When you try to go to Dennis Mangan's high-brow blog at http://mangans.blogspot.com/ on Google-owned Blogspot, all you see is:
Mangan commented on a previous post of mine:
Blog has been removed
Sorry, the blog at mangans.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.
Did you expect to see your blog here? See: 'I can't find my blog on the Web, where is it?'
Mangan commented on a previous post of mine:
Tommy, thanks for mentioning it. I've only just discovered this and Google has not given me any reasons. If this is what I think it is, no one on blogspot should consider their blog safe from instant deletion. I have no back up, it's just gone. We'll see.
Posts
56 comments:
Skepticism of global warming is verboten:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:ZOmQwJMJCDsJ:mangans.blogspot.com/+dennis+mangan&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Well, I'd never heard of that Dennis Mangan fellow, but although his blog's vanished, it's still cached by Google, so I went and had a look at what he'd been writing recently.
It all seemed like pretty typical rightwing stuff, pretty much what you'd find on about 1,000 other rightwing blogs. So if he was deliberately "disappeared", I can't see why all of them are still around.
I supposed we'll soon find out what happened, but I won't be too surprised if he just pressed the wrong key and "disappeared" himself by accident or something...
I think they shut it down for terms of use violation. Careful Steve
Dan in DC
On a post a few days earlier, I had made an entirely off-hand remark about marijuana. I had stated that responsible adults who had never used and who had some misconceptions about the effects of the drug might want to give it a try to understand the drug. I didn't qualify the statement with any conditions, like fly to Amsterdam (or Los Angeles with a prescription) before doing so.
I hadn't thought anything of the remark as I have seen many similar conversations about marijuana on other blogs, but I cannot rule out the possibility someone might have seized upon this as a violation of the blogger/blogspot policy.
I hope I didn't get the blog deleted or provide some jerk at Google the pretense needed to shut down the blog, but I am worried. If I am responsible, then I am very sorry, Dennis.
RKU raises the possibility of a mistake resulting in the blog's deletion. I had seen a case like this before and there was some trick the guy used to restore the blog content. In fact, it was this Sudanese blogger who had the problem on his old blogspot blog. Dennis, I'll try and contact blog owner, Drima, and see if he can tell me how he resolved it.
In fact, it might be a technical error. I recall that as Google chased the "Suck Africa Sucks" crowd around the blogosphere, they would post messages specifically stating that the blog had been deleted by Google for terms of use violations in each instance. The message at Mangan's Miscellany is just a generic statement indicating the blog had been deleted.
Hang in there, and let me try to figure out the simple trick used to restore the content when the technical error resulted in accidental blog deletion in previous cases.
I was wondering this myself. Are they coming after the Steveosphere?
I doubt it. It's probably just a user error.
Anyone know how to save a blogspot blog just in case this happens?
It has been a long time since I used blogspot, but Dennis might want to try this: if you can access it, go to your Dashboard's blog list and see if you can undelete your blog.
The Vanishing American blog also quit a while back, but the content did not disappear. I think she was ill. If anyone knows how she is doing I'd like to hear. Mangan's blog had excellent content and he had a knack for keeping it concise. Let's hope this is just a glitch for Dennis.
For several hours last night, Amren (oh, I know everyone here only visits them to see what the really really nasty white nationalists are up to) was blocked on my server -- who has apparently outsourced their filtering etc to something a company called opendns. The blockage was specifically for 'hate'. Fortunately today it was accessible -- they must have good lawyers.
Miles here,
Dennis has had some great nutritional information on his blog, as well as other interesting topics of discussion.
He's a class act. Don't know if he decided to retire from blogging, is taking a break, or this is simply a google snafu, but I hope he's doing well whatever the case may be. His thoughts were always interesting.
