RELOCATED FROM ALTHOUSE2: "Wonder if this has anything to do with Ann’s objective (and thus, anti-administration) coverage of the Wisconsin protests?"

Asks Moe Lane at RedState:

Well, isn’t this interesting: apparently Blogger/Google has decided to remove Ann Althouse’s blog. They’re also being neither particularly helpful in either explaining why, nor sounding particularly sympathetic that it’s been taken down, either.

You know, I'm beginning to suspect that there's some behind-the-scenes campaign to report my blog as abusive. People who hate/fear the Althouse blog could make a loud noise to Google.

Back in 2004, 98% of Google employees gave money to Democrats. [ADDED: That should say, 98% of the Google employees who made political donations, donated to Democrats. Presumably, not all employees made donations.]

COMMENTS (Relocated):

, 2011 5:16:00 PM CDT
laddy said...
It is likely some giant screw up. How many competent admins trash their entire operation with a maintenance run and then take two days to undo the damage? I'd move to greener pastures since they don't seem the least bit helpful or sympathetic.

MAY 13, 2011 5:17:00 PM CDT
LB-Philadelphia PA said...
Naaah. When something trips their sensors they're about as capable of original thought as your average TSA employee.

MAY 13, 2011 5:18:00 PM CDT
Sixty Grit said...
Wow, 98%! That's much lower than I would have guessed. Saddam and Kim Il Jong need to teach Google a thing or two about lock step goose stepping.

MAY 13, 2011 5:19:00 PM CDT
Freeman Hunt said...
I wish they would hurry up and fix it. You'd think they'd fix a prominent blog in a hurry.

MAY 13, 2011 5:20:00 PM CDT
PaulV said...
They told Glenn Reynolds if he voted for McCain giant corporations would suppress free speech. Can Facebook use this as part of it PR campaign against evil google?

MAY 13, 2011 5:22:00 PM CDT
Sigivald said...
They’re also being neither particularly helpful in either explaining why, nor sounding particularly sympathetic that it’s been taken down, either.

Google's like that to everyone via Blogger.

They've never been sympathetic or very explanatory to anyone, ever, as far as I've seen.

I don't think the Blogger team has a culture of caring how "prominent" a blog is when assigning priority (and this might be good) - partially because Althouse might well be the only "prominent" blog still using Blogger.

Seriously, who the hell uses Blogger? These days even hobbyists tend not to.

MAY 13, 2011 5:22:00 PM CDT
LawGirl said...
Well, it is a cesspool of misogyny and homophobia, after all . . .

MAY 13, 2011 5:22:00 PM CDT
Palladian said...
"They've never been sympathetic or very explanatory to anyone, ever, as far as I've seen.

I don't think the Blogger team has a culture of caring how "prominent" a blog is when assigning priority."

I wasn't aware that Blogger even had a "team". Google basically lost interest in it the day after they signed the check. I always picture Blogger as the Mary Celeste, floating deserted and leaking on an empty sea.

MAY 13, 2011 5:26:00 PM CDT
jac said...
Ann, the solution is to get your own website. Register the name and find some hosting service that simply houses your pages and does not play games with people as Google and others have been known to do. Oh, yes, this might be a good occasion to propose an OpEd in the WSJ, especially if you get radio silence from Google.

MAY 13, 2011 5:27:00 PM CDT
laddy said...
Now old nitecruzr has his hackles up over at the blogger forum complaining of coyote attacks that won't be tolerated. I understand they want to treat all blogs the same, but nitecruzr has no clue as to how to talk to anyone without pissing them off.

MAY 13, 2011 5:29:00 PM CDT
Roger J. said...
I do enjoy misogyny and homophobia, cesspools not so much.
Correct thinking will keep you afloat on google--the other shit, not so much

MAY 13, 2011 5:29:00 PM CDT
John Lynch said...
It's the Amazon plugs, I bet. That must be it.

