Laid Low by the Spam-Fighting Robots

Well, wasn't that fun.<br /><br />If you haven't heard, last Friday I got locked out of <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Online Photographer</span>. When attempting to post I got a dire <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Warning!</span> message that informed me that Blogger's Spam-Fighting Robots had identified TOP as a spam blog (whatever that is...and please don't tell me, I'm quite sure I don't want to know). So for three days—thank the stars and the Blogger Team it wasn't more—I haven't been able to post here <span style="font-style: italic;">or</span> to even tell you what was going on!<br /><br />I've been almost ill over this. I feel I've worked hard for my traffic—<span style="font-style: italic;">you</span>, that would be, and thank you—by giving you something new every day. In nearly a year and a half I don't think I've ever gone three days without posting new content. That was the original idea behind TOP—to give photo enthusiasts a place where they could reliably find something fresh.<br /><br />And I have to say I've been pretty happy with Blogger for this purpose...up till now.<br /><br />But apparently I have just run headfirst (and, yes, <span style="font-style: italic;">ow</span>) into one of the major failings of a free-service site: namely, no Customer Service. I did everything I could think of to find someone to help—even tried to call Google in California. No luck. Good as it normally is, Blogger is a take-what-we-give-you type of arrangement. Don't like it? Tough tiddlywinks. Once I'd made the request for reinstatement, all I could do was wait. My only option was to sit on my hands. You can imagine how I felt when I heard the news (from reading in the Blogger Help forums) that TOP might have been out of commission for as long as a <span style="font-style: italic;">week</span>.<br /><br />I did get the "thanks for your patience" reinstatement this afternoon, and here I am posting again. Fine. But in the meantime, I did something I probably should have done a long time ago—built a new version of the blog, and registered it under my own domain name.<br /><br />It's looking pretty rough yet, but I think it will end up being an improvement. See what you think: the new URL is www.theonlinephotographer.com (same as before, just without the "blogspot" in the middle there).<br /><br />For now, until the DNS servers catch up with us, you may have to access the new site <a href="http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">HERE</span></a>.<br /><br />I'll be interested to hear comments. And my apologies for abandoning you over the weekend—it wasn't voluntary, believe me.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON</span>

Laid Low by the Spam-Fighting Robots

Well, wasn't that fun. If you haven't heard, last Friday I got locked out of The Online Photographer . When attempting to post I got...

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