I logged in at Google to see if the layout is as I remember it. To be a little more explicit, attempt to do the following:
From the dashboard screen go to the header that reads "Manage Blogs." See if it says something like "displaying 0 of 1" blogs. (If you cannot find your dashboard, then log in to your Google account and enter the url http://www.blogger.com/home), Click "Show All." If the blog has been accidentally deleted or if there is some kind of email association problem, then you should have an option next to the title that says "undelete the blog." This should restore your blog.
Dennis posted something this very day, so it doesn’t appear as if he was planning on ending his blog, although he had considered it in the past.
I think they shut it down for terms of use violation. Careful Steve
The terms of service agreements that everyone has to agree to basically amount to the company or host saying that they reserve the right to shut down any blog or content that they deem inappropriate, offensive, etc. That is, they have the right to basically shut down whatever they feel like.
They don't seem to police or enforce them that much. They are deliberately vague on purpose. They generally want to let things go so they don't have to waste too much time enforcing, but they also want to be able to shut down anything if they have to.
From my experience, the hosts generally don't shut anything down unless someone complains about a particular blog and or its content.
I have only known about Mangan's blog for about 3 months. When I first visited it I noticed that it had a lot of good information. I first posted there this Saturday and Sunday. After work today I went there to read the responses to my comments and....gone! I thought it was something I wrote. When I post about 9/11 it is usually just my comments that get deleted. LOL.
"I think they shut it down for terms of use violation."
That was the message that popped up when I clicked on the blog a couple hours ago.
I think that Dan in DC nailed it. If you follow a link explaining one aspect of their policy in detail, you get this:
"Hate Speech: We want you to use Blogger to express your opinions, even very controversial ones. But, don't cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity. For example, don't write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals or advocating violence against followers of Religion Y."
I'm not a frequent reader of Mangan, but I can see that his analysis might run afoul of the phrase, "Don't write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals." Members of different races and ethnic heritages obviously differ regarding criminal convictions and other characteristics, and I seem to remember Mangan's writing on such issues.
Steve, if you've not recently backed up your blog, this might be a good time to do so.
- JHB
Somebody out there better be caching Steve's stuff for when he gets 16volted.
Somebody out there better be caching Steve's stuff for when he gets 16volted.
Having read the "Blogger Content Policy" and the "Google Terms of Service" I fail to see how Mangan's can be in breach of either.
That being said, item 4.3 of the Google Terms of Service states:
"4.3 As part of this continuing innovation, you acknowledge and agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Services (or any features within the Services) to you or to users generally at Google’s sole discretion, without prior notice to you."
I read that as stating that Google can terminate their services for any or no reason at all.
I am sure that given the great reputation Google has that there is nothing suspicious here at all. I'm sure it is all a technical glitch. It would be an embarrassment for any organisation to find anything untoward about such an obviously inoffensive, objectively intelligent, well sourced and informed not to mention well supported blog as Mangan's.
I'm sure Blogger will have it back on the air soon.
For Steve or anyone other bloggers:
Here's a very easy to back up your blog:
Copy this (change blogname):
http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=1000
I think it can go over 1000, so try it. Then just Select All and copy into a Word document (it will then contain all links and pics).
That's what I just did.
Dennis wrote in to Half Sigma, claiming that his Blogger account has been "temporarily disabled." I smell foul play.
OneSTDV:
Anyone know how to save a blogspot blog just in case this happens?
Blogger has an option to export your blog as an XML file for safekeeping:
http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-feature-import-and-export.html
Pay the damn $9 a month like I do and get your own site.
Dennis wrote in to Half Sigma, claiming that his Blogger account has been "temporarily disabled." I smell foul play.
His entire Google account has been disabled. Then this is either a case of censorship or a major technical screw-up on the part of Google. If there really was a TOS message on the site previously, censorship is likely. Unbelievable.
I was worried about my little comment, but then I search around and find blogs like this and I'm not so certain my comment had anything to do with it, though I'll be much more careful in the future on blogs that write about anything
controversial.
