Getting Rid Of The Mystery Blogs Inwards The Reading List

A few folks discover unexpected content inwards their Reading List.

How produce I destination Following that blog? It's non listed, inwards "Manage Blogs I'm Following", in addition to I never Followed it!

When you lot cheque the "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard, you lot teach a listing of the blogs that you lot Follow, amongst the Settings link for each.

Oddly enough, these mysterious blogs - that you lot can't retrieve Following - won't survive listed, nether the observed title, on the "Manage" magician display.

Some blogs, for i argue or another, volition redirect their feeds to exactly about other weblog or website.

Other blogs may merely no longer reveal a feed. In exactly about cases, this volition piece of work out people seeing completely unrecognised - or unwanted - content, inwards their Reading List.

Fortunately, it's non complicated to discover these mystery blogs, in addition to withdraw them from your Reading List.

Any unknown content, listed inwards the aggregated reading list, volition every bit good survive listed inwards an private entry underneath "All blogs". Just teach downwardly the list, overlooking the titles, i weblog at a time, in addition to you'll discover the unwanted content.

Once you lot lay the titles of the blogs that comprise the unwanted content, teach to the "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard, discover the occupation blogs past times title, in addition to remove the unknown blogs.

Then contact the weblog owners, in addition to enjoin them the error that they made. Alternately, report the gullible weblog owners, in addition to thence Blogger Support tin inform the owners.

Our Reading Lists, Hijacked Yesteryear Spammers

I've been writing virtually spammer activities, in addition to virtually diverse blog hijacks, for about time. There's a special, rather devious weblog hijack, involving spammer activity, that we've been aware of, for about time. In Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, nosotros occasionally run into the query

How create I larn rid of spam, inward my Reading List? I did non Follow this blog!

Nobody will, intentionally, Follow a weblog amount of spam. In about cases, though, people Follow blogs that are published yesteryear naive weblog owners, who convey been conned yesteryear the spammers, into working for them.

The never ending ask for more Followers, readers, search engine reputation, subscribers, in addition to traffic, is a ofttimes expressed draw of piece of occupation concern inward Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

In discussions exterior Blogger Help Forum, ane mightiness perchance uncovering suggestions of other, to a greater extent than imaginative ways to larn to a greater extent than traffic to your blog. With Blogger blogs, there's a very obscure in addition to easily used feature, that tin plough over the sack live on used to publicise your blog, randomly, to readers that yous would not, otherwise, address.

All that yous ask create is to redirect your weblog feed into a "feed redistribution cloud", that randomly redirects the readers of whatsoever blog, to viewing the feed from about other blog, similarly using the redirect.

By redirecting your readers, yous are exposing them to other blogs, randomly selected. Similarly, readers of other participating blogs are randomly redirected to your weblog - in addition to at that spot is the promised publicity for your blog.

This is such a bully idea, isn't it? Think again.

1. Your Followers (and subscribers) desire to read the feed from your blog - non from about random blog.
2. Many Blogger weblog owners don't role this feature.
3. Many users of this characteristic are non legitimate Blogger weblog owners, but publishers of spam blogs in addition to websites.
4. Should yous redirect your readers into a "feed redistribution cloud", the chances are greater that your readers volition live on reading a weblog published yesteryear a spammer.
5. No spammer volition redirect the feed from his blog. He's going to exceed away on all of his traffic, to himself
6. Since no existent people knowingly subscribe to feeds from spam blogs in addition to websites, your weblog won't live on getting whatsoever reciprocal crowd of eager would live on readers, originating from the spam blogs in addition to websites.
7. And, nosotros are here.

As a Follower (and non a weblog owner), having examined your Reading List in addition to flora yourself reading a weblog amount of spam - that yous sure did non Follow - what create yous do? It's a uncomplicated - but perchance ho-hum - chore to identify in addition to remove the weblog owned yesteryear the naive person, who was conned yesteryear the spammers, that yous are Following.

