Saturday, August 10, 2013

Technical dificulties

Oh groan. What a morning it's been.

When I got up this morning, I found I had dozens and dozens of concerned emails in my inbox notifying me that my blog was down and redirecting people to a generic location.


It seems I'm in a dispute with Blogger (run by Google, boo hiss) about the domain name www.rural-revolution.com. We thought we had the domain name registered elsewhere, but in 2010 we were "slammed" by Google and inadvertently transferred the domain to someplace called eNom.com which, if not owned by Google, then has a close association with them. Whatever the circumstances, though, everything continued to work fine.

But for the past month Google has been telling me I need to update my financial information so I can renew the domain name. No problem, I'm happy to do so -- IF I COULD JUST LOG ONTO MY ACCOUNT. But there appears to be a hiccup on Google, and every time I log in using my email and password, I get an "Invalid Request" notice.


I've been trying to resolve this issue literally for weeks. I've gone round and round and round their troubleshooting options but keep coming up against the same brick wall. I've updated my financial info with Google Wallet, but there is no -- and I mean NO -- customer support for Google itself. Every troubleshooting avenue I've attempted, both online and via phone, shuts me down and can't help.

I've been carefully backing up my blog weekly for just such an occasion (I don't want to experience what happened to poor Granny Miller's blog). Nonetheless, I want to get my blog back up and running normally.

So for the time being, please bookmark this location:

www.patricelewis.blogspot.com

This was the original domain name, and it still works.

I'm also going to be looking into the possibility of transferring my blog to Wordpress or another host site. I am sick to death of Google's behemoth attitude.

Thanks for all your emails of concern!

32 comments:

  1. One thing you probably can do is move the registration to a new provider. This should be possible as long as your name does show up in the whois database for your website. Though you may have to put some code on your site to confirm the ownership.

    BW

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  2. I may be a worse than unhelpful arm chair tech support person, but maybe something in this blog post might help you:

    http://linuxfornaveen.blogspot.com/2013/05/blogger-custom-domain-problem-with-enom.html

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  3. Just one more day in the endless struggle with "The Man". Hang in there.

    Huggs..

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  4. Just so you know... this post showed up in my reader just fine and I subscribed under the RR domain.

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  5. Brenda from Cozy Little House just spent days going from Word Press to Blogger. Just thought you might to check with her. At least I think that is what she did. All of a sudden I'm not sure. But it sure took days and wore her out. Hope this helps.

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  6. I had the same problem this morning. I wrote Enola, and was apparently not the only one, and she posted to her blog that you were having problems. I am so glad that you have, at least temporarily, resolved this as I would go through withdrawal if you guys disappeared! (both of you for that matter)

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  7. NaturalNews.com has just started a new bloggers site.

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  8. WordPress has been good for me, and i;ve hosted through Yahoo! with very few problems. Encountered quite a few bloggers who were ex-Bloggers. If ound Yahoo!'s hosting to be pretty reliable with only one or two major episodes in the ten years I've been hosting with them. FWIW, thats how I'd do it - WordPress and Yahoo.

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  9. No prob, where you go, we go!

    Thanks to OJD & JWR for info & new address.

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  10. I've been running my sites off of Worpress for a decade now, both their hosted solution and hosting my own via GoDaddy. Have had very few issues, and when I have, GoDaddy's phone support has been excellent. Highly recommended.

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  11. Worpress + GoDaddy = 10+ years of reliable service, good tech support, and reasonable pricing.

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  12. Most of my friends moved their blogs from Google over to Word Press, said its easier to navigate and way less problems.

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  13. Hang in there Patrice!

    I'll follow you anywhere you go on the internet but give GoDaddy hosting a shot. I've been down less then half a day in the last year 18 months...easy to get customer service on the phone in just a couple of minutes too.

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  14. I got the generic page when I tried to go directly to your site, but the feed in my blogroll worked. I updated it anyway, just in case. :)

    I have a webmaster friend who recommended namecheap.com to me for registering my domain. He transferred my blog to my new domain, with its own Wordpress installation, rather than hosting at Wordpress. I like it... it works very well for me. My blog was originally a Wordpress blog, though, with very limited rights because it was attached to a forum. No limits now!

    My husband had a Blogger blog, and he also transferred to a Wordpress installation on his own domain. It is different, and took him a little getting used to, but he really likes it now.

    Recommended plugins, should you go this route:
    WP-Spamfree -- catches most spam
    NoSpamNX -- catches the more clever spam
    RSS Multi Importer -- live blogroll, essentially

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  15. I was wondering if your site had been 'jacked. I, too, used to have problems with my blog pretty frequently. In the years since I've moved to Wordpress, I've had ZERO issues! Woohooo!

