Access is Granted

Yet, there is no plausible explanation, except maybe for the FM principle.

Some of you may be familiar with this expression, which doesn't mean frequency modulation. so I will leave it at that. Of course, you're free to substitute freakin' madness and that will work just as well.

A previous post detailed that I couldn't access several blogs on my sidebar, but instead received a warning that the sites could be risky. 

Frustrated and just plain annoyed as to why this message suddenly came up as these blogs were ones accessed regularly without any issues. It seems this could have been a recent security add-on through our home internet provider (Xfinity). This feature would block a site from loading if it suspected any potential dangers from malware, spyware or other risks. Yet, the sites could be accessed when not on my home network, so I was going to access blogs away from the apt.

Happily, I will not have to do that.

Maybe due to that FM principle?

Not sure how or why, but this past weekend all of those sites could be accessed with no displayed cautions. And, that trend thankfully has continued into this week.

And, I did absolutely nothing to cause either the initial problem or the eventual resolution.

Sometimes, there is magic and as long as all is working again, I believe.

Several mornings this week, our river views have been fogged in. The weather hasn't been spring-like with steady rain last weekend and a forecast of light snow changing to rain this week. However, we haven't had any of the nastier weather affecting many other states.

Thanks for all the comments on last week's Friday Funnies post that showed photos of lost shoes in singles and pairs. The diverse locations where the footwear was seen didn't provide any clues. As in many cities, there is a homeless population within Nashua, so perhaps a few bloggers were correct in supposing that the paired shoes were left for them. 

That said, here's what I saw earlier this week l and in this location, a Recycle can downtown on Main Street and only the lone boot. This one was not made for walking solo.

The Culprit Revealed

Yesterday's post, Proceed with ⚠️ was shared after I received a security notice when accessing a few blog sites early yesterday. 

After the notice displayed for one site, I systematically went through all the blog sites on my sidebar and received the same caution for two other blogs.

The notice advised the sites be avoided because: This site might compromise your device or contain high-risk content. To avoid these risks, we recommend avoiding this site.

This struck me as quite unusual and highly unlikely as these blog sites were ones I've been accessing for several years, not some recent sites. All three are listed on my sidebar.

Do I think these sites pose any risk?

Certainly not and also several other bloggers commented that they had previously received similar cautions, which they ignored. Nothing dire happened as a result.

But, of course, I wanted to know more especially why did this message suddenly displayed when these blog sites have been accessed without issue. To be honest, I still do not have a complete answer, but at least determined the source.

Why the Block?

Apparently, it's related to the security provided from our internet provider, Xfinity. According to online information this feature monitors network traffic and blocks a site from loading when it has detected potential dangers that could contain malware, spyware, phishing or other risks that could harm personal devices and/or compromise personal information. The message strongly recommends to avoid the blocked website to protect devices and data. 

What can be done 

Again, according to online sources, when trying to access a website that may have been blocked mistakenly by Advanced Security, it's possible to go to the Security Risk History for a device and select Allow Access next to the website you want to visit. 

Alternately, if you believe the site is legitimate and need to access it, you can carefully evaluate the source of the link or information and consider using a different browser or a more secure connection (like a VPN). 

What's not recommended

While it's possible to disable Advanced Security, doing so would remove security protection for all devices on your network. As we currently have a number of these on our home network, this option will not be completed. 

It's unfortunate that this advanced security feature from our internet provider has blocked certain blog sites, However, Patrick isn't planning to change or modify any security settings.

Personally, I'm hoping that this is a temporary glitch. I'll try to access the selected sites, but will not click Proceed Anyway to ignore the caution. My advance apologies for not being able to read or comment on some many blog sites.

Further Update: It seems that our home internet service is now blocking even more blog sites through a feature called Safe Browse IO, which is not a virus or malware. This security feature is a central element of Xfinity xFi Advanced Security. It blocks access to potentially dangerous or malicious websites, acting as a security layer to protect users from online threats. 