MAY 13, 2011 5:37:00 PM CDT
Bob Ellison said...
The USA Today analysis did not show that "98% of Google employees gave money to Democrats". It showed, apparently, that 98% of contributions from Google folks went to Democrats. That is very different, especially when all the contributions came to about $208k, which just a few dozen employees could account for all by themselves.

MAY 13, 2011 5:37:00 PM CDT
Palladian said...
Lol. "nitecruzr" closed the "support" thread.

Embarrassing! Note to Google: when deep in a hole, keep digging!

MAY 13, 2011 5:38:00 PM CDT
John Lynch said...
Not that it's a good reason, but it's a good excuse.

MAY 13, 2011 5:38:00 PM CDT
EZSmirkzz said...
Well you could upload your backup that you made from the Basic settings page.

MAY 13, 2011 5:38:00 PM CDT
rhhardin said...
It's not a spam thing, even though their nerd thinks it must be.

They delete large and small blogs alike, when something in them makes cleaning up a mess more difficult, which is what happened here.

What's unique is unhelpfulness in restoring them.

It was, after all, their fault.

Another host isn't as bulletproof as backup files, which apparently there is some way to get from blogger, which is a plus.

All systems fail - and fail-safe systems fail by failing to fail safe.

MAY 13, 2011 5:39:00 PM CDT
John Lynch said...
Maybe this will convince Althouse to get off of Blogger.

"The power to destroy a thing is to control that thing."

MAY 13, 2011 5:39:00 PM CDT
Orbit said...
I stopped using blogger years ago when I found that some of my posts were selectively deleted. I would think now is the time for you to switch platforms...

and lol @ "I'm going to treat you with courtesy and patience, as I ask Blogger to review your blog. This is in spite of your huge blog with over 20M posts and over 25M visitors a day - not because of that."

...you should feel fine taking away all those eyeballs from google...

"in spite of" . . . spite, indeed

MAY 13, 2011 5:42:00 PM CDT
Dody Jane said...
I think you should leave google. It is actually kind of scary. And sickening. I think it has to do with your Wisconsin coverage.

MAY 13, 2011 5:43:00 PM CDT
rmunn said...
I agree with jac: get your own hosting. I've been very happy with Dreamhost myself: $10/month buys way more storage and bandwidth than I've ever needed. I don't know how much bandwidth you see every day, so you might or might not find them worth it, but give them a look and see if their service fits your needs.

Disclosure: The above link includes a referral code, where Dreamhost would pay me 10% of anything you spend on hosting with them. So I do have some financial interest in referring you, but I wouldn't be recommending them if I didn't genuinely like their service.

MAY 13, 2011 5:44:00 PM CDT
traditionalguy said...
Maybe that wife who was so glad to report that her husband had stopped reading Althouse Blog caught him trying to come back. Was her blog name Cheri From Indiana?

MAY 13, 2011 5:47:00 PM CDT
David said...
Dreamhost?! They go up and down like a pogo stick!

MAY 13, 2011 5:49:00 PM CDT
O2BNAZ said...
They took down "The Macho Response" last week, Instapundit is next...I'm done using google...we have options

MAY 13, 2011 5:50:00 PM CDT
John Burgess said...
When I started blogging in 2004, I started with Blogger. That lasted all of four months. I went to an independent hosting service. That their politics just happened to match mine was coincidental. I chose them because they also offered extremely cooperative design services and good prices all around.

My platform is WordPress and I don't see myself changing from it. Unless, that is, it pulls a Blogger-type stunt as they've done to Althouse.

MAY 13, 2011 5:56:00 PM CDT
edutcher said...
98%, huh?

Well, they are citizens of the world.

As to their helpfulness, consider it a form of Double Secret Probation.

"Wonder if this has anything to do with Ann’s objective (and thus, anti-administration) coverage of the Wisconsin protests?"

Look at what's being done to Boeing.

MAY 13, 2011 5:58:00 PM CDT
Tybalt said...
"98% of Google employees gave money to Democrats." Congratulations! Both you and the headline writer failed third-grade reading.

Blogger's been futzing a whole bunch of blogs; never explain with malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity (or technology fail).