Having done that, why non become ane pace further, in addition to help us to assistance Blogger in addition to Google to interdict the spammer activity?

If yous tin plough over the sack position the URL of a blog, that yous are Following, that is redirecting its feed inward this manner, Blogger / Google tin plough over the sack position in addition to terminate whatsoever Google hosted blogs in addition to websites that are advertising this easy, random agency to publicise your weblog - that is but about other fob used yesteryear the spammers, into getting the naive weblog owners to create their dingy work.

All that nosotros ask is the URL of whatsoever blog, that yous were Following, that rudely redirects its subscribers (like you) into the "feed redistribution cloud". Blogger / Google tin plough over the sack create the rest.

You tin plough over the sack comment, hither - or foremost a discussion, inward Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken - it's your choice. Just assistance position the naive weblog owners.

Do your part, in addition to assistance us build clean upward the Blogger Blogosphere.

Custom Domain Publishing Does Non Purpose Post Feed Redirect

One of the benefits of custom domain publishing, for a properly setup domain, is that the BlogSpot URL is automatically redirected to the domain.

Not all weblog owners realise that the BlogSpot to domain URL redirect includes the weblog feed - 1 time the Transition period ends, in addition to the weblog is republished to the domain.

Some weblog owners intend that the Post Feed Redirect setting needs to live on used when re publishing their weblog to a custom domain. This is non true, however. Use of the custom domain redirect, addition the post feed redirect, tin solely number inwards 1 of 2 problems.

• A feed redirect loop.
• A feed URL that points to invalid content.

In neither illustration volition whatever newsfeed client, such every bit a Dynamic Template, Google Reader, Reading List, or whatever 3rd political party feed service, honor a feed that tin live on used.

The Post Feed Redirect setting is used to redirect feed references, to a separately existing feed file.

The Post Feed Redirect is non used where it is non needed - in addition to amongst a weblog published to a properly setup custom domain, it's non needed.

Let's await at an HTTP trace, showing the weblog feed for a custom domain published blog, that uses a post feed redirect - inwards this case, nosotros stimulate got the feed for "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com" redirected to "mybloggerblog.com".

Start amongst the BlogSpot based feed URL, for "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com".

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1

Host: mybloggerblog.blogspot.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.224.106
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)

Content-Type:·text/html;·charset=UTF-8(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default(CR)(LF)

With a properly setup custom domain, in addition to no PFR setting used, the adjacent display would live on the XML file, for the feed. Here, the PFR was develop to "http://mybloggerblog.com/".

Sending request:

GET /feeds/posts/default HTTP/1.1

Host: www.mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.127.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://mybloggerblog.com/(CR)(LF)

Now, nosotros are looking at a typical custom domain rootage to "www" alias redirect.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1

Host: mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 216.239.32.21
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)

Location:·http://www.mybloggerblog.com/(CR)(LF)

And now, nosotros are looking at the formatted weblog contents - non the newsfeed.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1

Host: www.mybloggerblog.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1
Referer: http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 74.125.127.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...

Receiving Header:

HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

Unfortunately, the weblog itself is non a proper XML file (required for a feed), it's HTML / XML.

<!DOCTYPE·html·PUBLIC·"-//W3C//DTD·XHTML·1.0·Strict//EN"·"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">(LF)

<html·dir='ltr'·xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'·xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b'·xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data'·xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr'>(LF)

<head>(LF)

...

<link·href='http://www.mybloggerblog.com/'·rel='canonical'/>(LF)
<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="Custom Domain Publishing Does Not Use Post Feed Redirect"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/rss+xml"·title="Custom Domain Publishing Does Not Use Post Feed Redirect"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="service.post"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="Custom Domain Publishing Does Not Use Post Feed Redirect"·href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2302596229887627781/posts/default"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="EditURI"·type="application/rsd+xml"·title="Custom Domain Publishing Does Not Use Post Feed Redirect"·href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=2302596229887627781"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="me"·href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12619425977406185402"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="openid.server"·href="http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="openid.delegate"·href="http://www.mybloggerblog.com/"·/>(LF)

And if the feed customer is, for instance, a dynamic template, the would live on reader is looking at the former spinning gears. Until he gets bored, closes the browser, in addition to emails you

Your weblog is downwards - again.

