My blog, immoderatemonk.blogspot.com, has been removed/disabled.

My blog was tried & found not spammage, as of 7:30 PM on 7/23/09. While the dance is a little frustrating, I was only locked out for four days, and the situation did work out. Now I just hope it won't happen again...
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New comment, left on Blogger help 7/22/09, 8:15 PM:
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Mishka: According to your fellow blog*star, nitecruzr, a non-spam blogger who requests a review should also list themselves on the spam appeal database right away, rather than waiting the ten days.

This is how he answered the question in his 7:53 PM message in the following thread: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4d7f132eb0de25b9&fid=4d7f132eb0de25b900046f53da072601&hl=en :
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"And Gatsby has stated in other threads that you can submit an appeal request immediately after the review request. Simply

"we do filter to make sure that users have already submitted a request and use that info"

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=33fc69199fb4214a&hl=en "
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While I'm still not certain which of you is correct, I'm leaning toward nitecruzr because he seems to've invested more time/energy into solving blogger issues--he has his own site devoted to solving blogger issues for we folks, after all, which is more than one can say about the google/blogger matrix itself--and I urge you to discuss this with him so that all the blog*stars are giving out the same info...

Being innocent, but caught up in the google/blogger bot anti-spam nets anyway, is stressful enough without getting conflicting info from the only people willing to help. (& a big thank you to you and to all thew blog*stars for being willing to help, BTW... Much love & good karma, for that...)
-- My Blog Is Labeled As SPAM, What Do I Do? - Blogger Help
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New comment left on Blogger Help 7/22/09, 7:30 PM:
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jlapidus: It seems that "the blogger community" consists of a bunch of bots who have no idea what your blog (or mine) is about, and a few fellow users (human) who--if I understand this correctly--donate their time trying to appease their fellow human users, so we don't go all terminator on the Google/Blogger bots who can't tell a mourning (or anti-moderation) blog from spammage.

(I'm sorry to tell you, jlapidus... It's likely to get worse... I was solving the CAPTCHAs to post and requesting reviews (3 of 'em, at least) for about a month, before I discovered my http://immoderatemonk.blogspot.com blog was removed/disabled two days ago... From what I understand, it's the second step in the process to getting it cleared...)

Just so no one misunderstands, I love the official blog stars, and I'm glad they speak google/blogger bot & can get them to respond, occasionally, but I do question why the google/blogger matrix doesn't just hire & pay humans (the blog stars, or other professional techies, who can tell the difference between blogs of mourning and remembrance {or anti-moderation} and spam) to handle the human users, and let the bots deal with the computers. The idea that there is so little human to human interaction between google/blogger and their users is what leads to there being so many problems and miscommunications/misunderstandings like the one I express below.

nitecruzr: As I've mentioned elsewhere, one of your fellow official blog*stars, Mishka, says that people like jlapidus & I have to wait 10-14 days after requesting the review (step 1) BEFORE requesting the appeal (step 2), and that redoing step 1, or doing step 2 too soon (before the 10-14 days goes by), puts one at the end of the review line... If you two speak to each other (or if the bots can tell you) can you clarify that point, so that all the stars are imparting the same wisdom, and we all follow the same set of rules...

Thanks!!
-- Is this some kind of sick prank? - Blogger Help
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New comment, potentially left on nitecruzr's site 7/22/09, 5:15 PM (It's moderated) - The Real Blogger Status: The Girl In Short Shorts, and definitely left on my new & temporary IM site: Moderation is for Monks: The squeaky wheel...:
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For the record, I'm following your 3 step plan as laid out here [The Real Blogger Status: Blogs Are Being Removed For Just Cause] -- though

1) so far, no one's responded to any of the three actions I've taken, and

2) Mishka, another all-star BHF person, called into question whether one should wait 10-14 days after clicking the links for a review before submitting one's blog to the appeals database & posting in BHF "Something's Wrong." (In case you and Mishka want to get on the same page, that conversation took place here, yesterday: My Blog Is Labeled As SPAM, What Do I Do? - Blogger Help)

Anyway, thanks... I'll keep watching for positive results...
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New Comment, left on Blogger Help 7/21/09, 5:30 PM:
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If either that "going to the back of the line" thing or the "wait ten days before requesting a spam review" thing are true, it'd be really nice if Google/Blogger did more to help the people using their stuff. A good set of rules and directions, written by the Google/Blogger employees responsible for the bots that flag us and the people/bots responsible for clearing the innocent & canning the guilty, would be a giant step in the right direction.

