FYI... BLOGGER LOCKS OUT HUNDREDS OF BLOGS

[emsplace]

including family blogs like mine because they have an algorithm glitch or something like that.
Mine is one of them. They now have to review my blog and make sure it isn't a spamming blog - which I am not even sure what they mean. Spamming blog? WHAT IS THAT? I am not technical enough to spam anyone.... hahaha
Anyway...
It is affecting hundreds of innocent folks. Could be locked for a couple weeks. Could be closed down. I guess we will wait to see.
So.... I didn't know where to post this.... but if you get the same email, ask for a review or they will shut your blog down regardless.

Hugs,
em

[spatterson]

Are you sure it's Blogger?

Mine was locked out and I learned from another fellow Momma Blogger that it was Sitemeter. They had a glitch so I removed the code and mine was working fine. BUT.. I also heard it's up and running now... you think that could be the problem on your blog?

[emsplace]

they sent us all a note saying we'd been blocked because we'd been reported for spamming. Apparently they had written bad code. It's almost all fixed now, though some have been locked out for a month or so.
em

[emsplace]

Just to clarify that the two are different, here are the apologies:
You Are Not Spam
August 2, 2008 — permalink
You knew that already, and now we do too. We have now restored all accounts that were mistakenly marked as spam yesterday. (See: Spam Fridays)

We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We’ve tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.

At Blogger, we strongly believe that you own and should control your posts and other data. We understand that you trust us to store and serve your blog, and incidents like this one are a betrayal of that trust. In the spirit of ensuring that you always have access to your data, we have been working on importing and exporting tools to make it easier to back up your posts. If you'd like a sneak peek at the Import / Export tool, you can try it out on Blogger in Draft.

Our restoration today was of all blogs that were mistakenly marked as spam due to Friday's bug. Because spam fighting inherently runs the risk of false positives, your blog may have been mis-classified as spam for other reasons. If you are still unable to post to your blog today you can request a review by clicking Request Unlock Review on your Dashboard.
— Siobhan
Spam Fridays
August 1, 2008 — permalink
While we wish that every post on this blog could be about cool features or other Blogger news, sometimes we have to step in and admit a mistake.

We've noticed that a number of users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.

We hope to have this resolved shortly, and appreciate your patience as we work through the kinks.
— Brett

[michellew]

Wow that sucks!
I had to remove the sitemeter code from my blogs due to the other issue. I was unable to access for several hours, and that was stressing me out. Can't imgine being loced otu for days or longer.

[Audrey]

I so wish I had the knowledge to host my own blog on my own domain for this very reason.

[emsplace]

Meeeeeeeee too Audrey!
em

[Jane @ Kidzarama]

If you want to host yourself, I'm sure there's heaps of mums here who'd be able to help with the technical stuff.

Me included.