legacy accounts - nor is the status of the accounts themselves - or the blogs, or of the URLs, owned by the non supported Blogger accounts - known.

What does the above announcement state? Simply, if

1. You have a legacy account.
2. You never bothered to migrate your legacy account.
3. You try migrating your legacy account in the future.
4. And you have a problem with the migration.
5. Then, you are on your own.

Blogger is looking to the future - and needs to spend their time more productively. They simply don't have time to diagnose problems with individual accounts that can't be migrated, after many months of warning, about this change, was provided.

What does the above announcement not state?

1. You can't use your legacy Blogger account, in the future.
2. You can't migrate your legacy Blogger account, to a current Google account.
3. Your legacy Blogger account will be deleted.
4. Your blogs, owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be deleted.
5. The URLs, used by blogs owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be taken from you.
6. Any URL, used by a blog owned by a legacy Blogger account, will be made available to you.

None of the above were stated, in the announcement. The announcement states only that migration support has ended. Whether any of the above will change, in the future, can't be predicted. We'll hope that some warning will be given, before any of the above change. Just don't bet any money that warning will be given.

All that we can say, right now, is

You were warned.

Sorry. All things come to an end. You have to support Blogger, to expect them to support you.

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Account Recovery, Authentication, Contact, Privacy, And URL Availability Are All Related

Every day, we get various impassioned pleas from blog owners (active, former, and would be), in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, requesting assistance.

How do I get access to my blog, that I published 10 years ago?

and

How do I keep my blog from being visible in Google?

and

How do I contact the owner of a blog that was published 10 years ago (and never updated)?

All of these are valid concerns - and answering one question sometimes involves referring to various other concerns.

Blogger Support, some time ago, confirmed our right to privacy, as blog owners.

Our policies aren't pro-stalker, they are pro-respecting the privacy of user information. We simply can not release information without due process.

Effective use of the Internet requires some amount of ownership privacy.
The concept of Internet privacy in general, and blog owner privacy specifically, has legendarily been part of some major world political events. If we as blog owners are going to retain our rights to privacy as blog owners, we have to be aware of the limitations, and the results.

Not all blog owners are aware of the complex natures of Blogger authentication. We have two long used authentication options - account name / password (primary), and backup email access (secondary).

Some blog owners refuse to remember their account name and password, routinely.
Some owners routinely ignore the primary option, and use the secondary, regularly. When their email address changes because they change employer, graduate from college, or change ISP, we see the plaintive cry from former owners

I need Blogger to send the recovery email to my new address!

or

I can't use my previous email account!

To prevent the latter issue, Blogger / Google recently introduced a tertiary authentication option - SMS / Voice Recovery. This allows us to use a text message (SMS transmitted), or a voice message ("home" phone transmitted), to the "cell phone" or "home phone" of our choice. This approach, not universally popular, causes another privacy concern.

• It requires advance action. People currently unable to use the primary or secondary authentication options are not going to find a solution here.
• It requires the blog owner to register a "cell phone" or "home phone" number. People with privacy concerns don't appreciate this.

  I'm not giving Google my phone number!

  as if Google intends to add us to another phone spam database.

There is no Blogger required minimum publishing level.
Another privacy issue involves people who think that blog ownership involves some minimal publishing activity, and who require use of the Blog URL to match their blog subject and title.

I need contact to the owner of blog xxxxxxx!

Here, the would be blog owner ignores the owner's right to privacy, in requiring contact information.

Some people request that Blogger monitor posting level, and contact inactive blog owners.

Can Blogger just email owners of blogs with no posts for a year, and ask them to confirm their intention to continue? Those who don't respond can have their blogs taken away, so somebody else can make better use of the URL.

These would be owners seem to think that all Blogger accounts are based on active and valid email addresses, and that all URLs should be universally monitored.

Blogger can't satisfy everybody - you may have to pick an available URL!
The bottom line here is that there are several limitations, that we may have to learn to live with.

• Blogger won't disclose blog owner details, gratuitously.
• You, and you alone, are responsible for maintaining control of your blogs.
• If a given URL is not available, find one that is available now, and start your blog, today.

Compromise, and move forward. Remember, blog content is the value, in your Internet presence. Don't require that Blogger compromise security, to give you improper access to your blog.

Will Legacy Accounts Deletion Automatically Make The URL Of Your Choice Available To You?

If you believe some of the discussions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, a lot of Blogger blog owners are lining up at the gate - or will be doing that, starting 2011/12/05 23:59.

