Tired of all the BS from Google and Blogger, we’re just changing over to Wordpress (as discussed in my last post of 2009). (The good news is that the theory worked about installing Wordpress in to the existing directory.)
   For the old blog, click here. We’ll have everything integrated very early in 2010 and I’ll kick the year off with a “best of” series, just to get this home page looking a bit more populated.

Labels: blogging, Google, technology, Wordpress

Posted by Jack Yan, 10:35  permalink

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Remember this? Well, you would if you’ve followed this blog, and I go on and on about it.
   As the last entry on the page, and seeing as Nitecruzr pasted the incorrect code from the Yahoo! cache frameset, I decided I would furnish the correct code from the actual frame from Yahoo!. That way, we would all have the evidence we needed, and demonstrate that there was, indeed, a cache of a page from Vincent Wright’s Social Media Consortium blog. (A copy of the original cached page that Nitecruzr claimed to be unable to see, but everyone else could, is temporarily at http://jyanet.com/temp/cache.htm; a screen shot of this page at its original location is here.)
   Good ol’ full disclosure and transparency, right? And, as a senior Google forum person was allowed to paste HTML code into the forum, it should be all right if I followed suit.
   Well, not really. That entry’s now been unilaterally deleted. Bit like Vincent’s entire four-year-old blog.
   A friend of mine, known to some of you, mentioned to me that he had read the dealings on the support forum. He could clearly see the cache (as could everyone Vincent and I asked) and thought the obstructiveness was ‘insane’. So it’s not just me.
   Google, I’m not sure what your problem is with honesty, transparency and information.
   But we’re going to keep pursuing this.
   Those holding Gmail accounts, be alert.

Labels: bugs, customer service, Google, technology

Posted by Jack Yan, 07:41  permalink

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As far as I can tell, this is how my experience of getting Vincent Wright’s wrongly deleted-by-Google Social Media Consortium blog restored has gone.

   1. Follow the Google Captcha and expect Google to stick to the ‘two business days’ review for July to September. Nothing happens.
   2. Blog gets deleted.
   3. Complain on one thread. Nothing happens.
   4. Complain on another thread. Follow the suggestions provided.

   Finally, a dialogue begins. Very helpful Google forum person responds, with my answers in parentheses. This is a summary of the last 35 days. The more we talk, the more the available evidence disappears as search engines renew their caches.

   1. You probably didn’t follow the suggestions. (Yes, I did.)
   2. You didn’t do it at the right time. (Yes, I did.)
   3. Wait two days. (Waited, nothing happened.)
   4. Wait till this afternoon. (Waited, nothing happened.)
   5. There’s no cache of it. (Yes, there is.)
   6. You’re not the owner of the site. (Owner steps in and says I am allowed to follow this up for him.)
   7. There’s no cache of it. (Yes, there is.)
   8. I’ll ignore the main link you give and focus on a second one that is less useful. (Look at the first one then.)
   9. There’s no cache of it. (Yes, there is.)
   10. There’s no cache of it. (Yes, there is.)
   11. Your search term is not relevant to this. (But it shows you a cache of it.)

   I don’t have it in for Nitecruzr. If you look at his Google help pages, he’s one of the most tireless and generous people on there. It’s just a shame that for whatever reason, we don’t click.
   Then, when you look at some of the idiots he has to deal with, it’s not a huge surprise his experiences have been coloured.
   If it were my own blog, I probably wouldn’t be as stubborn about it. I’d move on. But when it’s a mate’s, and you know that he and several others count on you, that spurs you on a bit more.
   Google people: this isn’t about oneupmanship and deliberately being obtuse. This is about finding an outcome we are all happy with and reviewing the evidence which directly addresses your concerns.
   Anyone willing to bet that there’ll be some new excuse for step 12?

Labels: customer service, Google, technology

Posted by Jack Yan, 22:11  permalink

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