Wordless Wednesday – Now with Words!

If you are a Wordless Wednesday purist – stop here!

So, on Tuesday I woke up to find that Google had disabled my account due to someone reporting my blog for “Questionable Content.”  Now, my blog wasn’t the only thing disabled (Blogger is owned by Google) – ALL my Google accounts were disabled! I use Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader…the list goes on.  I’m kinda a Google fan.  Or, I WAS a Google fan.

Apparently anyone can choose to report a blog.  Google does not disclose what the complaint was or even narrow it down beyond “Questionable Content.”  They disable your account without contacting you in any way.  Fortunately, it was easy to re-enable my account – they verify that you are a real person by sending a code to your cell phone.  I had my account unlocked within an hour of discovering the problem.  HOWEVER, my blog is still flagged as “Inappropriate” and visitors have to click an acknowledgement that the blog contains Questionable Content on every page load.

As a visitor this is annoying to say the least.  As a blogger this offends me greatly.  I have no recourse to question the person who flagged me.  I could appeal to Google to look at the issue.  This takes a very long time (since I don’t have a monetary relationship with Google why would they hurry?).  However my blog will still be flagged during the process.  What happened to Innocent until proven Guilty?  What if someone accidentally reported my blog or what if someone is intentionally griefing me by flagging my blog?

I can’t really know what it was that caused my blog to be flagged.  For all I know someone was just randomly flagging blogs to ruin people’s days.  However, this all happened within 8 hours of my posting this photo:

SHOCK!!!! Yep, that is a sliver of my areola!  OMG!  If you look at this picture and only see a nipple and fail to see my minute-old daughter and tear-filled husband’s face then you are an asshole.  If ever there was a time when a breast was NOT sexual this is it!  What is my breast doing in this picture?

1. providing warmth to my newborns body
2. emitting smell that will guide her to her first nutrient-rich nursing session that will secure our bonds, release oxytocin, and fill her with antibodies to this strange new world
3. producing hormones that reduce my risk of uterine rupture and bleeding and help me bond with my daughter

So, I’m sorry if I didn’t crop it out (not really) but it is an important part of a very important moment in my life.

Whoever flagged me can bite me.  And so can Google!

Welcome to WordPress.  You get what you pay for.  I have managed to save all my posts although I have TONS of broken links and my categories/tags are completely whacked.  Please bear with me while I make this transition.  And a word of caution goes out to all my fellow bloggers on Blogger:  get out while you can.  Wordpress is free; or, you can do what I’m doing, which is to purchase the hosted version for $6.95 per month.  That’s not bad to have a little more control and security.  People pay alot more for their hobbies than this and I get so much back from my blogging community that it is worth it!