Saturday, April 30, 2011

My Blog Disappeared... Not!

Early this week, I got so shocked when I found out after a login that my blog had disappeared. My dashboard said that I was not an author of any blogs, and both inbound links and search results led to a "blog not found" notice. It was like it never existed! After 20 posts, 85 comments, and thousands of pageviews, it never existed.

At first, I thought that someone had hacked my account and deliberately deleted my blog. So I did a little experiment -- I created a new one (I don't know what came over me, but I named it "Spritzo") and deleted it myself. But after learning that we have the chance to undelete our blog for a short period (90 days I think), I quickly dismissed the odds.

Then, a colleague told me that she was having problems logging in to her account. This made me think that there might just be a temporary issue in Blogger's system.

Still, since I live and breathe cynicism as if it were a religion, I Googled about such blog disappearances and read forum posts. That was when I learned about the possibility that Blogger might have marked my blog as spam.

My conscience is clean -- MY BLOG IS NOT SPAM. I should know. There was just a mistake and I had to correct it. Because I've put so much effort and thought into making this blog, I promised myself that I'm gonna do whatever it takes to have Google bring it back and make them apologize for marking my work as garbage.

Yeah, I wanted the ginormous company to say sorry.

And so, I made my own forum post, divulging the details of what happened. A contributor provided me with a lengthy reply, but I didn't get to use any of the info since I didn't understand squat. So I decided to just wait for a few more days before I take my protest to the next level, hoping that sooner or later, someone else would leave a more helpful message in my cry for help.

For each day that passed, I prayed hard that my blog would just return magically and erase my bitterness about the incident. I was so desperate that I even thought searching for my posts in Google would resuscitate it like CPR. But every time I opened the links to no avail, my morale just got lower and lower. I got really depressed.

Today wasn't any different. I wrote in my personal journal:
"Dear diary... My blog is still gone. I don't know what do, I feel so helpless about it. My blogging career is over! :( Wait, no, I won't give up. I'm gonna raise hell. I will do everything to retrieve my blog. In fact, right now, I'm logging in t -- holy sh*t, my blog is baaaaack!!!"
*end of reenactment*

Hurrah! Blogger didn't delete it after all. They just had this boo-boo and now it has been fixed. My blog did disappear though, but after logging in a while ago, it was if nothing happened. Except for the presence of the experimental blog, which bothers me like I had OCD. All the content, comments, and pageviews -- they were all restored! I'm sooooo happy!

But it haunted me again, that popular saying we all encounter from time to time: "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." And so, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone for reading and supporting my blog. I know you're only a handful, but you've done so much to inspire me to keep doing this. For each press on your keyboard to type in a comment, and for each click of your mouse to open my posts -- THANK YOU. It's been only 6 months, but for me, the response has been overwhelming already. You made this possible:


Too bad, there won't be any apologies from Google anymore. But still, thank you thank you thank you!!! And I promise, I'm gonna keep on writing. I will try my best to be a better blogger who creates posts with more substance. Here's a sneak peak of what's to come:

  • Review: Nutella & Others
  • Emergency Fund
  • Review: Nokia E63
  • Review: Nivea For Men 10-in-1 Whitening Facial Foam (Nutri-Repair)

I hope you guys stick around for these! Thanks again. :)

P.S. I didn't really write that in my diary.

11 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Ha ha! Looking forward to more posts from you, Karlo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This happens from time to time and it is quite frustrating. It is good that your blog returned to you. Imagine the amount of efforts and time that will be wasted if it happen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Chris Belison: Thank you!!!

    @Ishmael Fischer Ahab: Really? It happens every now and then? Gosh, that's scary. I already exported my blog for back-up. You better do that too, preferably every after post. Thanks for the heads up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog about my disappearing photos. It wasn't as bad as your experience of losing the whole blog, but bad enough. I had some very technical advice from a reader but I couldn't get my head around it. I have re-loaded some of the pictures but there are still a lot of gaps. Perhaps they will reappear as magically as your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @monix: I hope that too. Well, we can't do anything about it. I mean, Blogger is free after all. Let's just wish for a better service in the coming years. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you're still with us buddy. I too put a lot of effort in my blog and feel it is my duty to report nerd news that I think is awesome! I would be a lost puppy without it! Blog on!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Jason Furie: Damn right, Jason! Our blog is such a big part of us now. Keep on blogging too, because yours is great! Thanks for dropping by. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for sharing. BTW, would you by any chance know how to recuperate admin privileges. I created a blog, gave someone admin privileges and then they had me removed. I no longer have access to my own blog. I can't find help with Google and I never heard back from them when I tried reporting this to them.

    Thanks again,

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Esther G: Ooh, I don't know about that, Esther. Why did they do such a thing, anyway? Perhaps you could do a little experiment, like create another blog, reenact the scenario, and then see what happens. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh I'll wait for Nutella. Haha. =)

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Dani: Haha, thanks! But I'll have to save up for that, 'cause buying Nutella together with other choco-hazelnut spreads isn't cheap. :))

    ReplyDelete

Any comment will do. Even spam. Seriously. Loljk

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...