People are so quick to assume. When I posted my entry about wordpress shutting out PayPerPost bloggers, I never imagined how many people would pick it up, and assume that I was:
1) One of the bloggers contacted
2) Complaining about what Wordpress.com was doing to bloggers
Let’s recap, shall we?
I said “If your blog is being hosted at wordpress.com, you may want to check your email:” And then posted a copy of the email sent out to people (it was sent to me by a friend who received it) and then closed with “Back up now, so you can move things over somewhere else.” I’ve tried to comment several times on this entry from Dave Taylor to set the facts straight, but I’m getting an error message about some internal database being out of sync. Now I see that Matt Mullenweg of WordPress.com has commented there, and he seems to think I’ve misled people and provided “false information”:
Dave, I would be grateful if you allow me to state my position as I believe you have been given false information.
On November 11 I was given a link to a wordpress.com blog that listed 4 of our users who were using PayPerPost. I checked the links and they did seem to be doing so. I wrote the email you have above and sent it to them. Colleen was not one of them. Our email records will support this. The reason I chose 7 hours was that I wanted to grab their attention quickly. I did not want them to think I was not serious which either a long or no time span might have given. In fact the first blog was suspended some 15 hours later. Of the 4 bloggers that I sent it to, 1 left within minutes, 3 were suspended and of those 2 were also UNsuspended so they could retrieve their content.
PayPerPost has been the subject of discussion since it’s launch and we have taken a stance against that. It is detailed on our site and if the question had been asked it would have been answered.
Prior to November 11 a blog had been suspended. On that day they emailed and asked for a reason. I checked out their blog as every appeal is checked. They had ads and content that was keyword rich – it was also not written by the blog owner. The author styles were different, the formatting was different and the whole blog reeked of splog. We have a zero tolerance of splogs. I told the person that their blog would not be returned. Please be aware that sometimes we make a mistake but if we have any doubts we always return a blog. But in checking that blog I googled some author names – which lead me to a site that sold content. Keyword content. Content that was written with search engines in mind not people. I started googling our domain.
That turned up many blogs that were using authors from this site. I checked every blog. I suspend every blog that was not only using that bought content but that was also a haven for affiliate links, ads and that existed purely for search engines. Real blogs – and I’ve seen thousands – just do not have this style. So I did suspend these blogs. Colleen WAS one of these.
So, to recap:
Was Colleen involved in PayPerPost? No.
Did Colleen get an email from me? No.
Was Colleen given the 7 hours she complains about? No.
Was she buying in content? Yes
Was she looking for search engines to index those keywords? Yes
Was she running a splog? Yes
Do I have screenshots that will support my case? Yes.
Blog Police? Far from it. Terms of Service police? Yes – and isn’t that why it is there?
Matt, and Dave – I never said I received the email. You’ve assumed that I did when I posted it. My blog has not, nor will it ever be hosted by Wordpress.com. And if you had bothered to read the comments on my entry Matt, you would have seen my position was far from “complaining”. I actually agree with you! I said “I agree Dan. If this is the push that people needed to get their own domain and blog from it, then it will end up being a good thing. I just wish they were giving people more than 7 hours to move things over, but when it’s against the TOS, it’s against the TOS.” Complaining? No, I don’t think so. Sharing information so that my readers who may be using Wordpress.com can have a heads up? Definitely.
Get your facts right boys, and if you want to send an apology, my email address is over in the sidebar 
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Comments
What is all this buying in content stuff they are talking about?
Go Colleen! I love when people must insult others without the full facts, it takes away a lot of credibility.
Well, I read over your post, and it seems quite clear to me what you said! Never mind, don’t let other bloggers get you down!
Kenneth
[...] Edited AGAIN to add: Read this entry for more info. [...]
Okay, easy does it. I misstated your relationship with Wordpress and have subsequently gone back and corrected my blog entry, which you would have noticed if you’d checked it before filing this blog entry in “bitchy poo”. 
In terms of adding a comment to my blog, if you’re seeing an error, please email me your comment and I’ll add it – untouched, unedited – on your behalf. My set of anti-spam filters can be a bit cranky at times, I admit.
Finally, the main point that you raise, and that I amplify on my own blog, is a really important one and I can’t agree more that the best possible outcome is that people who want to do any sort of business blog learn to very closely read the Terms of Service and think through the implications before they get started, so that the whim of a hosting company doesn’t put a knife through their efforts.
luckily they didn’t shut me down but thats because I haven’t hit my 90 days so I haven’t actually started posting for PPP. Hopefully I’ll have my hosted blog up soon.
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