When I went to log on to my blog today, I found out that
My WordPress Blog Was Deleted.
I've been tutoring someone in blogging and today when I logged into my WordPress dashboard, it says the account has been suspended. I'm getting flashbacks from Google. In other words, there is no explanation or mercy. No recourse. It's just gone.
My friend has a lot of information on her various blogs but no business. I can't see how it might be violating the terms of service. We ran no ads. Anyone have a suggestion?
Here's what WordPress says:
Blogs are suspended if they are found to be in breach of the TOS.
We do not contact you first to ask that content be modified or removed.
You cannot have that blog name back.
You cannot have the blog content back.
Matt (owner of WordPress), what gives?? This is unduly harsh – it seems you should know what term you are violating and be given an opportunity to correct the problem. I haven't seen this problem and it's tough to swallow that all that work can just vanish with no warning.
IMPORTANT ADVICE: Don't use a free WordPress site – pay for your own web host.
I was new to blogging in 2005 and didn't know how to host my own. Now I use Siteground, one of my advertisers. They have an easy blog installation using simple scripts that makes it easy to install WordPress. It will cost about $3.95 a month and it's well worth it. They will walk you installing WordPress if you call them – and they are open 24/7. The first website transfer is free. I also love that they will charge you by the month instead of by the year. When you're just starting out that helps you budget.
Once you're paying for hosting and using the free version of WordPress, you have more control over your blog. WordPress can't delete it. You're cleared to use your blog for business purposes and to make money on ads. You can use better WordPress plugins. When you use the free version you're taking your chances. If you get caught, bye bye blog.
In this case, WordPress is a dictatorship and there's not a lot you can do about it.
WordPress Blog Restored…and Deleted Again
UPDATE: Nov. 11, 2008: After a lot of anxiety and hustle, my WordPress blog was restored. However, about 6 months later, it was deleted again. After talking to someone I know who works for WordPress I learned why it got deleted. It was for 1 spam link that I put in a post when the site was new. At that point the link was not spammy but the site changed. Or I just didn't know better. That's no excuse though…it still got deleted. Years of work, gone.
I was able to log in to get the backup file because I know Joseph Scott who works for WordPress. But I couldn't remove the link (I don't know what link it was so I'd just be guessing anyway) or keep the domain. I gave up. All my search engine results now say that the blog was deleted because it violated the terms and conditions. For ONE LINK. Ridiculous. I love WordPress — except on this issue.
I took my blog from the free WordPress blog to paying for hosting. I went with Bluehost (which I no longer recommend for several reasons, including that my site was down for days more than once) and everything transferred over except the comments. I lost all of my comments.
Years of Work Lost
This mistake cost me dearly. I lost rankings, I got discouraged about blogging. It set me back years. So please listen to my advice and DO NOT get a free WordPress blog unless your blog is just for a journal and you don't plan on earning money on it.
Please warn other bloggers and share this to keep them from making the same mistake I made!
If you're using the free version of WordPress or Blogger and plan to start making any money from your blog, please get a paid version today. Blogger doesn't have a free version, they host your blog for you, so at least get your own domain name so it's not something like www.newspapergrl.blogspot.com
You need to either go with Blogger or pay for a webhost.
Siteground is a good place to start.
This is why I perfer web development to blogging. The cost of hosting has dropped to the point where it really is best just to set up on one’s own.
Kevin is right. It’s essential to get your own server and host your own weblog if you are doing it as a business. If you are a serious writer, you cannot let your writing fall prey to the whims (or folly) of another company.
Seriously, WordPress.org could go belly up, disappear and take all your work with it. I saw that sort of thing in the first Dot Bomb, and I’m not trusting any company with my data, photos or writing.
Best of luck getting your weblog back.
Contact support about it: http://wordpress.com/contact-support/
It is possible that the blog was suspended by mistake, or that it was violating the TOS in some regard.
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Check out the video they have on the page.
Cheers
Marko Fando
Hi,
I know what you mean. It is always better to host a Blog yourself so you don’t get into trouble.
Making money is easy with a Blog.
I’m helping people to make a living with
blogging money.
Check it out!
Michel
I ran into a similar problem not long ago, I however, was told before hand I was in violation of TOS. There was a big red banner across th back office of my blog. I was able to fix the problem and then sent them a note I had done so. I can’t wait to host my own blog so I don’t have to worry about the willy-nillyness of wordpress.
Good luck,
Jackie Lee 🙂
Very disturbing…
“what gives?? This is unduly harsh – it seems you should know what term you are violatin”
It is known that these people hire untrained employees to handlle suspects without a care.
BTW, when it is easy to start a blog on your own domain, why
go for outside services?