Basil Ransom at Half Sigma recommends contacting Google to complain. I've done this and I would hope that everyone would take the time to complain. Be sure to include the URL http://mangans.blogspot.com at the bottom. If we can generate enough complaints about not being able to find his blog, they may reinstate his account.
I just downloaded steve's blog as 4700+ html pages:
0. Use firefox with free DownThemAll extension installed.
1. Go to page http://isteve.blogspot.com/search?max-results=10000
(this might take a while to render, depending on how much RAM you have)
2. Choose "DownThemAll..." from the tools menu in firefox.
3. A window should come up with a list of links in it (make sure to choose "Links" in the top left, instead of "Pictures and Embedded" in the top middle).
4. Create a directory to save your files in.
5. Uncheck all the checkboxes.
6. Type the following in the fast filtering area:
*isteve.blogspot.com/20*
7. Click Start.
8. After a while you'll get an error message about duplicate files -- choose to ignore/skip all such for "this session".
End result:
4720 File(s)
1,164,915,036 bytes
There were about thirty 404'ed links; possibly typoes by steve, or renamed/deleted pages.
I doubt mangan got pulled by google.
His blog nibbles at the edges and is temperate and unoffensive.
Based on the fact that he can't log into his account, I'd put money with my book on his being haxx0rd.
Pay the damn $9 a month like I do and get your own site.
Paging Steve Sailer.
I think they shut it down for terms of use violation.
Possibly, but I'd be surprised, even very surprised. Similar topics are addressed here. And Mangan was always measured and thoughtful.
I, too, doubt he got censored. Someone probably stole his Google account and was using it for spam or something.
I don't think Google is very censorious, and I doubt they want to be known for that. You'd probably have to break the law to get censored, which means that Americans have quite a bit of leeway where speech is concerned (in Europe it might be different).
But I might be wrong. I guess we'll see.
I enjoyed reading Mr. Mangan, but he had a nasty habit of rejecting comments that might offend the you-know-who's.
I've... obtained 660 (out of 663) mangan posts which google was caching. 40MB but it zips to 11MB. If mangan doesn't recover his site, I can send him a copy.
Complain to Google here - http://www.google.com/quality_form?q=help&hl=en&safe=off
Complaint sent.
t.p.: fu.
I have also been flagged for hate speech months ago according to one of my commenters, yet my blog is still safe and sound. It would be appalling if Mangan is censored, but I doubt it. There are men with blogs up who are on death row, for God's sake (like Joseph Edward Duncan III's "Blogging the Fifth Nail: Revelations"). Duncan's kind of sex-offender advocacy is disturbing even to me, but I support free speech there as always. Google's TOS are ostentatiously draconian but do not appear to be enforced much.
What really worries me, though, is that their policy threatens to disable access to our Google accounts, presumably including Gmail, based on having a politically incorrect blog. Blogs can be backed up and moved, but losing access to my email would be really bad and totally unreasonable when I haven't used it to offend anybody. Perhaps we should reconsider trusting Google with so many aspects of our lives.
Anonymous,
Could you zip and upload Steves collection someplace? On one of the filesharing hosts.
Hi! A reader has posted the news about Dennis Mangan's disappeared blog and I was kind of scared. I even rejected the comment because it could inspire some stalkers to try to do something to liquidate my/our blogs, too.
By the way, I use Blogger Backup Utility to back the blogspot blogs up. Recommended.
After some thinking, I have certain doubts that the disappearance is due to politics. Hasn't his writing been financially bad for a big enough company that could have blackmailed Google? I mean the writing about health etc.
You need your own servers, like the very controversial blogs have. Mirrors too.
Don't wait until the clampdown comes. Prepare now...
http://98.192.200.202/mangans.zip
Anonymous,
When I take your command
Go to page http://isteve.blogspot.com/search?max-results=10000
and try it on Wordpress it doesn't work the same was as on blogspot.
http://oldatlanticlighthouse.wordpress.com/search?max-results=10000
simply finds the page
http://oldatlanticlighthouse.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/search-catholics-immigration-intense-feelings/?max-results=10000
But it works for me when I try it on Steve's page.