For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011.

Some discussions include speculation about deletion of blogs owned under legacy accounts, which will result in their personal dream URL being made available to them, finally.

How much chance is there that dozens of unhappy Blogger blog owners will finally get use of the URL to match their blog subject / title?

Does anybody here wish to guess the values for these numbers?

1. Total number of URLs that exist, in BlogSpot.
2. Number of URLs that interest you, in BlogSpot.
3. Total number of legacy accounts.
4. Number of blogs owned by legacy accounts.
5. Number of legacy accounts that will be deleted, immediately, on December 6.
6. Number of URLs that will become available on December 6.
7. Number of people like you, that desire the same URL that you desire.
8. Certainty that Blogger will clean up BlogSpot, and actually delete all blogs owned by legacy accounts.

If you are waiting for your dream URL to start your blog, how much chance is there that your new blog will be coming online December 7?

I'm thinking a working formula might be something like

( ( b / a ) * f ) / ( g + 1 ) * h

Comment lines are now open, and operators are waiting for your call.

If you have a blog in mind, get your blog online today, and make it valuable, using the content. Don't waste time, waiting for an event that may never happen. Especially given the fact that nothing stated by Blogger implies

h > 0.00

Read the note provided by Blogger, again.

we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs

I have seen no mention of planned deletion of blogs, owned by the legacy accounts.

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Blogger Is Not Blocking Access To Your Blog

I've explained the issues about Blogger account maintenance, and blog access, so many times.

I've described it as possession being the law, or as reading between the lines, or even as responsible practice - and some people just don't understand these issues. Some people try to describe their problem, when they have a problem, as Blogger unlawfully stealing their possession.

Blogger won't give me access to my blog - do I need a court order to get access to my blog, and to my content?

At first glance, they have a point - Blogger has to give us access to our blogs, or they cease being our blogs. If you look closer though, there's a flaw in that reasoning.

Blogger lets you publish a blog, without identifying yourself legally to them, as long as you retain control of the blog.

To retain control, you have to access a Blogger account that owns the blog. You have two methods of access, to any Blogger account - a front door, and a back door.

1. The front door: The account name (email address when setup originally), and the current password.
2. The back door: The email address currently associated with the account, and access to that email address.

If you lose both the front door and the back door, you can't access the Blogger account, and you can't control the blog. If you lose access, don't blame Blogger for your loss of access.

Blogger is not preventing you from accessing your blog, and doing whatever you wish, with your blog - as long as you can prove that it's your blog. Blogger will assist you, when possible, to access your Blogger account, and your blog.

When you make it impossible, as when you lose both the front door and the back door, they can't assist you. If they can't assist you now, they will still hold the blog, patiently, until you are able to prove that it's your blog.

Your blog is still there, waiting for you to access it. It will remain there, waiting for you to access it. Blogger is not preventing you from accessing your blog.

There Will Always Be Multiple Blogs, For Any Popular Subject

Anyone is free to publish a Blogger blog, discussing any subject.

The Blogosphere is full of many blogs, some discussing the same subject as others. A blog on any subject can have any title desired by the owner - and the title can be identical to the subject, or it may differ from the subject, as desired. This leads to many blogs having the same title - and this is OK.

Unfortunately, though many blogs may have the same subject and title, each blog must have a unique URL. Some blog owners have a problem with this policy, since they believe that their subject, title, and URL must match. Not every blog owner understands why not every blog, ever written, can have a matching subject, title, and URL.

Since anybody can publish a blog on any subject desired, there will be many blogs discussing the more popular subjects.

Blogger has a clear and undisputable URL allocation policy.

Like disputes over vanity license plates, this leads to harsh feelings - because once a URL is taken by somebody, that URL is not available to anybody else. Blogger has a clear and definitive policy on the subject of URL allocation.

Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.

Some would be blog owners ignore the reality of the Blogger policy.

Some prospective blog owners, seeing the URL of their dreams already in use, spend some time examining the blogs published to the URLs which they deem worthy of their blog.

Finding one or more blogs being inactively published, by their standards, they conclude that Blogger has a problem with URL allocation, and with their stated policy. They then publish a complaint in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I would like to suggest that after a period of years where a blog that has less than some number of posts, the current owner of the blog is sent notice declaring that unless they respond within some number of days, their URL will be taken from them, so it may be reassigned to another, more worthy blog owner.

These envious blog owners seem to overlook several details.