MAY 13, 2011 5:58:00 PM CDT
Fred4Pres said...
I was worried you would break your blogging record, but I suppose a back up blog counts.

Now promise to vote for Obama again and all will be forgiven. Your masters at Google just wanted to rattle your cage a bit.

MAY 13, 2011 6:00:00 PM CDT
JAL said...
Well I wondereed if it had to do with all that breasty blogging over at Instapundit, myself.

But then truth be known -- I wonder how blogger can lose a blog like Althouse ...

Why do geeks vote for the guys who will take freedom away from the internets and try to control our behavior therein?

MAY 13, 2011 6:07:00 PM CDT
laddy said...
It appears many of the bloggers over at the help forum aren't even getting a reply. They at least replied to her.

MAY 13, 2011 6:09:00 PM CDT
DADvocate said...
I once wrote a post on prison rape and how it was an outrage that it is so acceptable in our society/government. I guess the term "prison rape" had too many other (pornographic) connotations and my blog was closed down for a day or two. Either that or the folks at Google really like the idea of prison rape.

MAY 13, 2011 6:10:00 PM CDT
J.W. Mosley said...
I don't think that the over-defensive twit that you were dealing with in the Blogger help forum actually works for Google. He's just some nerd that decided to build a nest in that forum and earned a gold star for it.

I would like to see an actual response from a Google employee. I don't believe that you've gotten that at all, have you?

MAY 13, 2011 6:10:00 PM CDT
WestVirginiaRebel said...
Blogger seems to be back, for now. Explanation over at Blogger Buzz and it does look like a technical issue.

Hopefully Ann will be back to blogging full time, somewhere on the Intertubes.

MAY 13, 2011 6:10:00 PM CDT
David said...
It's the Chinese.

MAY 13, 2011 6:15:00 PM CDT
pst314 said...
"Why do geeks vote for the guys who will take freedom away from the internets and try to control our behavior therein?"

Because they arrogantly believe in their own super-competence and believe that they are intellectually qualified to run other people's lives.

You might want to pay one to fix your computer, but not to date your sister. (And if she did, she'd probably come home with horror stories about table manners and cluelessly offensive comments.)

MAY 13, 2011 6:17:00 PM CDT
Mel said...
bummer

MAY 13, 2011 6:17:00 PM CDT
nevadabob said...
"Hopefully Ann will be back to blogging full time, somewhere on the Intertubes."

This is an object lesson in why it is a horrible idea to allow a hostile third-party to control your speech-making capability.

Google does not enable free speech. It uses its power to suppress speech it finds unhelpful to their larger goals. And Google is the Democrat Party.

A casual search of where they put their money and how they do their hiring reveals that they only hire Democrats and only support Democrat candidates.

Google is evil and it's stupid for a quasi-conservative to allow a Democrat Party controlled company to have a kill switch on your business (yes, Ann's blog is her business).

Register your domain. Switch to WordPress. End Google's power over your speech.

MAY 13, 2011 6:20:00 PM CDT
da kine said...
Have you mentioned to anyone that you are a law professor? That will likely get things moving. It would help if you mentioned it three or four times.

MAY 13, 2011 6:20:00 PM CDT
RuyDiaz said...
You know, I'm beginning to suspect that there's some behind-the-scenes campaign to report my blog as abusive. People who hate/fear the Althouse blog could make a loud noise to Google.

You would have to be worried not only about the campaign per se, but about the worldview of the gatekeepers.

That is, you say something that sounds normal to a neutral, but sounds offensive to a partisan liberal, you may be in trouble if the post is reviewed by a partisan liberal.

Think of some of the more outrageous things Rush Limbaugh says: how many of those are deathly insults to a liberal with a weak sense of humor?

MAY 13, 2011 6:20:00 PM CDT
pst314 said...
Note that "nitecruzr" is not an actual Google employee. Google doesn't want to be bothered with hiring enough employees to support their painfully unreliable software.

MAY 13, 2011 6:21:00 PM CDT
Freeman Hunt said...
Don't think Mr. Nite is fitted for the customer service line of work.