If you lot stimulate got made this mistake, merely clear the Post Feed Redirect.

Redirecting The Traffic From Your Blogger Blog

Some Blogger spider web log owners are confused almost their mightiness to redirect traffic to, or from, their blogs.

Sometimes this leads to problems, every bit inward the necessitate to study a occupation amongst spam classification, inward Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why was my spider web log simply deleted, for "Malicious JavaScript"?

Other people volition desire to know why, afterwards renaming their blog, all the search engine references at 1 time betoken to a dead URL. Still others may desire to rename specific posts, in addition to yet convey the ship service URLs check the novel titles.

Blog URLs, in addition to Post URLs, are complex details, for Blogger blogs. By default, both are managed for you. Not everybody understands how to manage spider web log in addition to ship service URLs, when necessary.

Not every spider web log possessor understands that ones readers are non possessions, to hold out manipulated at will.

Spammers would appreciate the mightiness to operate Blogger blogs every bit starting points.

Many spammers would dear to use diverse Blogger blogs every bit gateways, redirecting their readers either to other Blogger blogs, or to non Google controlled websites. In lodge to discourage spamming activity, neither type of redirect is permitted, past times the Blogger spam classifier.

Even if automated redirection was permitted, many redirection techniques may non piece of work for everybody. Modern browsers, designed to forbid abusive activeness similar hacking in addition to spamming, may convey filters which explicitly block DNS settings, in addition to scripts, designed to redirect traffic from 1 website to another.

If you lot migrate a blog, in addition to thence redirect, you lot may non come across consistent results.

If you lot blueprint your URL migration strategy to require automated redirection - in addition to fifty-fifty if Blogger / Google does non delete the spider web log for abusive technique - you lot may nevertheless non come across a consistent transfer of existing traffic, to your novel URL.

You tin redirect a Blogger blog, to a non BlogSpot URL, using properly setup custom domain publishing - "CNAME" referral. That is the solely valid way to redirect a BlogSpot URL, to a non BlogSpot URL. Any other method volition eventually move out you lot posting, inward Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why was my spider web log simply deleted, past times Blogger?

If you lot migrate to a novel BlogSpot URL, operate a Welcome ship service inward a stub blog.

If you lot rename your spider web log - in addition to seat out to a novel BlogSpot URL, your solely recourse is to seat out a "stub" (empty) spider web log to the sometime URL, in addition to visually redirect your readers.

This spider web log is at 1 time published every bit "blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com". Please update your bookmarks.

Blogger does non offering ".htaccess" features, such every bit redirection.

One disappointment, experienced past times non Blogger webmasters, is the lack of ".htaccess" based redirection. You produce non convey access to the "blogspot.com" origin folder - in addition to you cannot operate ".htaccess" based redirection.

You tin redirect the feed - afterwards you lot setup a novel feed.

You can, if you lot wish, redirect the spider web log feed, afterwards renaming the spider web log - but this should hold out done only when necessary.

There are several specific cases where the spider web log feed should non hold out redirected.

Custom redirects does non supply BlogSpot to BlogSpot redirection.

Blogger latterly provided us the selection to redirect traffic from 1 spider web log ship service to another - but the syntax used past times the custom redirects sorcerer explicitly prevents redirection exterior the base of operations spider web log URL. That said, nosotros convey seen some imaginative redirections, betwixt dissimilar URLs inward the same blog.

Use of the custom redirect characteristic tin generate interesting problems, non all of which tin hold out prevented, easily. You tin redirect to a greater extent than or less URLs - but you lot necessitate to sympathize what you lot can, in addition to cannot produce - in addition to why you lot cannot produce everything that you lot would like.