That may be so, but to my mind it's become a downright annoyance and very frustrating.

Again, I do not believe any of these blog sites has harmful information, but I'm not willing to take any chances that could compromise our devices or data. That said, it's possible I may find another way for internet access that doesn't use our home service. There's a Function Room with wi-fi available for residents, which I will use later this week. Details to follow.

Proceed with Caution ⚠️

A caution to fellow bloggers — this screen displayed on three blog sites listed in my sidebar this morning.

FYI this message displayed attempting to access these blog sites on both an iPad and MacBook using Apple's Safari browser, the only browser on my devices. 

Needless to say, I didn't proceed, but took a screen shot to display here and then ran a virus check on my PC with no dire report. (The screen shot above was edited to blur a blog site and my bookmarks.)

It's posted for your information as a precaution, since the websites are displayed on my sidebar: Buttercup Counts Her Blessings, Carola Bartz and Mad Snapper. I'm hoping this is a temporary situation and that I can re-visit these blogs in the future.

If it's happened to you, now or previously, please feel free to comment.

Spam (Somewhat) Begone

An earlier post this month on blog spam detailed how I've been reporting spammers to Google as spam, malware or phishing. Recently, I reported some as harassment since they had left repeated spam comments. That seemed like harassment to me.

Internet graphic

Have Blog Spam Comments Gone?

Not completely, but there has been a marked reduction in the amount of blog spam that has been posting in comments compared to previously. In the past couple of weeks, I've received a few sporadic spam comments, none for online cricket betting as before. 

So, maybe, going through this process has been having an effect. I know that many bloggers moderate their comments and so reported they received little to no spam. While that seems a more time-consuming process, this is strictly a personal view since this process works for many bloggers. I will continue filing reports to Google.

Blog spam is just one issue. So many people, we know complain about receiving unwanted phone calls for so many things (auto warranties, credit cards, insurance). They also lament about the amount of junk mail.

Phone Call Spam
We have both cell phones and a residential or "house" phone. Today, most people only have a cell number given out to family, friends, medical providers and anyone else who needs your phone number. 

Internet graphic

While both Patrick and myself own and use cell phones, our numbers are only shared with family and friends and, when necessary, to others such as when we are traveling away from home. Otherwise, the "house" number is given out. It has proven effective in not having folks send us text messages, including medical offices. I always know when I have an appointment and thankfully have few of these, so do not need both phone and text reminders.

There's a lot of articles on how to deal with phone spam. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has one as well, How to Block Unwanted Calls on both a cell phone and/or land line, regardless if you are already registered on the National Do Not Call Registry. The article explains the difference between Call Blocking and Call Labeling.

Internet graphic

Junk Mail, Everyone?

Our postal mail, when we receive any, gone are the days when mailboxes contained real mail (remember post cards, letters and cards?), contains hardly any junk mail. 

Why? Because when and if we receive mail in the form of requests for donations, unwanted catalogs, etc. After we moved into this apartment, we would get unsolicited catalogs addressed to the former resident.Then, and now, I call any number that's included and politely request that no future mailings be sent.  The usual response is that the mailings could take a few months to stop. I again politely reply that they will be recycled until they stop. Wonder of wonders, it never takes that long. I've stressed that politeness is always a keyword. Customer service folks who answer calls should never be shouted at or abused. Far too often, I suspect they are on the receiving end of nasty calls. There's no excuse for this abuse.

Once again, the FTC has an online article on How to Stop Junk Mail explaining how to get less mail from marketing companies and also credit card and insurance companies. Real Simple magazine also had a good article on How to Stop Junk Mail for Good in Less Than in less than 5 Minutes.

Mail asking for donations to worthy organizations is a big problem for many. I follow the same procedure as for unwanted catalogs and call the organization to request our name/address be removed from the solicitation list and also not be sold to another organization. It's working for us; we get virtually no unsolicited donation requests, really. Our donations are limited to local organizations with exceptions for donations to relief organizations that provide assistance for natural disasters and, most recently, the LA fires.