MAY 13, 2011 6:22:00 PM CDT
Freeman Hunt said...
Let me guess:

You didn't click the little "I Voted for Obama" button on the bottom right when you submitted your support ticket, did you?

Gotta click that button, the "Yay! Green!" button, or both.

I kid, I kid. I'm putting my money on pure incompetence.

MAY 13, 2011 6:25:00 PM CDT
YoungHegelian said...
The screw-up at Blogger is just one of many cloud-computing site implosions over the past few months.

Redundancies, my fat ass!

You would think large corporations who employ large IT staffs to care for their zooper-dooper cloud networks would understand the intricacies of load distribution, data and application level redundancies, and point-of-failure analysis.

Yeah, they understand them. Just like the financial industry knew everything about derivatives.

MAY 13, 2011 6:25:00 PM CDT
sydney said...
Maybe this is why you've been deleted:

"it's worth describing a few examples of what Blogger regularly removes, as part of its zero tolerance policy to abusive / inappropriate content:...

......- Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects"

You're too diverse and too damn interesting!

Definitely would find a new host. Squarespace isn't bad. (www.squarespace.com) And I don't get a referral bonus for directing you there.

MAY 13, 2011 6:27:00 PM CDT
edutcher said...
Be interesting to know the ratio of Obamatron blogs to non-Zero blogs that went down.

Seems like a lot of them - Legal Insurrection, Pundette, Theo spark, Zilla - don't love Little Zero.

Not that we're paranoid...

MAY 13, 2011 6:27:00 PM CDT
Phil 3:14 said...
Its quite simple Professor

Don't be evil

MAY 13, 2011 6:28:00 PM CDT
Coketown said...
Simple explanation: Google is setting aside servers to deal with the comments generated when Althouse posts about abortion or deathers. Sort of like Twitter setting aside entire servers for Justin Bieber.

MAY 13, 2011 6:29:00 PM CDT
EnigmatiCore said...
That 'nitecruzr' is some piece of work. Absolutely appalling customer service, and thin skinned to boot.

Hey, nitecruzr, if you happen to read this thread: my comment that you deleted was not an attack. It was constructive criticism, from a customer. You would have been wise to reflect on what it said.

But no.

An attack would have looked like this: you are a complete douchenozzle.

Every company eventually learns that they need to have good customer service. The more institutional arrogance a company develops before taking heed of this lesson, the more painful that lesson tends to be.

MAY 13, 2011 6:29:00 PM CDT
RuyDiaz said...
Why do geeks vote for the guys who will take freedom away from the internets and try to control our behavior therein?

1) Simple social validation. (Yes, even geeks need social validation.) Every geek knows that those backwards religious fools are wrong, therefore their politicla opponents are correct.

2) The fallacy of engineering: geeks tend to fall for grandiose futuristic plans, and so are suckers for governement investment-led grandiose project.

MAY 13, 2011 6:30:00 PM CDT
RuyDiaz said...
Don't think Mr. Nite is fitted for the customer service line of work.

I've actually seen worse. Rude, incompetent, jaded people may still cut it in customer service if they are also world-class sycophants.

MAY 13, 2011 6:33:00 PM CDT
The Drill SGT said...
Roger J. said...
cesspools not so much.

F'ing Elitest Officer :)

You of course never had to burn shit.... LOL

MAY 13, 2011 6:33:00 PM CDT
EnigmatiCore said...
I don't think that the over-defensive twit that you were dealing with in the Blogger help forum actually works for Google. He's just some nerd that decided to build a nest in that forum and earned a gold star for it.

That person has the ability to delete posts and lock help forum discussions. He works for Google, either as an employee or as an unpaid volunteer who they have entrusted with authority of some sort.

Just shockingly bad customer service.

MAY 13, 2011 6:34:00 PM CDT
RuyDiaz said...
Every company eventually learns that they need to have good customer service.

Google has been growing exponentially due to other factors, so they have no reason to have learned that lesson yet. But they will. And it is so going to hurt.

