Account suspended without any cause given?

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Tumblr or Blogger are fine if you are 19 and posting cat pictures. But if you are building a professional audience? A reminder that it can be terrible to rely on a free blogging service for professional use:

But earlier this month, when I published a new article, Blogger prompted me to post it on Google+, and I did. A few hours later I discovered that my Google+ account had been suspended for violating terms of service, but I got no information about what terms I had violated.

While my Google+ account was suspended, I was unable to access Blogger and some other Google services. And since Probably Overthinking It is a substantial part of my professional web presence, that was unacceptable.

I appealed the suspension by pressing a button, with no opportunity to ask a question. Within 24 hours, my account was restored, but with no communication and still no information.

So for me, using Google+ has become a game of Russian Roulette. Every time I post something, there seems to be a random chance that I will lose control of my web presence. And maybe next time it will be permanent.

It is nice that using Blogger is free, but this episode has been a valuable reminder that “If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer”. (Who said that?)

I have moved Probably Overthinking It to a site I control, hosted by a company I pay, a company that has provided consistently excellent customer service.

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