These are always done in the form of a check (remember those) not by credit card. A letter is included specifying that the monies be used for whatever purpose necessary and no acknowledgement or receipt is required or requested (we do not itemize for taxes). The letter further requests our names and address are not to be provided to any other organization as we make our own choices. Adhering to these requests assures that the organization remains on our donation list. We haven't yet removed one we've selected.

Also, you can cross off your mailing address on a check. I do this on all donation checks. As advised by our local bank, a check can still be legally cashed — we've never had one returned. 

Do These Things Work?

Yes, they do at least for us and possibly for others. Unwanted catalogs usually stop after one call. Local organizations do not send additional solicitations during the year and we do not get solicitations from other local organizations. 

The information in the post is based on my personal experiences. Yes, it can take a bit of effort up front, but the results have been worth it. You may have other methods that work for you as there are countless articles, websites, YouTube videos available providing info on how to stop/lessen unwanted spam from calls, texts, email and mail.

Spam-a-Lot or Not

Apologies for borrowing a word which, most often is associated with something that's entirely different and entertaining; however, my use of the word definitely is not. The other Spamalot is a musical retelling the legend of King Arthur. It's based on the 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Its title is a portmanteau (a word or part of a word made by combining the spellings and meanings of two or more other words or word parts) in this case, Spam and Camelot.

My use of spam-a-lot refers to the proliferation of spam comments that myself and other bloggers have to deal with, sometimes on a daily basis. This comment ↓ is an example. 

Often, an identical spam comment will be repeated for multiple blog posts. Most times, the comments are left overnight, an indication that spammers are in another country/time zone.

In recent weeks, I've been reporting many of these multiple spammers to Google. In the above example, clicking on the spammer's name, Mostbet, brings up this page where I click on Report Abuse.

Next, this screen to Report a community violation displays to identify the URL of the spammer you want to report and I click on Report.

This next screen presents a selection of violations and one can be selected by clicking on it.  I've been selecting spam, malware, or phishing. However, despite selecting this violation, in the past few days, the same spammer has been leaving spam. So, this week, I selected harassment or bullying and will see if that brings any results in halting this spammer.

After I've selected the reason for reporting the violation, this next screen displays and then I click on Submit Report.

The final step is to go back and delete the spam comment. 

This is the email that Google sends every time a violation is reported. Some days, I have received multiple thank you emails for reporting multiple violations.  

Does this process work?

Yes and no because some days I have had zero spam comments and then other days, there will be anywhere from a few to 6 or more. I've noticed that there has been a reduction from certain spammers with a few exceptions. That's why I plan to select a different violation to report in the future as spam actually is a form of harassment or bullying.

If any other bloggers have gone through this process, please share your experiences in a comment especially whether it's been successful or not in stopping some of the spam.

*****************

Our thanks to everyone for your condolences on the recent passing of my friend and of Patrick's cousin. Also, thanks to those who commented on coincidences in your own lives.

Enough Already !

A question today, more of a rant — not against fellow bloggers — but spammers.

Has anyone else been bothered by an onset of spammers in recent days/weeks ?

A fellow blogger recently commented on this issue posting that she had been bombarded with over 80 spam comments in a single week. 

It's been happening here too. Recently, on the pull down menu above published comments, there were some 50 that blogger had flagged as potential spam — Most of these were actual spam, others that were not flagged were more of the same.

Nearly all spammers spew their garbage overnight, many contain links to online betting. Daily morning checks show postings within the past 4-6 hours of a 7 am check.  

Unfortunately, actual blogger comments are sometimes marked as spam. These need to be checked as OK to publish. It's become a morning routine to check comments, delete spam, OK legitimate comments to publish. 

Seriously, do these spammers think anyone in his/her right mind would click on any of the included links? 

• WHY do spammers bother; paid commissions on the number of spammed sites?
• WHY if blogger can ID a comment as spam is it still published?
• WHY when marked as spam and deleted, a spam comment returns on another post?

