PLEASE NOTE: This blog contains adult subjects and content, and because of Google/Blogger's recent nonsense, I HAVE MOVED TO WORDPRESS. For my enlightened friends who wish to visit me in my new home, it's https://ericalscott.wordpress.com. Please bookmark it!
The rest of you? Please take your judge-y selves somewhere more wholesome, like here: www.wonderbread.com
Go on.... shoo!
What the... ? Bloggers, HELP
I have heard some buzz today that Blogger is deleting all adult blogs, come this Sunday. Is this for real, or is it urban myth?
I did Google "Blogger" + "deleting adult blogs" and saw a bunch of old posts from 2010, 2011, etc. about similar scares. Nothing seemed to come of those, although who knows. I can't find any sort of official announcement anywhere. Does anyone know if this is really happening?
And if so, what can we do? How does one back up a blog that goes back years? Is there any way to pick up the whole thing and transfer it elsewhere? If so, how? My Internet savvy is highly limited in these areas.
Really need to hear from those in the know -- thanks! :-)
EDIT: OK, so it seems it's not a complete sweep of adult blogs, but those who "monetize," whatever the hell that means. You can't have advertisements to pay porn sites and so forth. But what constitutes advertising? If I post a link to a Spanking Library video for sale, is that advertising??
Here's the notice that some have received (I have not):
"You are receiving this message because you are the admin of a blog hosted on Blogger which is identified to have Adult content.
Please be advised that on June 30th 2013, we will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the monetization of Adult content on Blogger. After June 30th 2013, we will be enforcing this policy and will remove blogs which are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements to adult websites.
If your adult blog currently has advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content removals.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team"
What exactly does this mean?
This is true. I was told that if I do not remove all links to paid adult content on my blog by Sunday, my blog will be deleted. I have been on blogger for 5 years. I have no idea what to do.
ReplyDeleteKelley -- wait... What? Told by whom? Links within your blog posts? They're not just deleting all adult blogs, period?
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to spread mass panic but I think that is what happened to my headmasters' blog He switched over to wordPress.com when his blog was deleted. I'm sure he could advise you if you need help.He's a nice man...even though he canes me.
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Gary.
Gary -- thanks. :-)
ReplyDeleteI haven 't received any warning of this sort. Does that mean I'm alright? I've been thinking about doing a Wordpress Migration for a long time, anyway. Maybe it's just time for that now. :/
ReplyDeleteSucks.
Alex -- I really don't know. I've been searching for answers all evening. Several people are asking similar questions on the Blogger forums, but no one is answering them.
ReplyDeleteI would say if we haven't received the notice, we're probably OK (for now, anyway). But I can't say.
I wish I understood more about domains and all that crap. Apparently it's not that easy to migrate from Blogger to WordPress if you haven't got a "custom domain," whatever the hell that is. And apparently, it costs to have one. Ugh. Ignorance is not bliss in this case.
I haven't seen that. I don't monetize (make money from) my blog. Based on their Terms of Service, they would need to give bloggers ample notice of major changes in service or complete cancellation, unless you were doing something truly egregious (or illegal) that would get you booted.
ReplyDeleteCraig -- it seems if it were for all adult blogs, we'd all get a notice. But then, I've heard of Blogger deleting people without notice. The uncertainty of this really sucks.
ReplyDeleteI can not speak for Blogger, and this is only my guesswork. Yet in reading the notice I would presume they wish to eliminate the blog sites of porn companies that use their free services to get people to link to their businesses, Therefore, I would speculate you are safe. I have not checked all your links, yet if you want to be safe, if you have any links to a company that operates an adult business, you may wish to consider removing those.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is your site considered an adult site? Your site does not come require me to accept the Blogger adult filter to access it.
I wish to update my previous advice. The policy states they are removing those with adult "advertisements". I believe your links may all fine. They are after those sites that receive payments from adult businesses to advertise on a Blogger site.
ReplyDeleteErica, Dana just received notification of this. See if you can ask her because it looks as if there is some kind of house cleaning going into effect. Especially with this broad language being used.
ReplyDeleteAs anoynymous said, you probably didn't get a notice because you don't have the adult warning interstitial. You also don't have any ads for adult products or services. An example of a blog that does is here. I believe the ads they are refering to are ones where if a reader clicks on it, you get a small payment in return.
ReplyDeleteI don't think your links to epub companies would count, unless you are receiving payment for them.
You back up your blog by going to Settings, Other, Export blog.
About moving to WordPress: it isn't all that easy, and I believe that you lose your images and comments in the process. Going to WordPress doesn't mean that you have to have a custom domain.
A custom domain would be www.ericascottlls.com (without the "blogspot"). Fred has more info on that here.
If I hear anything "official" on the Blogger Help Forum I will let you know.