1. This site will install wordpress free on your site
http://www.installity.com/
2. If you want install wordpress on your own, this
bunch of CNET videos takes you through it.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Install_a_WordPress_blog/4660-10165_7-6626809.html
Courteously — S. Kumar
http://www.learnhomebusiness.com
That would be terrible. That’s why I prefer WordPress on my own server, not theirs.
Backup remains the answer. I never write anything directly in my blog, but use my wordprocessor and then upload. That way, if the worst happen I still have my information. Nobody can be trusted these days. Google taught us that!
It’s getting crazy that’s true. Too many services don’t really tell you anymore what is or what isn’t a TOS, and many more just shoot from the hip (shoot first, ask questions later – if you’re lucky they’ll ask questions).
I prefer to host my blogs on my own sites/servers especially since hosting doesn’t cost too much anymore and I get quite a bit more control over it that way.
I just would like to see sites offering services to be more clear and specific, way too many people are getting hit and never know what for (and often they didn’t do anything either).
Xavier
Hi NewspaperGirl. I too had a few of those free wordpress blogs – 2 accounts actually – both got suspended. I treated them with care and only linked out very discreetly. Only text links within the articles I posted. Only thing that I can think of is that I linked to my free hosted wordpress blogs from the outside so they were gaining incoming links and it may have triggered an alarm. Now I have a ton of broken links on some f my sites as they were shut down. More work than I need to clean those up. That was a month or two ago and I’m still cleaning up links to them… Moral to the story is to only use free hosted blogs or domains as feeder sites – never as your primary sites – who knows what may happen to them… out of our control!
Sorry about your blog 🙁 I have also a WordPress blog, but I host it myself.This is the only way to ensure that you will not be put off.
The better way is host yourself…Im already been suspend 3x and its bad day for me when see all my work for half year gone with only 1 phrases ” Blogs are suspended if they are found to be in breach of the TOS.” Dictatorship….
Hi Guys,
I mean come on! If your not hosting
your own blogs your whole business could
dissapear in seconds.
Dont risk it!
Take Care,
Michael Silvester
I didn’t have my website suspended, but my husband deleted it by accident! Either way we should always backup, you just never know. Even though the site was deleted there was alot of posts still in Technorati. (only the first paragraph, but it was better than nothing.) Good luck anyway.
Indeed… I see it really is better to host it on your own server, at the end of the day its best we own the virtual property and not merely be tenants who can get kicked out when the landlord pleases.
I HAD a blog. It got violated for no reason. I got pretty upset, but I contacted wordpress.
Hi,
Today morning when i tried to check my wordpress account. The messege came “Your Account is Suspended”. From last 7 months i have been using this account, which was giving me enough traffic. And i havent done anything wrong as far as my knowledge. But suddenly this happened.
I think, my friends are right. You should install your blog on ur own server. So that your hard work does not get vanish like this.
I never knew this kind of problem do exist on wordpress. I logged in to my account to check my stats and was told my account has been suspended. The most depressing aspect is that there is no opportunity to even lay a complain or ask for help in the forum because the suspended account is linked to everything.
I believe WordPress can do better than this.
If there is a violation of the TOS, the blogger should be sent a warning. Shutting down a blog without explanation is quite depressing.
i can host a free wordpress blog on a subdomain that wont be suspeded
Word-host
I think WordPress have got very strict with affiliate links. In their TOS, they said that they will not allow their blogs for SEO purposes.
Mary
My blog on wordpress.com just got suspended, apparently in violation to TOS. Under no circumstance have I violated or infringed any copyrights or hosted get-rich-quick scams or spam people for that matter. I´m hoping to resolve this issue but wonder about the support team response time or if they even care. Although I´m not stressed about it, it certainly comes at a bad time since I was just starting to blog and had dramatically increased my audience and traffic. I hope this is all a mistake, would hate to have this on my Google search results forever.
I got my site back, I was publishing an article on stats about online dating had a link to a particular dating service and the automatic crawler detected it as spam. Got rid of the link and the blog is up and running again. This is the article in question, what d´ya know: http://dianenoboa.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/study-reveals-one-in-four-couples-now-meet-online/
Diane, so glad you got your site back. I wasn’t as lucky. I lost all the Google rankings for a bad link and gave up trying to get it back after the 2nd time it happened. They can be over-zealous. That’s why it pays to host it on your own server. I’ll never make that mistake again!
I had a blog for college and that got “archived”, so I started another one since it was for marks and therefore required. Amazingly, it was archived again with absolutely no feedback from wordpress. I forgave them two years later and just started another LINK FREE blog, which has gotten suspended as well. Superamazing.
It’s getting crazy that’s true. Too many services don’t really tell you anymore what is or what isn’t a TOS, and many more just shoot from the hip (shoot first, ask questions later – if you’re lucky they’ll ask questions).
Yes and they can change too.