• Any blog owner is free to publish a blog, and to discuss any subject of interest.
• Relevant to any subject, the owner may publish any number of posts as desired.
• Relevant to any subject, the owner may publish as often (or as rarely) as desired.
• The more popular blog subjects will have more blogs published, discussing that subject - and most likely, using the more relevant URLs.

To make the suggestion work, Blogger would need to establish a URL retention policy, and judge each URL whenever necessary - possibly relevant to the current popularity of the blog subject. The more popular subjects (and URLs) will have more applicants for that URL, and will be judged more often. If you want a URL that's not available, what are the chances that you are alone, in wanting that URL?

Everybody cannot have the URL of their dreams.

The bottom line is simple.

The more popular the blog subject, the less likely that you will get the URL of your dreams, to use with your blog.

If you have a blog to start, start it today, and pick an available URL. Don't waste time trying to convince Blogger to give you someone else's URL. Consider alternate choices.

• Make a different spelling or punctuated version of your desired URL (as available).
• Publish a Blogger blog to a non BlogSpot URL (as available).
• Find another blog host, and publish your dream URL using their service (again, as available).

Blog Ownership - Possession Is The Law

Long ago, Blogger blogs had a very simple membership permissions policy.

Each blog had an owner, and members. The owner was the administrator of the blog, and ownership could not be transferred.

This simple policy was a problem, because some blog owners would eventually lose interest in a blog, and want to cede ownership to someone else. In other cases, people were known to die suddenly, leaving blogs with no live owners. In both cases, Blogger Support would become involved, and would manually transfer ownership.

Later, Blogger developed the Permissions wizard, and added a class of member called "Administrator". The original publisher of a blog becomes the first administrator, who may, at his / her discretion, designate additional administrators.

The ability to designate an "Administrator" solved the problem of nontransferable ownership, but introduced a second problem.

Any administrator could, at her / his discretion again, remove him / herself (or any other administrator) from the administrators list.

Initially, this improvement created two problems.

1. Some bloggers managed to remove all administrators from the list, creating blogs with no administrators.
2. Some bloggers, newly made administrator, would inappropriately remove other bloggers (including the original administrator aka "owner") from administrative status.

Blogger fixed the first problem, by adding a safeguard - making the Permissions wizard check for the presence of other administrators in the membership list, before removing administrator permission from any one member. However, there remain two problems, now.

1. The safeguard works only if you can guarantee that all administrators can perform as administrators.
2. This policy works only if you can guarantee that all administrators will perform honourably.

If blog membership is to be fully transferrable, all administrators to a blog have to have equal status. If you have an "owner" class of administrator, and a suddenly dead owner, you have a blog with no active owner. Or, you have blogs with non transferrable ownership status.

Right now, anybody who is a blog administrator is a blog owner. If you make someone an administrator, and that person removes you (and any other administrators) from administrator status, that person becomes the blog owner.

If you have an administrator who dies, you do not prune the administrator list, and you are able to remove yourself from administrator status, you may end up with a blog with no live owner.

The administrator(s) / owner - whoever she / he may be - has the right to decide over disposition of comments and posts - and of who to make a member, and to make an administrator. Blogger cannot, legally, "restore" anybody's previous rights.

If the "owner" deleted the blog, it's going to remain deleted. Contributors, and former "owners", have no say in the matter. If deleted content must be recovered, it may be possible to do this on a page by page (post by post) basis - possibly from blog cache or a blog posts newsfeed.

Possession is the law, for Blogger blogs. If you gave up control (voluntarily or even involuntarily), it's not your blog.

Help Me! I Can't Access My Blogger Account To Publish My Blog!

Every week, we see the anguished cry of blog owners, who don't have access to maintain, or publish to, their blogs.

Help me! My email address changed last month, and now I can't sign in to my blog!

But, if you look at the fine print, you see the full story

Help Me! I never bothered to remember my password - I used the Forgot Password wizard to reset my password every time I wanted to sign in to my Blogger account. My email address changed last month, I can't get the email from the Forgot Password wizard, and now I can't sign in to my blog!

As I have repeatedly advised folks, Blogger lets us maintain our blogs anonymously, and promises anonymous access and ownership for eternity. There is no magic token attached to our blogs, that let us conveniently email Blogger and ask for a second back door access to our accounts.

If you can't access your Blogger account, you can't maintain your blog. Use the Forgot Password wizard, when you have access to the email account.

