The main culprit appears to be a linking application called Bloglinker. Bloglinker has been around at least for the 6 years I've been doing this (when I started blogging Blogger had no such gadget, but now they do). Anyway recently it started spreading spam so in early August Google / Blogger started shutting down blogs.
You could make an appeal to Google (follow the labyrinth down the rabbit hole, take the red pill and I'm sure you'll find the appropriate party). I did and was shortly notified that my blog had been "verified" and that I should see whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com appearing on blog rolls shortly. Problem being, how could it appear in search engines if it no longer exists? (you know the drill, go to any of the infected sites and you are met with a prompt that that site is available for registration (I'm sure we all want to start all over again from scratch).
So I was notified on August 19th. It's been over 10 days and still nothing. Nothing for anyone for that matter, if you check this thread you will see there are many of us in the same boat.
Going forward, here are my suggestions for restoring some of you content (and sanity):
1. read through the thread so you'll see you're not alone (again, this one's for your sanity)
2. Start a petition demanding that Google / Blogger restore the content (I'm not hopeful, but protesting always makes me feel good).
3. Check blog archives for old copies of your content (Wayback Machine). I was able to find three complete years, though some content still can't be located.
4. Pony-up cheapskate and start paying for a domain and host (now you'll own the content, and "The Man" can't mess with it). Go Daddy has really good rates, and you can edit with Wordpress.
Though you are currently reading this on a Blogger site, this is just a way-station until my new domain is up and running. I am soon to blow this Popsicle stand and say goodbye to Blogger forever.
Hope this helps.
Well Damn!
ReplyDeleteFDK uses Blogger too! Maybe I should make copies of everything.
I was relieved to find "Bad Dream House" by our dear friend John, as it appears on my website, is still there. (Do you still have it, John?)
Thanks to Mr. Peabody, and his assistant, Sherman, we have at least some hope in retrieving old data.
The real bummer is 40 years of cold case data lost, which can no longer be found in newspapers, unless some old library somewhere still has it on microfilm.
But take heart, my friends. WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER! Uh-uh, No Sir-ee!