What I've been doing

As mentioned above, many recent spammers hawking online betting come from a specific source(s). These sites have been reported to blogger for inappropriate comments. When a spammer is reported, blogger will send this reply: 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,

Thanks for flagging potential policy or legal violations on Google. 

We’ve received your report under the following abuse category: spam or unwanted content.

The Google Team

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whether or not this will limit or prohibit future spam is yet to be determined.

Here's are several sites recently spewing spam comments. If you find any in your post comments, the best advice would be to delete immediately.

• Laser247
• ReddyAnna Book
• Online CricketID
• Arman
• Bet bbhi
• Online Cricket ID

In addition to spam containing links to online betting, spammers will use flattery and offer positive comments on how well the post was presented, etc. It's all smoke and mirrors (something that seems good but is not real or effective). It's best to delete these too.

Many bloggers moderate comments in an attempt to control spam, possibly for other reasons. If you do this, does it work?

Your turn — If any blogger has other solutions that work, please leave a comment. 

In the Center?

This post is about text styles and certainly not meant to criticize what anyone chooses to use on his/her blog site. That choice is most definitely yours. Apologies if anyone becomes offended. 

To center or not, that is the question, and it has nothing to do with Shakespeare.

It has everything to do with readability and the way our brain is used to reading.

3 Types of text alignment

Recently, it seems that many folks have adopted a centered text alignment for blog posts. Perhaps they consider this style as more contemporary or artsy?

In truth, it's neither. While I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this choice, it makes posts more difficult to read.

Centered text is more difficult to read when there's multiple lines of text as in long text paragraphs. That's because it forces the reader to make additional eye movements on both sides of the content. This can cause unnecessary eye fatigue, decrease reading speed and result in lower reading focus.

Why?

Because centering paragraph text anywhere, except in certain cases, makes the brain work harder to process what its reading because most of us learned to read books left to right from an early age. English is read as a left-to-right language. Scanning text that's centered or flush right is more difficult to read.

Left-aligned text typically results in much better content readability. And, it's why why newspapers, magazine articles and books are presented this way. Left-aligned text avoids unnecessary eye jumps which makes the copy much easier to follow. 

Would you continue reading something for pleasure if the text was all centered?

The default alignment for most reading text is left aligned text. It's not a random choice. Most writing follows this format. Left-aligned text is easier to read because of the way our eyes scan a page. Eye tracking research has shown that readers scan sites in a what's called the F-shape pattern.

It results in much better content readability, which is why books, magazine articles and newspapers use this style. Left-aligned text helps to avoid unnecessary eye jumps, making the whole copy much easier to follow.

What is the F-Shape Pattern?

F-Shape Pattern

The F-Pattern describes the most common user eye-scanning patterns when it comes to blocks of content. In this context, F means fast. That's how users read content on the web. In a few seconds, their eyes move quickly across a page.

Analysis have shown that people usually read the first few lines of content while looking for what they need. Then, they scan the lower portion of the page until deciding what to do next. 

People first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This eye movement forms the top of the F. Then, they move down the page looking for areas of interest. When something interests them, they read it and the eye movement forms the second horizontal line of the letter F. This second line usually covers a shorter area than the previous one.

Centered text is best used for some headlines (one or two lines long) and short lines of text, like quotes, poems, or slogans. People can read these easier as lines are short, scannable and don't require repeated eye movements. 

My preference is for left-aligned text using a sans serif font, which describes a font where the individual characters don't have serifs (tails and other ornaments). 

Previously, my font choice was Arial, a popular sans serif font. Arial is designed primarily for print use, and also makes a good web font because of its openness. A similar font, Helvetica, is also veery similar. Recently, I've recently been experimenting with a couple of different type fonts, which may have been more difficult to read on certain browsers or mobile decides.