Blogger wants to protect us, and our blogs, from devious attacks from people who claim to be us - but are not. Help Blogger Security to protect our accounts, and our blogs - don't require that they gratuitously allow you access to your blog when you forget the password, and have no back door access (or even second back door access) to reset the password.

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Identifying An Available BlogSpot URL

When you create a new blog, the first essential task is to decide upon the BlogSpot URL. You want to do this right, because this is one of the most challenging changes, successfully, after the blog becomes mature and gets a reputation. What is the one most important characteristic that your new blog URL has to have?

Uniqueness.

The blog name has to be available - not in use, in any way, by another blog.

Many bloggers start their new blog by picking a name.

How do you find out if the name of your choice is available?

And there is really only one way to tell, and it's not obvious.

Here are three blog names.

anavailableurl
perryfx
anavailableurl2

Only one of these three is available. Which one is that?

"anavailableurl.blogspot.com" was apparently deleted by Blogger or by its owner. The URL is not available.



"perryfx.blogspot.com" was possibly deleted by Blogger, as a suspected spam blog. Review and restoration is (was) pending. The URL is not available.



"anavailableurl2.blogspot.com" is (was) probably available. The URL was probably available, though it may not necessarily be available now.



Some bloggers try to determine an available (non existent) URL by using the "ping" (aka "ICMP echo") command.

C:\>ping anavailableurl.blogspot.com

Pinging blogspot.l.google.com [74.125.19.191] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=158ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=861ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=206ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=128ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 74.125.19.191:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 128ms, Maximum = 861ms, Average = 338ms

C:\>ping perryfx.blogspot.com

Pinging blogspot.l.google.com [74.125.19.191] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=138ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=153ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=118ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=133ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 74.125.19.191:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 118ms, Maximum = 153ms, Average = 135ms

C:\>ping anavailableurl2.blogspot.com

Pinging blogspot.l.google.com [74.125.19.191] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=136ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=130ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=139ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 74.125.19.191:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 125ms, Maximum = 139ms, Average = 132ms

With many networks, you will see definitive proof when an address does not exist, or when an address may exist but no host at the address is responding. Long ago, BlogSpot would respond that way too. Then Blogger found out that spammers were hijacking previously used URLs.

• Search for recently abandoned URLs by using the "ping" command.
• Pick up URLs with search engine reputation left behind by the previous owner
  • Pinged previously as in use
  • Pinged now as not in use
• Publishing to the URLs not in use.

Blogger decided to cloak the fact that a blog URL is not in use now, and / or was never in use.

C:\>ping nitecruzr-says-that-this-blog-does-not-exist.blogspot.com

Pinging blogspot.l.google.com [74.125.19.191] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=145ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=145ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=56
Reply from 74.125.19.191: bytes=32 time=125ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 74.125.19.191:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 117ms, Maximum = 145ms, Average = 133ms

Does "nitecruzr-says-that-this-blog-does-not-exist.blogspot.com" actually exist? It did not, when this demonstration was published. In reality, we don't know - for a certainty - that we might be permitted to create a blog using any of the 4 URLs above.

The only way that availability of an URL is truly known is after it's too late.

Go to "Create a blog", and enter the blog name of your choice. If the name is available, your new blog will be given that name, and it won't be available after that.

And that, in reality, is the only way of determining availablity.

If "Create a blog" says that it's not available, then you can't have it. If "Create a blog" creates a new blog for you, then you have it. And now, it's not available.

And that's reality.

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Transferring A Blog From One EMail Account To Another - An Alternate

I've written about the simple procedure of transferring a blog from one Blogger account to another, and how simple it should be.

Sometimes reality steps in - and the normal transfer procedure won't work.

• Maybe you don't want your EMail (GMail) address known by the current blog owner.
• Maybe the two EMail addresses are thoroughly tangled - you invite the second EMail address as a blog member but just don't get the email - even in "Bulk" or "Spam"! What to do?
• Maybe you opened the invitation email under one account, but were logged in to Blogger using the other account. This can happen if you execute the transfer, using just one browser.

Sometimes, having ignored one or two basic (to me) rules of Blogger account existence, you just can't send a membership invitation to a second Blogger account.

Here's where we think outside the box.

