Spam Blog My Foot!

I received this message when I accessed falloutcat yesterday.

Hello,

Your blog at: http://falloutcat.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=8889613917367350667

Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn’t reviewed, and you’ll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we’ll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. If this blog doesn’t belong to you, you don’t have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won’t be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, you won’t be able to use your blog. Click this link to request the review: http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=8889613917367350667

When I logged in, I was instructed to enter a verification code to confirm I’m a human and not some auto-spam generating program.

After I completed this procedure, Blogger said they apologized on behalf of their *robots* for this false positive. I should be able to have my blog back after their humans had a look at it.

I’m delighted to have my ‘house keys’ back, but how can I be sure I won’t be locked out of my own house again?

Is it time for Blogger to rethink what they have been doing? This is not the first time this has happened to people (a quick Google proved my suspicion) and this will not be the last time we hear some vitriol from disgruntled bloggers.

Clearly, more intelligent programming is required. Instead of letting these inferior and brainless spam cleaners shut down sites indiscriminately, why not program them to mark down suspicious sites? Let the humans verify these sites first before locking them. It’s only logical to have the trial before the sentencing and execution, and not the other way round, like what Blogger is doing.

If Blogger wants to eradicate spam so badly, I suggest they replace their cheap-rate Wall-Es with something better.

Damn robots.