This font, Times New Roman, (a serif font) is considered one of the easiest fonts to read and has long been standard for print and web documents because it's simple and straightforward and extremely legible at a wide variety of sizes, as well as in bold, italics, and headings. Despite its relatively small x-height (X-height refers to the height of the lowercase x for a typeface). 

Your Turn — which text alignment style do you use and why?

Wait & See . . .

Seems to have been the prevailing consensus among the fellow bloggers who received the email from the Google Album Archive Team that was cited in my previous post.

From comments received as this post, that opinion was evenly split among bloggers who received the email and those who didn't get it. 

A couple of bloggers said they were unaffected due to being on another platform or not using photos. Another commented about having downloaded blog photos into a zip file and that it worked.

One blogger commented that she had gone back to early blog posts and found there were now broken links in place of photos. 

It's also happened to me on blogs from years back. While, I could possibly go back and remedy this situation by adding back photos saved on external drives (many, but not all, have been saved) that task would be very time consuming. In truth, I'm not sure it would really matter. So, it's not something to be done. Going backwards is never as productive as moving forward. There are so many other things to do with that time.

And so, as noted in that earlier post, my position is also a wait & see one. Perhaps, this move will prove to have been unwise if ALL photos have broken links. While that would be unfortunate, it would, by no means, be a tragedy because there are far more important things in life as we all know. This blog is nothing more than a spot to share road trip adventures, family photos, fun things seen. It is not anything timeless.

Also, many thanks to those who left a comment and said they hoped I would not shut down the blog. Your support is very much appreciated. 

As fellow blogger Sue said: I would dearly hate to loose this format and all the friends I have made over the years. The same is true for myself and surely for many of you as well. The blog community consists of many friendships over many years.

Thanks, as always, for sharing what action you will or will not take. As for those bloggers who said they had not received a Google email, perhaps yours went into a trash folder as so many of my legit emails do. It's worth a check. The email was From: Album Archive and the subject: An Update to Album Archive.

Blogger Changes Coming?

Just wondering, how many other bloggers also received this email from Google in recent days?

Hi XX
You’re receiving this email because you’ve viewed Album Archive recently or you may have some content that is visible in Album Archive. Starting on July 19, 2023, Album Archive will no longer be available. We recommend that you use Google Takeout to download a copy of your Album Archive data before then.

Today, Album Archive lets you view and manage album content from some Google products within Album Archive. However, some content that’s only available in Album Archive will be deleted starting July 19 including

1. Rare cases like small thumbnail photos and album comments or likes
2. Some Google Hangouts data from Album Archive
3. Background images uploaded in the Gmail theme picker prior to 2018

If you would like to access this data, please make a copy of this data using Google Takeout. After Album Archive is no longer available, you can still use those Google products to view and manage some content directly – learn more.

Thank you, Your Album Archive team

________________________________________

So — Does receipt of this email mean images in blog posts need to be exported very soon . . . so many ?s

This concern led to an hour or so of online sleuthing this weekend and then to the Blogger Help Community. The first post below by User 5777573509985063752 was labeled as a trending issue, as expected, it resulted in numerous comments from other Google users and replies from Adam, a Diamond Product Expert. (The user IDs are exactly as posted in the Help community.) Some of the longer comments have been shortened.

Blogger and Google Album Archive closing, where are Blogger photos stored?

Google Album Archive is closing in a few weeks. Just looked in there and it seems that’s where all Blogger pictures are stored. Does that mean on the 19th we won’t have any pictures on any of our blogger blogs? Or is that just a backup and the blog photos the blogs use are stored elsewhere?

Adam, Diamond Product Expert:

There are, understandably, a number of questions about this today, so I have merged them into this rollup thread. A new storage scheme is in the works. This transition is supposed to happen automatically; we'll see how that goes. Some images may need to be moved "manually," which means downloading them (if you need to) and uploading them again.

Google will notify you of any images that need manual action. Google clearly expects to be able to do this automatically for most images and has done that once before, when it moved Blogger images from Picasaweb into the Album Archive.