What can I do to fix this?
I did download an XML from inside Wordpress, but I like to backup multiple ways. I also have tried some of these backup download packages, but I find they are very slow and difficult to work with and some don't work for reasons I can't ever figure out. Backstreet Browser is one. It works partially but not completely.
It looks like everything up to the middle of 2007 is archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20070716170837/http://www.mangans.blogspot.com/.
My google account was recently "temporarily disabled" for no apparent reason, which shuts down all your google services, gmail, blogs, etc...
Apparently there's some automated "terms of service" scanner. I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with the content posted on the blog, rather it's some google technical problem.
This is exactly why smart bloggers have their own domains, so that the almighty Google can't put the boot to politically suspect sites.
Hosting, even for a blog like iSteve (less than 10,000 visitors a day & no images) would be well under $100 a month (more like $25 a month, if that, even).
I'm always puzzled when a well-known blogger, especially one who doesn't wish to remain anonymous, doesn't have his own domain.
Allowing your work to be at the mercy of Bigfoot Google is just stupid.
nsam, steves archive is large enough that a torrent is the best shot. I'll get to that on the weekend, assuming steve doesn't mind.
Sounds good to me.
Thanks.
One very simple way to back up a blog is just to set up a Wordpress account and import the blog. Takes about 5 minutes and doesn't require any technical knowledge. You can hide the Wordpress blog if you don't actually want to switch the blog to Wordpress.
I do hope the disappeared Mangan blog does not turn out as bad as it looks. Hopefully, it is just an error. Although my website is hosted and backed up regularly, I never even considered backing up my blogspot blog. After learning about Mangan, I spent a couple of hours today creating two different back-ups with two different systems. I'm also considering moving it from Blogger to a dot com domain.
I wonder if Mangan can copy from his cache which, as another poster said, is still on the net.
This is really awful. Of course, it's all free, so there is no recourse. But there's something kind of crazy about a no-warning deletion, so that you never know just what was offensive. In Google's lights, what exactly is "abuse?"
.... the hosts generally don't shut anything down unless someone complains about a particular blog and or its content.
Yes, this seems to be the case, but what does this mean? Can an angry ex-friend or an angry ex-reader of one's blog, out of spite, report "abuse?" Does Google follow this up with a careful perusal of the site?
Thanks, "Anonymous," for the Down Them All instructions -- I couldn't figure that one out.
Dennis: To whom should we write to complain, if indeed it was the case that your blog was summarily deleted?
http://rapidshare.com/files/315103505/isteve.zip.html
Archive of isteve blog
I want to thank everyone who commented and helped out in any way, especially the anonymous who copied my blog and put up the zip file. I got it. It was in retrospect dumb not to have a backup, but of all the consequences of blogging, this was one I never thought would happen.
> It was in retrospect dumb not to have a backup, but of all the consequences of blogging, this was one I never thought would happen. <
Mr. Mangan, thank you for being a canary in a coal mine. :)
"But there's something kind of crazy about a no-warning deletion, so that you never know just what was offensive. In Google's lights, what exactly is 'abuse?'"
That is the worst part. I think there's still a possibility (steadily decreasing, to be sure) that this was some kind of technical error, but if they notified people of reasons for deletion, there would be no need to worry. Even if your free speech
is being limited, at least you would know why.
This is really sad to me. I just started reading Mangans a couple weeks ago, he had so many views just like me it was amazing to read it all.
His blog is back.
Steve,
Why don't u buy webspace in china and start up your own blog-hosting. The software is available on the Open Source market. F. Google. Why make yourself dependent on such a PC monster?
This is where Steve's technophobia comes in. I reckon he does not have the patience to slog out a foolproof site.
emm. cognitively )
This same thing happened to CordeliaForLear blog. They were able to get the blog restored, and one of the contributors said it was definitely a censorship issue.
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