• Setup an extra email account, based upon any non GMail email address. I'll suggest Yahoo.com as an example here - but you can use whatever email service works for you.
• Go to Settings - Permissions, and add your new Yahoo email address as an invited member.
• For the Yahoo email part of the process, use a separate browser. If this browser has been used before, clear cache, cookies, and authenticated sessions, restart the browser, and login again to Yahoo. Start with a clean browser here.
• Go to your Yahoo email account, and open your email. Remember to look in your "Bulk" or "Spam" folder, if you don't see anything in "Inbox".
• Accept membership in the blog.
• When you're asked for an account / password, select "Use a different account"!
• Enter the second Blogger account name (address), and the correct password for that account.
• Go back to the Permissions display, and refresh.
• Verify that you have a new member in the Author list.
• Return to the normal procedure, and complete the transfer.

A little extra work, that. But if you need to transfer control of the blog, to make it possible to manage the blog from the other Blogger account, it's probably worth it.

And, next time you transfer blog ownership, you will (hopefully) use two browsers, in the transfer.

Want Your Blog Deleted Or The URL Freed Up? Do Not Delete Your Blogger Account

In March 2009, Blogger changed its blog deletion procedure, to let you recover a mistakenly deleted blog on your own, and to make a blog's URL available when the blog is deleted.

• When you use the "Delete blog" wizard in Settings - Basic, a deleted blog goes into a "Deleted But Recoverable" status.
• The blog is immediately visible on your dashboard, possibly behind the "View all blogs" link, and is displayed with an "Undelete this blog" link.
• 90 days after you use "Delete blog", the blog is truly deleted, and the URL is made available to the public, on a "first come, first served" basis.

However, this process applies only to deletions using "Delete blog".

• If you delete a Blogger or Google account, any blogs owned by that account are locked to that account. The URLs for those blogs will be permanently un available to the general public.
• If you want the blog URL to be immediately available to another individual Blogger account, you have to transfer control of the blog, properly.
• If you want the URL to be immediately publicly available, you have to rename the blog to publish to another URL.

Please, don't make the mistake of deleting the account that owns a blog, purely to transfer control of a blog to another account. If you do that, you'll have to

• Recover the owning account.
• Rebuild or undelete the blog.
• Transfer control of the blog, properly.

Do it right, the first time, please.

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You Blog For Your Readers - Both Current And Future

This blog is almost 4 years old - I started it in March 2006. I review my visitor logs from time to time, and occasionally, I see hits against posts written in 2006. Sometimes, the logs show visits which start with posts written in 2006.

Were I to stop posting today, it's possible that someone may be reading this post in 2014 - or later. That is one example why the Blogger policy

Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.

remains valid, even with some bloggers complaining about "expired" blogs.

The noted complaints are not, specifically, about expired blogs - in general, bloggers do not care about "dormant" or "expired" blogs.

There are no expired Blogger blogs.

This is good, because in Blogger's eyes, there are no expired blogs. The bloggers in question only care about an expired blog when it is published to a URL that they believe is the perfect URL for their intended blog.

If you start a blog, that blog, and the URL that you publish to, is yours. Period. You can blog daily for 5 years, or never for 5 years, and either alternative - or one of dozens between the two - makes your blog equally valid.

A dormant / expired blog is just a blog with no recent updates.

If you see a "dormant" / "expired" blog, that is a blog that (currently) has no updates. Even if you see that a blog has no updates, you cannot see that the blog has no readers.

Only the owner (living or dead) - can (could) see that the blog has no readers. And even if a blog has no readers now, that does not mean that changes in world events might never make the blog relevant, at any time in the future.

If the URL of your choice - which would be perfect for your blog - is in use, you can't have that URL. Choose another that is not in use, and get to work making your blog well known. That's the alternative.

Blogger Doesn't Care About Frequency Or Quantity Of Blog Updates

The process of "bidding" determines who is best suited to take on a given task, in some multi party games and relationships.

In the game of Contract Bridge, the players of the game get a chance to assess their personal holdings of the cards dealt to them, and the probable holdings of their prospective partner and opponents - and predict the number of rounds ("tricks") that they expect to win, in the game to come.

In the "game" of construction bidding, contractor firms get the chance to predict how much funds they will require, to perform a given project, given the chance by the firm bidding the project.

In both cases, different parties bid for the right to perform a task. Some would be blog owners think that procedure should apply to blog ownership.

I want this URL - It's the perfect URL for my needs - for my blog. The URL is in use, but it hasn't been updated, recently. Why can't Blogger give me that URL?

In the Blogger Name Availability "game", the implication is

The current owner isn't using that URL properly, and I know that I can do a better job!