If you only need to download a small number of images, your browser probably has a "save image as" option. Otherwise, you can use Google Takeout. Beware of images uploaded from old accounts you may have forgotten about. Especially if the email of record for an old account is out of date (so that you will not see Google's notification).

We do not know today how clear the documentation from Google will be about describing affected images. It will probably be easier to replace things manually before the original image is deleted and it can be used as a marker and guide.

It may be too early to say "your blog isn't impacted by the changes." I just mean that I read that as "your blog isn't impacted by the changes" yet.  Apparently, a new storage scheme is in the works: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/13656070

That said, a month's notice seems short for something like this.

User 9087340934809438:

Once archive is gone, and as Adam mentioned,  mostly no manual intervention by a blogger user is necessary (hopefully that is true as I also have thousands of photos embedded in the blog), where are the photos stored after that and against which storage quota does it count?

Adam, Diamond Product Expert:

Re: against which storage quota does it count?

That's an awfully good question, because the help page is silent on that issue.  I am going to cross my fingers and hope that the images won't count at all against storage, which is, after all, the status quo.

User 9353:

We should have an idea of what amount of broken links we have to expect. I have uploaded over 5,000 photos on my blog since 2013. Even if a small percentage of these pictures need manual intervention, that will take a lot of time to fix it.

User 12992456061150136430:

Similarly to 9353 I have thousands of photos that are ostensibly in the Album Archive and are linked in blog entries dating back to 2004. I have over 11,00 blog entries and any requirement for manual intervention is a non-starter.

Adam, Diamond Product Expert:

@9353, my suggestion is not to buy trouble in advance. I think Google expects to convert everything automatically and that failures will be rare.

We don't have information about what factors might be problematic for Google, and I suspect they do not know either, that they are preparing for the possibility that issues will emerge during implementation.

I suppose, and this is just my speculation, that it would be a good idea to "future proof" your blog, especially if it is very old.  What I mean is that if you started your blog before 2007 and never converted it to a Google account, it might be wise to do that.

Google says: Where possible, old image URLs on your blog are now converted to the new format. There may be some images where we can’t move to the new format automatically. 

I assume the tense this is written in may not yet be correct, that the conversion has not happened yet for many people. It hasn't for me.

There's no mention of any of that in the email that Google sent out to everybody with images in the Album Archive. The Archive includes images from many other sources besides Blogger, and the generic email did not enumerate every case.

User 1891572831468108221:

This would be great if Google were mentioning that blogger photos will be migrated automatically before asking the users to archive the images.

User JP1234567890;

Thanks for this summary, Adam. The blog I'm most concerned about is 17 years old with thousands of photos. For now I'm trying to decide if I have a huge job ahead. The thing I don't understand is in the document you linked to, "a new storage scheme is in the works: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/13656070 

It ends by saying: "Tip: If the link isn’t visible, your blog isn’t impacted by the changes."

My question is which link. Does this mean that, in Step 4: Navigate to Manage blog > Manage unsupported image URLs.

If there is no "Manage unsupported image URLs" link underneath Manage blog,  does it mean my blog isn't impacted by the changes?

As shown in the above exchanges, this is an issue concerning many Google users and bloggers, myself included. It seems that not even a product expert can anticipate what will happen. 

Mt situation (and maybe yours) is like the users above who commented about long-running blogs with lots of images. Our blog has been going for just over a dozen years with most likely thousands of images.

That said, I am not planning to export any images, but will adopt a wait and see what happens next position. If that means that images are deleted from the blog by mid-July, perhaps that could be the time to shut it down. Should that happen, know that meeting blogger friends online (and some in person) has been wonderful. Meanwhile, I will be just waiting to see what happens.

Your turn — if you've received this email — What action, if any, do you plan to take?

Say More, Please

Has anyone else noticed in the past few days that Blogger has flagged very short comments (even older ones) as Spam?