MAY 13, 2011 6:36:00 PM CDT
EnigmatiCore said...
Don't think Mr. Nite is fitted for the customer service line of work

Let's put it this way- Mr. Nite would not last 10 minutes at the Home Office up in BVille.

MAY 13, 2011 6:37:00 PM CDT
The Drill SGT said...
This post has been removed by the author.
MAY 13, 2011 6:37:00 PM CDT
Red said...
Time to migrate. Of course, the real problem is not that Prof. Althouse may have to move her address and hosting, but that the history of the blog is not available in full, depending on how old her export is.

MAY 13, 2011 6:38:00 PM CDT
Blue@9 said...
Why do geeks vote for the guys who will take freedom away from the internets and try to control our behavior therein?

1) Simple social validation. (Yes, even geeks need social validation.) Every geek knows that those backwards religious fools are wrong, therefore their politicla opponents are correct.

Close. I would say most geeks in this arena are pretty libertarian, but they're less offended by left-wing nanny-statism ("Pay more taxes, comrade") than by the right-wing kind ("Don't have an abortion or you'll go to hell!").
They're more interested in social and cultural freedom than in economic freedom.

MAY 13, 2011 6:39:00 PM CDT
Henry said...
Hire someone to build you a Wordpress blog theme and someone else to host it and a third party to register a new domain name.

When Blogger finally gets you back online, post a single entry at althouse.blogspot.com that points to the new domain.

MAY 13, 2011 6:40:00 PM CDT
The Drill SGT said...
BTW Roger, I came home from Nam 40 years ago tomorrow, May 14, 1971. Landed at Travis. Was bussed to Oakland where they did a short arm inspection of all us enlisted scum. that is an experience to be missed. Had orders for the Signal school in Georgia to teach. Didn't evah want to go back to Georgia. Volunteered to be a Drill, had my choice of posts, went to Lewis, near my GF.

MAY 13, 2011 6:42:00 PM CDT
garage mahal said...
Google was foiled in their bid to shut down your union protest posts it appears. Apparently they weren't aware you could start a new blog in 5 minutes.

MAY 13, 2011 6:44:00 PM CDT
Danny Vice said...
There are a couple of avenues available to you Ann if you want to preserve your posts. Granted, it will be pretty time consuming, considering the thousands of posts you've published, but the option is there to grab these posts while they are still accessible.

I trust someone on your end has shared some of these options with you. If not, please email me.

Dannyvice (at) hotmail.com

MAY 13, 2011 6:49:00 PM CDT
shiloh said...
AA, being totally obsessed w/yourself and self-absorbed notwithstanding, your faux paranoia is somewhat amusing.

But alas, spending a few minutes at your conservative echo chamber has run its course and I must now return to reality ...

Happy blogging!

MAY 13, 2011 6:53:00 PM CDT
Pastafarian said...
shiloh bloody shiloh, this term "echo chamber" -- I don't think it means what you think it means.

There are liberal blogs out there that ban conservative commenters and delete their comments; the sorts of blogs that attack actually liberal bloggers for not being liberal-enough. That's an echo chamber -- where opposing viewpoints are deleted.

MAY 13, 2011 7:04:00 PM CDT
YoungHegelian said...
@Professor Althouse,

PLEASE READ!

In order to prevent some oppositional asshole from squatting on the still available annalthouse domains, and making your life even more miserable should you decide to move from Blogger and set up your own domain, I have registered the following domains to my company:

annalthouse.org
.me
.us
.net
.info

If and when you want them in the next year, they are yours gratis. I will turn registration over to any domain registrar of your choice.

If you don't want to set up a domain in the next year, I will simply let the domain registration expire, and they will go back into the available pool.

You may let me know at your convenience anytime between now and 5/13/2012.

MAY 13, 2011 7:08:00 PM CDT
Pastafarian said...
And I've registered analhouse.com. No need to thank me; I had it registered long ago.

I have big plans for that URL. Titus, email me, we need to talk.