My blog-- [http://immoderatemonk.blogspot.com] --was initially flagged in late May. At first it was only flagged, meaning I could still access & post to it, as long as I solved a CAPTCHA each time. I hit my "?" and requested my review. For awhile, I did it every day (This is the first time/place I've seen anyone say not to), and received the reply that my request was received on such-n-such-a-day (Say, May 28th). One day--probably 10-14 days later--it seemed to have no record of that May 28th request, and put me down as having made my request THAT day (Say, June 11th, or so). Somewhere between then & yesterday, I got involved in other activities, and wasn't as conscientious... I know that I ended up with a third initial date for my review submission (Probably late June or early July), and that when I looked yesterday, my blog was "removed" &/or "disabled."

So after doing more research, I followed the three step directions listed on nitecruzr's "Real Blogger Status" site-- [http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/02/blogs-are-being-removed-for-just-cause.html] --and 1) hit the blogger link to request my review, 2) submitted my blog to the appeals spreadsheet (the link above that Mishka says you're supposed to wait ten days to do), and 3) posted about my false positive flagging here in "Something's Broken."

So, is nitcruzr right, or is Mishka right? How are we supposed to know how best to handle this situation, when there seems to be no official instructions, explanations, or timeframes from Google/Blogger, and no way to contact them, leaving us with these very well meaning & helpful--though perhaps not on the same page--fellow users?

I've been nothing but happy with Google/Blogger for the last several years--and honestly, I do fully expect that this issue will be resolved in a way that'll leave me happy, too--but that doesn't mean it couldn't be handled a bit better by Google/Blogger, so that those of us who're innocent but get caught up in the spam nets anyway, know what to expect, how long the resolution should take, and what we can do to help the process along.
-- My Blog Is Labeled As SPAM, What Do I Do? - Blogger Help - Repsac3, 5:30 PM
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Submitted to blogger help (& posted here) 7/20/09, 4:38 PM.:
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http://immoderatemonk.blogspot.com/
"Sorry, the blog at immoderatemonk.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs."
I have followed nitecruzr's instructions and

1) requested an unlock review: "We received your unlock request on July 20, 2009"

2) submitted a Spam Appeals to the database

3) posted a query about my plight here at BHF. [My blog, immoderatemonk.blogspot.com, has been removed/disabled. - Blogger Help]

I was a little concerned because when the blog was locked (I could post to it, but I had to solve a captcha), I submitted three or four review requests, all of which seemed to fall on deaf ears... But apparently, this is normal, and my blog isn't lost... ...yet, anyway...

(Is it true that there's no timeframe for this process, and I could be without this blog for as many days, weeks, months as it takes for Google/Blogger to review my blog & decide on it's fate? I ain't thrilled...)
-- My blog, immoderatemonk.blogspot.com, has been removed/disabled. - Blogger Help
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My earlier (July 6th, 2009) comment, at another Blogger Help thread (Posted here with 7/20/09 post, above):
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I'm getting a little concerned, as well. My blog, Immoderate Monk--a blog I use to make sure that comments to moderated blogs don't disappear into the internet aether, that has nothing violent or particularly offensive on it--was first marked as a spam blog on June 27th or 28th. I clicked the link for a review on June 28th and got the "we received your request on June 28th & will review" message on that date, but nothing changed. Just to be sure--since the message on my dashboard stayed the same--I would click that link to request a review, and everyday I would get the same "we received your request on June 28th..." message... ...until today, when it made me type in the code to request a review all over again. Now the message lists July 6th as my "review requested" date.

I'm a little worried that if I don't keep on this, I'm going to find my blog deleted because someone/something at the blogger end is dropping the ball. I'm hoping I can get some reassurance that blogger/google/whoever is aware, and that my little blog and all those comments that the blog is meant to protect won't themselves vanish into the internet aether, when I'm non guilty of the crime of which some robot is accusing me.

If anyone has any suggestions, or if anyone from the blogger/google family is reading this and wants to offer any explanations or reassurances, I'd really appreciate it. I hate spam as much as the next guy, but I'd rather have a little more spam, than see innocent bloggers go down--especially if I'm one of those innocent bloggers.
- Your blog is marked as spam - Blogger Help