Like many bloggers, I check comments daily and usually have anywhere from 2 or more on any given morning. Most of these Spam comments are at least a sentence or more long. Maybe you've received similar ones like this: Your blog is so interesting, please present more of this material . . . and so on. Of course, it's all complete nonsense, and there is always a link to a site that is definitely not that of a fellow blogger's. You can tell false flattery

My next step is to select the ! exclamation point, then the trashcan icon and deletion is done. Now, you would think that blogger would recognize future comments as Spam, but it doesn't quite seem to work that way. I've had repeat Spammers, maybe you have too.

There was a different pattern this weekend when I did my usual Spam comments check. Blogger indicated there were 40 Spam comments, that's way more than before in a single day. After checking, I found out that these all comments were legitimate from fellow bloggers (including bloggers no longer posting). Amazingly, Blogger had flagged these as Spam comments going back to the start of this blog! The one thing all had in common was their brevity.

That's why the post title is a request to, whenever possible, include a few more words in a comment. This may (or may not) prevent Blogger from incorrectly flagging them as Spam.

Of course, leaving a longer comment can be difficult, especially if you follow and read many blogs posts of those bloggers who post often. Personally, I've been posting less often, reading blogs on a semi-weekly basis, and not commenting on every post. Blog reading and commenting takes time which is something we all would like more of every day, month, year. 

In checking these newly marked-as-Spam comments, I said that what all had in common was that they were very short, usually 2 to 3 words. Here's some examples of actual comments from legitimate fellow bloggers that were suddenly marked as Spam:

Looks good, Looks delicious
Very nice, Very pretty
Great!, Nice views
Beautiful flowers, how cute or how sad

Amazing, Oh my gosh!
Sweet photos, Excellent photos, Love the photos

Too cute, Good ones, Sounds good

Merry Christmas, Happy Easter or Happy (whatever holiday)

Happy anniversary or Happy birthday

Why did this happen now? 

No clue because despite several online searches, I couldn't find information to indicate whether Blogger had changed some sort of Spam algorithm. (This is defined as a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.) 

But, there were a number of online complaints about whether or not Blogger does anything about comments marked as Spam. Here's two examples of actual online complaints:

We have been getting a sudden influx of trolls posting comments on our site trying to get their links in there, even though our comments section doesn't work with hyperlinks. I mark them as spam every time, but it doesn't stop them from being able to continue commenting. I'm just curious what the benefit is of having the "Mark as spam" option vs. just deleting. Is there something I can do to ban them from commenting? There is a certain satisfaction I get from marking them as spam every time, but I also have better things to do.

And another complained: For over a month now regular readers and commenters' comments get marked as spam. At least one comment a day, but often all of them! I do my best to set all comments free as fast as possible, by marking them as not-spam and posting them.

And EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I notify Blogger via in-blog support / help button. 

This is deeply frustrating as I'm freeing the same commenters' comments from spam limbo several times a week. What more can I do?

Here's a Blogger response 

A Platinum Product Expert stated: Blogger does not share information about how they determine a comment is spam or not.  I think the best you can do is continue to mark them as not spam. Suggestions included: Manage your blog's comments, Set your Blogger comment settings, Moderate comments, Delete or mark comments as spam

Why do Spam comments exist?

Spammers leave comments on blog posts looking to get backlinks pointing to their sites in order to rank higher in search engines.Many spammers can be using bots to comment. Short for robot this software application is programmed to execute specific tasks as part of another computer program. Bots are designed to automate tasks without human intervention. 

So, my blogger friends, it appears that no matter how often Spam comments are marked, spammers/scammers will continue to leave their annoying comments on blogs. Hopefully, the weekend occurrence was a one-off and won't happen again. While time consuming to mark each one as not spam—it was done for all. 

Thank you all, very much, your comments are read and always appreciated, no matter how short or long. Blogger has become very frustrating lately.

Your turn — Has this happened recently to anyone else? 

Anonymous Lately

But it's not by choice.

Internet source

Recently, if I posted a comment on your blog, my comment name might have displayed as Anonymous instead of my regular (alias) name of Beatrice.