MAY 13, 2011 7:25:00 PM CDT
Milwaukee said...
Ann: If you need a character reference, I will be happy to testify that you are not a right-wing blogger, merely a contrarian blogger. Plus, your coverage of the Wisconsin protests seemed fair, and centered on stupidity. Can't blame you if one bunch was out stupiding the other. But you do seem to try to call them as you see them, and you are a law professor (like the big O, only better because you really are a professor and not a senior lecturer), but I digress.

I guess you're alright, and I'm glad you're not permanently gone.

MAY 13, 2011 7:34:00 PM CDT
Trooper York said...
shiloh dude, I used to think you had a sense of humor...but buddy you are getting kind of tiresome you know?

You have more farewell moments than Michael Jordan.

MAY 13, 2011 7:36:00 PM CDT
shiloh said...
You have more farewell moments than Michael Jordan.

Never "announced" I was gone for good. In fact, didn't announce anything as I just leave cold turkey.

As a rule, it's wingers at liberal blogs who foolishly announce over and over and over again they are leaving for good. And it's slightly amusing when they return a couple hours later ...

never say never

MAY 13, 2011 7:42:00 PM CDT
Shanna said...
But alas, spending a few minutes at your conservative echo chamber has run its course and I must now return to reality ...

I hate you so much I have followed you to an alternate blog even after your main blog was deleted just to gripe about it!

MAY 13, 2011 7:47:00 PM CDT
The Grand Inquisitor said...
"That's an echo chamber -- where opposing viewpoints are deleted."

It's always amusing when a kook makes an accusation like that. I've made accusations like that too, but they were deleted from bradblog and dailykos because they were actually very accurate rather than just dumb lying.

Anyway who here will ever trust google with critical data? I used to rely on gmail for important messages, but no thanks.

And bing.com is a better search engine. Their maps are way better, too. So is Ask.

MAY 13, 2011 7:49:00 PM CDT
shiloh said...
I hate you ...
~~~~~

There are non sequiturs and then there are inane non sequiturs!

take care

>

As my #1 AA pet, TGI, shows up ~ shocking!

MAY 13, 2011 7:54:00 PM CDT
Michael Haz said...
There is some kid in the Google office in Madison fucking with Althouse's blog for the amusement of his stoner lib friends, I'd bet.

MAY 13, 2011 8:14:00 PM CDT
Paco Wové said...
I'm still pretty firmly in the "Never assign to malice what can be explained by incompetence" camp on this one. Blogger screwed up big time, but I doubt there was ill intent. (Well, aside from the officious little prick 'nitecruzr').

MAY 13, 2011 8:17:00 PM CDT
Original Mike said...
"Why do geeks vote for the guys who will take freedom away"

Of all the things I do not understand in this world, this may be the one I do not understand the most.

MAY 13, 2011 8:21:00 PM CDT
EnigmatiCore said...
Blogger screwed up big time, but I doubt there was ill intent.

Me too (excepting for the prick, as you mentioned).

It does expose the fatal flaw in the cloud, though.

And it also exposes why turning over customer relations tasks to unpaid volunteers is a very bad idea. Find good people to be your customer support, pay them, pay them well, and hold them accountable.

MAY 13, 2011 8:26:00 PM CDT
Original Mike said...
"I was worried you would break your blogging record, but I suppose a back up blog counts."

Of course it counts.

MAY 13, 2011 8:27:00 PM CDT
EnigmatiCore said...
Well. The comments made since Brett from Blogger stepped in have now been deleted.

I revert to my 'fuck Blogger' attitude.

MAY 13, 2011 8:28:00 PM CDT
Original Mike said...
Hey, I just realized that pesky word verification is not in force. Sweet.

MAY 13, 2011 8:28:00 PM CDT
Original Mike said...
"It does expose the fatal flaw in the cloud, though."

One that, IMO, has been evident from day one. Trusting in the cloud is Polly Annish.

Actually, it's stupid.

MAY 13, 2011 8:34:00 PM CDT
garage mahal said...
At this rate it will take Google longer to bring your blog back up than it's taking the retards in Waukesha County to count votes. I mean, "count votes".

MAY 13, 2011 8:38:00 PM CDT