Outrage is a great motivator

My statistical history as a blogger is not a pretty sight. There have been periods where my level of activity was enthusiatic (perhaps even manic); but there were even longer times when "desultory" would be a kind description of my engagement with the platform. But Google has found a fool-proof way to stir me into renewed action.

At 10:17 on Saturday 15 May, I received an email indicating that a post originally published on 4 March 2021 had been reviewed and determined to have "violated our malware and viruses policy". It was then deleted. 50% of my output for the calendar year was gone at the stroke of a (digital) bureaucratic pen!

Naturally, I had not kept a copy of the post because such responsibility was a characteristic of the former me who managed his blogging schedule studiously. So a detailed review of the (now invisible) text to identify the offending material was ought of the question. On the other hand, I had little difficulty recalling the general content of the post. It was one of two grumpy-old-man reviews excoriating My Heritage for the less than stellar quality of the predicted family relationships that they insisted on emailing me.

It was at this point that paranoia and conspiracy theories kicked in. Surely it could not be that my humble rants had so enraged the corporate behemoth My Heritage that it sought the assistance of its fellow on-line Titan to silence me? Of course not.

While I wondered how to seek redress, a second email arrived (at 21:10 Sat 15 May) advising that the post had been re-evaluated and was now "reinstated" at its original URL. Except, when I clicked through, it was not available for viewing. The page loaded with a message advising the post did not exist. Perhaps it would take a few minutes to appear.

30 hours later, I was still unable to see the post that had apparently caused such offence against the good-governance standards of the community. Clearly, I need to intervene but all the information that I had received from Blogger came from a "no reply" address. Eventually I found the Blogger Support Community, where the trending topics (headed Error Messages and Accessing my Blog) suggested that I was not alone.

A stream of posts complained of receiving the very same unwarranted deletion notice and a Platinum Product Expert (sic) responded "your posts may have been removed in error. Blogger is aware of the issue, and is working on a fix." A little further down the conversation trail was the revelation that the purportedly reinstated posts "will be drafts, so you have to republish them".

I have now finished repairing the damage wrought by Blogger's artificial intelligence. When I hit Publish, my output for 2021 to date will actually exceed that of the whole of 2020. Oh for the heady days of 2012, or even 2013.

I really must find a way to recapture the enthusiasm that once saw me commited to regular posts that in turn drove me to undertake the type of focussed investigation that would generate good post fodder. I cannot continue to rely on big corporations making me suffiently angry to switch into keyboard warrior mode in order to be productive. (Blogger please note.)