It's annoying, but at least has only been happening when using the iPad to comment. It's not my favorite device to blog read and comment. My fingers go faster than my brain resulting in typos. Some are corrected before posting, others missed and escape to a comment, my past and future apologies.

Back to the anonymity issue, which as stated doesn't happen when using other devices, like the desktop Mac or notebook PC. This sudden turn of events was the result of trying something new and, not finding it useful, reversing the action taken— but not with total success on the iPad.

Blogger NavBar normally displays at top left of a blog

While I'm signed into my blog, the blogger Navbar (see above) no longer displays. Yet, I can access blogs, delete spam comments, and even leave comments on some blogs—not all. 

My comment name, Beatrice, shows up on some blogs. On others, it now displays as Anonymous. Some blogs don't accept Anonymous comments, so I'm directed to sign into Blogger. This doesn't work as I'm already signed into Google (only when using the iPad).

Recently, I tried what's called Private browsing (Safari and Firefox browsers), more commonly known as Incognito mode (Chrome browser)—different names, same function.

Internet source

In these modes, the browser doesn't keep a log of sites visited, cached pages, or saved information such as credit card numbers and addresses. It also prevents information from sessions from being stored in the cloud. 

As you probably know, when you're browsing online, companies and websites use tracking devices, cookies, to keep up with digital activity from site to site for the purpose of targeted advertising. Depending on the browser and personal choices, private or incognito mode is said to reduce cross-site information and tracking across websites.

Going private/incognito lets you use a shared computer or someone else's device and prevents your passwords, search records, and browsing history being saved on that device. Private browsing can also hide your searches and browsing activity from others who use your computer, but doesn't mean your activity can't be tracked. 

Private browsing doesn't completely hide your internet activity from third-parties—websites you visit, advertisers, internet service provider (ISPs), the government, or even hackers. An ISP provider can record a user’s online activity regardless of browser privacy setting. Your IP address, identity, and browsing activity are still visible to third parties. So, it's not a good choice when trying to avoid being tracked online. Private browsing won’t protect you from viruses or malware.

There's another problem. Since websites can’t modify information stored on your device, services normally available on some sites may work differently. You may have to re-enter passwords or sign-ins. That's what happened to me and why I didn't keep using it.

Even after I ditched Private mode, some sign-ins had to be re-entered and Blogger has been problematic only on the iPad. When I returned to non-Private mode on the desktop, everything, including Blogger, came back OK.

Private/incognito mode can keep your browser history private, that’s about all it does. For real privacy, experts suggest Tracking Protection or browse with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. 

Anyone else who has used Private/Incognito mode—your thoughts ?

In another annoying, and recent blogger issue, which may or not be connected—has anyone else received this message when trying to post a comment?

An error occurred while trying to publish your comment

While not consistent, it's shown up on several blog sites. My workaround is to repeatedly click Publish which finally results in the comment being published or awaiting moderation (if that feature has been set). 

Here's another message received when trying to post a comment on a couple of blogs. Despite backing out and then returning to the page, a comment wouldn't post. I'm unsure if this is related to the privacy mode issue.

So, my apologies, in advance, to those bloggers whose blogs I've read, but have been unable to post a comment. If anyone has a work around to this one, please share and thanks.

YIKES—it's U.S. Tax Day, instead of Saturday, April 15. When the deadline is on a weekend, followed by a holiday, the Internal Revenue Service pushes the due date to Monday. But, Monday, April 17, was a Washington, DC holiday celebrating Emancipation Day (anniversary of the district ending slavery in 1862) taxpayers had more time. Tax Day began in 1913, with ratification of the 16th Amendment which gave Congress the authority to tax citizens' income. It was first date, then March 15 in 1918, and became April 15 when the IRS restructured in 1954.

Double 😳 YIKES—State income taxes are due too. It's nice to be free of that tax paid when we lived in NJ and VA. As of 2022, nine states don't have a state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. 

Anyone planning on a future move?