Blogger Update

It occurred to me that I haven't provided an update to that exciting cliffhanger, "Google Deleted My Blog".

What seems like many months ago, but was in actuality several weeks, Google emailed me to let me know that the blog I use for my other pen name was identified as "spam", and thus, they deactivated it. Naturally, I clicked the appeal link immediately and was affably informed that I must be human after all or I wouldn't have clicked the link. Well, thanks! Their review team would "get right on it". 

Of course, nothing happened. Every time I would pull up my Blogger dashboard, there was my defunct blog name with a red triangle and a ! next to it. This obviously annoyed me (not that I wasn't already annoyed). Not even God Himself knows how to contact a Google employee, so I resorted to using the feedback link, which is really meant for feedback, not help. Nevertheless I typed in the relevant information and sent my "feedback". I did this, I believe, four times. 

Receiving no response, I was forced to use Blogger's community forum. The person tasked with monitoring it insisted on being adversarial. "I asked you ... but you never responded." Except I did respond to his questions, and it wasn't my fault he was reading-challenged. But I obediently answered them again, and again, and finally he threw up his hands and said, "I guess you're screwed." Mind you, he was just a volunteer, although why anyone would volunteer for such a job is incomprehensible, as well as why one of the richest corporations in the world can't pay someone to do it.

Well, I refused to stop trying. I clicked on my red triangle-stained blog title and found another appeal link, which I clicked. Eventually I received an email response that was exactly the same as the original ~ "Blog ... was identified as spam, blah blah blah", and again the email included an appeal link. At this point I would click on anything any number of times, if for no other reason than to annoy the recipient. Additionally, I appealed a couple more times using the link embedded within my red-flagged blog.

Resigned, I went to NameCheap and unclicked the auto-renew button. Damned if I would pay a yearly fee for something useless. I briefly considered buying a new domain and creating another website, but since I use Blogger (because it's free), what guarantee did I have that Google wouldn't do the same thing to the new site?  

I debated republishing my book without my website listed in the back matter, but it seemed like a lot of effort for something that few people ever visited in the first place. And I really didn't care that much. I published one book under that pen name and it's doubtful I will ever publish another. Plus, the book only sold about four copies, which would equal four website visits, ideally.

No, the reason I persisted was "because". Because they are morons. Because I refused to let them jerk me around. Because if they would only acquiesce to publishing a contact address, all this could have been rectified in five minutes, but they're too hoity-toity to bother with us plebes. 

And because I relished being a pain in the ass to them, just as they were to me.

A few days ago, an email popped up, informing me that my blog had been reactivated. I didn't exactly jump for joy; I just said, "Huh. Okay."

I won. 

That's really all that matters.