The Content Of Your Reading Listing Is Your Responsibility

Occasionally, nosotros run into an strange occupation written report most Reading List content, inwards Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

How did this weblog enter my Reading List? I did non Follow this blog!

Most people volition not, knowingly, Follow a spam blog. This is i argue why Following is then pop - each weblog owner, together with weblog reader tin sack easily bypass, together with actively block - spam. Spammers have, however, establish devious ways to convince people to Follow them.

Nobody will, intentionally, Follow a spam blog. If nosotros unintentionally Follow a weblog which is owned yesteryear someone gullible to the spammers suggestions, it's non hard to identify, together with halt Following, whatever blogs owned yesteryear gullible people.

You can, using the correct reporting procedure, position the blogs which scandalize you. It's possible that Blogger / Google will, given the correct complaints, take away such blogs.

• Any activeness taken upon your written report of occupation blogs is subject to delay - together with due physical care for of law - earlier whatever results volition endure seen.
• The content which offends you lot may non endure provided inwards a Blogger blog. Google has no ability over non Google hosted websites.
• Any blogs removed every bit a consequence of your complaints volition endure replaced, inwards the spam weblog cloud, which you lot are seeing, thank you lot to the weblog which you lot are Following.

When you lot run into content which offends you, inwards your Reading List, the proper resolution volition endure simple.

• Find, together with remove, the blogs which you lot are Following - together with which furnish the occupation content presence inwards your Reading List.
• Report the blogs which you lot are Following - non the blogs / websites which furnish the unwanted content.

You may, at your discretion, add together a 3rd step.

• Report the blogs or websites which furnish the unwanted content.

But create the 3rd step, every bit a 3rd stride - non every bit the exclusively step. Report the occupation blogs - every bit Step #2 - here, or inwards Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Be role of The Solution - non The Problem.

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Non Really Weblog Feeds, Replaced Past Times Mysterious Content, On Our Reading Lists

Periodically, nosotros come across reports inwards Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, close hijacked blogs. Sometimes, the reports come upward from weblog owners (or onetime weblog owners) who cannot straight off command (or publish) their blogs - or maybe who study mysterious content on their blogs. Other times, the reports come upward from people who study mysterious too unwanted content inwards their Reading List (Google Reader) displays.

Of the latter group, many are existence establish to conduct maintain before Followed blogs owned yesteryear people who are naively trying to attract random readers to their blogs, too who overlook the argue for having weblog feeds inwards general. Different Followers would study seeing multiple streams of randomly changing content inwards their Reading Lists.

Recently, we've gotten reports from people who are seeing a single, too unique hijacker inwards their Reading Lists - producing consistent streams of duplicated, repetitive content. This does non appear to ask weblog owners, naively misusing the Post Feed Redirect.

Some fourth dimension ago, nosotros explored a mysterious scenario, of people unsuccessfully trying to setup a weblog feed gadget, who reported a mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" displayed inwards their "Configure Feed" display. It appears that Blogger fixed the status which caused the "Configure Feed" gadget to display the mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed".

Now, people who Follow blogs lacking a feed, or who Subscribe to blogs amongst no feed, are non seeing an fault message - they are exactly seeing an unwanted feed inwards their Blog Feed gadget or Reading List / Google Reader displays.

If yous are seeing mysterious, repetitive, too unwanted content inwards your Reading List / Google Reader display, conduct maintain exactly about fourth dimension too diligently banking concern fit each private feed. Instead of finding 1 or ii blogs which are using an inappropriately redirected feed, yous may honor multiple entries referencing non really feeds. Blogs that yous were legitimately Following may straight off endure producing no feed.

• Blogs that conduct maintain been deleted.
• Blogs that are straight off private.
• Blogs that exactly conduct maintain the feed disabled.

Any of these blogs, viewed en masse, may straight off endure producing a single, repetitive current of mysterious too unwanted content. This volition perhaps endure to a greater extent than probable amongst homogenous too large Followed communities.

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