    I have no idea how you go about being able to have ads mostly because it wasn't an income producer for me (a few pennies) like it is for you. If you find out, let us know, because I might go back to having ads!

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  16. Mr. Rawls has a note and link on SurvivalBlog. I went there right after I couldn't get to your blog. Best of luck, and I hope you get the issue straightened out soon.
    Joe

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  17. My husband and I use 1and1.com for our domain names (husband also for hosting). It was recommended to us by a friend who has used them forever, and as far as I know, none of us have had complaints. (I hate the godaddy.com ads, and 1and1.com is a lot cheaper - we also recently set up a site for a non-profit, three year package, domain & hosting, for something like $150.)

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  18. Thanks for the e-mail Patrice. I now have this address bookmarked. I'm sorry to hear about the googs wasting a bunch of your time. I hope you're able to get things straightened out soon.

    A. McSp

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  19. I absolutely HATE Google! Their pilfering of privacy and eminent domain of all things Internet is loathsome. I hope you can rid yourself of the parasite.

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  20. I know what you're going through... Google/Blogger can be so frustrating.
    I've done well with Word Press & Just Host.
    Just Host has fantastic tech support complete with phone numbers.

    Find it ironic that you are having issues with your website and mention me.
    Because yesterday once again I put GRANNY MILLER into the deep freeze. The site is backed up and will hopefully stay up.

    I've come to resent the time and trouble of maintaining a website.
    But more importantly, I've grown concerned about the ways the internet and blogging has changed me, my life and my daily habits. So for now I'm unplugging and tuning out.
    If I don't comment for awhile you'll know why. Wishing you & Don & the girls much happiness and success.
    KMG

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  21. Well I was concerned that either you or I had a virus. What a relief that we have only contracted the Google domination sickness. Keep us posted please: you don't deserve this crap.

    TC

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  22. Well I was concerned that either you or I had a virus. What a relief that we have only contracted the Google domination sickness. Keep us posted please: you don't deserve this crap.

    TC

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  23. Just like A.W, I've been running WordPress and use Godaddy for just the domain name, without any problems. I love that Wordpress has a ton of free stuff, is easy to use, and you can have a LOT of pages and stuff! Good luck with your website updating, Patrice! This blogger thing is already driving me nuts telling me my Wordpress URL has illegal characters...grrrr. Sorry, I have to post under "Anonymous"
    Lisa from Six Pines Farm in Canada

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  24. If you need help migrating the site from Blogspot to Wordpress.com or any other blogging platform, I'd be glad to help. I'm an IT professional (for 20 years) and have done numerous data migrations and domain name moves.

    If you're interested in help, please feel free to get in touch with me at online at reality3 dot com.

    I've done work with the folks at jcstudies.com and survivalschool.com if you need any references.

    Blessings...

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    Replies
    1. ..and by the way, Patrice, I'm not sure how this came across, but I wasn't trying to sell you services. I'm glad to help out in any way I can and just wanted to be able to use my skills to help a sister in need.

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    2. Oh no offense was taken! And I thank you for your kind offer. Actually it was the help of another reader that got me on the right track -- I believe the domain name has been correctly re-registered and hopefully things will start getting back to normal shortly. When they do, I'll put up an announcement.

      I can't believe the incredible outpouring of support I've received. What an amazing group you all are.

      - Patrice

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  25. I've got mine hosted via http://www.machighway.com/ using wordpress for the blogging software. It'll take a little getting used to since you're used to blogger, but I've not had any problems.

    And yah, the RSS feed is still working just fine off the original address, I was so confused!

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  26. Google may be messing up your account but they are still making sure folks can find you. When I got the error screen I googled "Patrice Lewis" and your freelance writing site was #3. For curiosity I googled "patrice lewis writer" and you were #1 (I would have been shocked otherwise, but it's good to confirm).

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  27. Just so glad we were able to find you!

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  28. Momma uses Dream Host for her blog www.fromcupcakestocaviar.com (blatant plug here LOL) and has had few problems. Me, I don't blog enough anymore to worry about it...

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  29. Patrice;
    It is still coming up with the site you have shown on your web page. We all know Goggle is not nice, I prefer not to do any business with them but sometimes they have you cornered. Thought you had been hacked. Nice to find you still on the net, I would miss the photos of the critters on the farm.

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  30. Patrice;
    Glad to find your site, thought I was loosing my mind. Bad Google, is there nothing that they will not do. Wow it is so nice to find your site again. Thought I would miss the pic's of the calves growing up.

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