Hugs,
Hermione
I switched our blog over to wordpress a few months ago. It really was not all that difficult to do. You do need to pay for a domain name but you do not have to have a custom one-it can be something like www.breannahayse.wordpress (or something like that-not sure what it would actually look like). We have a custom so that peeps can just type in www.breannahayse.com and get directed right to our blog. ALmost all content from blogger transferred over to wordpress but Hermione is correct, you do lose comments.
ReplyDeleteWe also got that email stating that our blog may be deleted (the old one is still up on blogger) but we have no paid sites advertising on it so I suspect everyone with the adult content warning on their site probably got the email. How they will go through all of them and delete them is another story.
If you do have a blog on blogger, you can migrate to wordpress and wordpress and you can back up your old blog so you retain all of your previous content.
Hope that helps a tiny bit!
Love Nikki
Actually, people who 1. don't have adult content and 2. don't have ads are also getting this letter, so I don't know what Google's criteria are.
DeleteI have an "adult only" blog but I've not gotten any notice so far. I also don't have any money making adds on mine. Perhaps they are doing it country by country first? Or maybe only in certain places where laws have changed?
ReplyDeleteFelicia
Erica, I don't want to be Cassandra but I would put the most weight on Google's phrase "prohibit the monetization of adult content" rather than on "displaying advertisements to adult websites". Google does everything by machine algorithm, and I would expect even stuff like your links to your books to put your blog at risk. Also, if you've ever posted a commercial spanking porn photo (perhaps made by one of your friends) and given it a link credit, I would not trust Google's robots to know the difference between that and an affiliate link.
ReplyDeleteThis is huge bad news for spanking bloggers on .blogspot domains. If you didn't get the notice, you may have more time to relocate than some others, but please make sure you at least take a backup of your blog before June 30 so you'll have something to move if you have to! (I just posted the link for doing that on my blog.)
I received the notice because I have my blog labelled as "adult content." It really would have been helpful if the amended "Content Policy" was provided. :\ I think google wont display that until the 30th.
ReplyDeleteI agree with someone above who said that the key is "monetization of adult blogs." That doesn't mean click-reimbursed advertisements only but that they don't want you to make money off your blog. I think the safest thing to do is to remove the links to your books and stuff for the time being until you can read their updated content policy.
Anonymous -- I chose not to designate my blog as Adult, which is why I put the warning/advisement (and the cheeky links) at the top. So perhaps I'm under the radar. But I also don't advertise. You're probably right about the ads being the deciding factor, but they're so damned vague about it, it's making me edgy.
ReplyDeleteLoki -- I did, on Twitter. Unfortunately, she got the same vague form letter as the others, so I don't think she knows any more than any of us do. What a pain, huh?
Hermione -- have done the backup, so at least there's that. Thank you! I figured you'd be one of the expert voices in this situation. :-)
Nikki -- I did sign up for a WordPress blog last night and imported my posts and comments. I'd still have to rebuild the whole damn thing, but at least all the content is saved that way plus on my hard drive. I'll have to give WordPress some more thought once this all dies down. Thanks!
Felicia -- who knows. They make it clear as mud. (sigh)
Dan -- oh yes, I did that last night. I don't want to lose all this. Thanks.
Beth -- it certainly would have been considerate and practical for them to provide that amendment, wouldn't it? Which is probably why they didn't do it. Argggghhhh.
I pray not......
ReplyDeleteAlways
Ron
Ron -- thanks.
ReplyDeleteRi-MOTHER-EFFING-diculous! This is 2013, so WHY is there so much censorship attempts and political correct pussyfooting in the MODERN age?!!!
ReplyDeleteKelly -- hell if I know. We're going backwards, certainly.
ReplyDeleteI received an email as well indicating I must remove all commercial links.
ReplyDeletejoey -- I removed my entire section of "Where else to find me," because nearly all the links there were to pay sites. Otherwise, I think (??) I'm clean. But who knows. So aggravating!
ReplyDeleteThere is stil this ad tot eh Handbook. In view of its prize, not really a 'commercial' ad - but may be blogger,given its current disposition, disagrees.
ReplyDeleteMrJ -- I'm not going to worry about that. I didn't even get a notice, so I think I'm pretty safe. I guess I'll find out soon enough, huh?
ReplyDeleteHi Erica -- I hope you don't get a notice, I Love your blog <3 :-( that would be VERY unfair , to you and your reader's. I wish people would,mind their own business and leave well enough alone. I will be crossing my fingers,that your blog will be ok.Much Love and hugs from naughty girl Jade
ReplyDeleteJade -- well, I haven't yet. I'm thinking I won't, but that doesn't mean they won't bug me later. Just have to hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteI got the exact email you included in your post. That is probably because I flagged my own blog as adult content early on to AVOID getting kicked off or deleted. I took it to mean that you can't make money directly from your blog by linking videos or sites. I have a whole list of blogs I read listed and a few sites that I've bought things from. I haven't changed any of that so hopefully it doesn't apply? The language isn't very clear.
ReplyDeleteLea -- yes, I've decided that they made it unclear on purpose. I believe we're both OK.
ReplyDelete