Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Any thoughts on switching from Blogger?

Quick shout out to anyone out there who knows how to build Web sites with easy to use software [These thoughts were prompted by a discussion Dan Kennedy is having, seeking advice from Mac users on building Web sites].
I too would eventually like to learn more than I have learned about this stuff and maybe even more to fancier design abilities, eventually moving away from the blogger software entirely.
Here is just one reason why: Blogger has put a Word Verification prompt on my posting on my own site, for whatever reason. It was done about three days ago and they claim it is because my site is a Spam site.
I don't know how they came to this conclusion except that it seems to have happened right around the fifth anniversary of this site, which was on Dec. 28. You would think after more than five years of posting on the same site, more than 1,100 times, they would know by now that Politizine is not a Spam site.
There was a prompt to have my Spam gateway "reevaluated" by staff at a later date, since it was implemented by a program not a human. So far, it remains, and it's friggin' annoying.
Earlier today, while searching for a way to resolve the problem, in the help center, Blogger states that they have implemented this policy to blogs that post a lot, assuming they are Spam blogs. So, arbitrarily, they just decided my blog - and others - was a Spam blog because I make a lot of individual posts!
There have also been problems with the word verification process. Often, it will sit there for an hour saying it is saving the text when it actually is not saving the text. Also, sometimes, even if you have put in the correct letters into the verification, it says you haven't. What is going on here?
Lastly, I have searched high and low and there is no customer service contact information anywhere. So, essentially, you're flying blind.
I'm almost tempted to bail on Blogger at this point. Having used WordPress for a bunch of months now through work, I have grown accustomed to their software even if it doesn't offer as many doodads as Blogger.
Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Please let me know.

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