Unfortunately, there is no bidding process here. Blogger, in This blog has been abandoned and I want its address says simply

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

Blogger isn't going to setup a bidding process, or a courts system, to decide whether a given URL should be reassigned to you, or to some other hopeful party. If the URL is in use, it's not going to be available. The current owner of a blog has the right and responsibility to decide upon blog contents, including how often and how many updates should be made to the blog.

Not so long ago, with the owner given the latter choice to make, my advice for getting the blog well known would be to "publish, publish, publish" - because the more publishing that was done to a blog, the more random "Next Blog" traffic would be directed to the blog. In November, 2009, that changed. Now, your blog has an equal chance of getting random "Next Blog" traffic if you publish daily, as if you published once, 5 years ago - and never again.

The frequency and volume of updates, to your blog, are irrelevant to the validity of that blog. If you believe that your readers will be happier with you publishing daily, fine. If you believe that your blog is just as good as it's ever going to get, that's fine too. It's your blog, and it's your decision.

And somebody else's blog is their decision - and Blogger supports that decision.

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

If you need a URL for your blog, pick one that's available, and make the contents of your new blog valuable. Value comes from the blog contents, not from the URL.

---

Some would be #Blogger blog owners would like Blogger to accept bids, for assigning the right to publish blogs to popular URLs. I've even seen the suggestion that bidding should be a paid feature, for Blogger URL assignment, with owner contact information for each blog being required.

Blogger provides blog names, on a "first come, first served" basis - payment is irrelevant. Blog names are available for eternity, poor or rich. And anonymous ownership is part of the promise.

Please Google, Restore My Deleted Account And Blog!

A frequently seen sign of confusion in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? is the question

How soon after deletion can I reuse a blog?

And the answer is two part.

Immediately, if you can just undelete it using the same account. Never, if you are trying to transfer the blog.

Occasionally the response to that involves a complication.

But I deleted the account, to make sure that the blog gets freed up.

And now, the blogger gets no choice.

You have to reactivate the account, because the URL is locked to that account.

Now, the blogger has a four fold task ahead of him.

• If you just recreated the Google account, by creating a new account with the same email address, you have to delete the account just created.
• Re activate the original Google account, using Google Accounts: Contacting Support - I can't access my account. Select "No" for "Did this work?", and fill out the form that you see there.
• Alternately, re activate the earlier deleted Google account, using Google Accounts: Google Accounts: Forgot your password?. Enter your email address, then fill out the form that you see next.
• Re activate the blog, if necessary, by un deleting it.
• Finally, what he should have done in the first place.
  • Make a stub, then delete the blog properly.
  • Transfer control of the blog.

And next time, plan the change.

How To Not Get The BlogSpot URL Of Your Choice

The controversy continues, in that many bloggers cannot think of a URL for their blog, other than ones that are already taken.

Some are so desperate that they think of imaginative but Pyrrhic solutions.

Solution here would be a way to report this as a kind of abuse (Yes I know it's not really abuse in any form) or otherwise get in contact with the owner. And I don't mean hunting down the contact information from the web as it practically newer works. I mean there should be an option "I would like to contact the owner of this blog" or something similar.

Here we see two alternatives, neither with any future.

The suggestion to file an abuse complaint is, in itself, abusive.

The people who handle hacking, porn, and spam complaints have enough to do with genuine hacking, porn, and spam problems. Reporting a dormant blog to the abuse desk will get you:

1. Ignored.
2. Told not to do that again.
3. Possibly, and if you repeat such abusive action, your Blogger account should be cancelled.

If you want that URL, are you the only one who wants it?

The idea to have Blogger contact the current owner, on your behalf has merit - if you don't consider the details. For any URL that somebody owns, if one other person wants that URL, there are probably a few other people who would want that same URL.

If you were the current owner of a popular URL, would you want repeated emails (on behalf of the same person, repeating a request, or on behalf of more than one person, intermittently) to read, simply asking you to voluntarily give up your URL?

What would happen, should you (the current owner of a demanded URL) accede to such request? Who would be the winner, in the crowd submitting the "Give it to me!" demand through Blogger? The first person, or the most persistent person? Would you want to be the Blogger employee who would get to decide the winner, in such a contest?

The Blogger policy, on URL reassignment, is quite simple.

Neither voluntary URL resignation, nor involuntary URL reassignment, have any part of the monolithic Blogger statement

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

Use some imagination, and pick an available URL. Start your blog now, and work on the content. That's how you get readers. Not by picking the "perfect" URL.