This afternoon I was was greeted with the message that my blog had been suspended for a violation of the WordPress Terms of Service. Having actually read the ToS, I was rather surprised – I couldn’t think of anything I had done that violated it. Re-reading it, I still couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong. Reading the FAQ “My blog has been suspended” was even more disturbing, because it said (a) We do not contact you first to ask that content be modified or removed and (b) You cannot have the blog content back. Having poured the last four months into this blog, I was very distressed to read the latter. Fortunately, before I read the FAQ, I had emailed them and asked what it was I had done wrong. While trying to recover my posts via Google cache, I got an email from Mark who apologised and said that it had been done mistakenly, and that my blog had been reinstated. Huge relief.
While my first thought was “back up your posts”, my second was to wonder, as I had initially, whether this was in some way related to the John Angus Campbell post, or something related to my posts on the Guayanilla Windfarm. While a “mistaken” suspension could come from selecting the wrong blog, it would also be the result of someone acting on a complaint without investigating the matter properly. I know it’s paranoid, but I can’t help but wonder (especially on a day that my email alias mysteriously reset itself).
Makes you wonder. It also shows how addicted I have become to blogging, since one of the first things I did when I found out was to blog about it. Not a fun experience.
Filed under: Blogging, Meta, WordPress | 4 Comments »
