Disbelief. Anger. Fear. Helplessness. Sadness. All of the above.
One of our fellow bloggers has had her site shut down because of a virus that is in her calendar gadget. I know that is where it is because my virus protection told me where it was. I left her a note with all the info that I had on what had the virus.

The next thing I knew I got an email from a reader who advised me she got a warning about my blog when she tried to enter. I put out the question to my readers and only a few were getting that message.
With a bit of research I found out that it was Google Chrome that was blocking my site. Hmmm. I downloaded Chrome and tried to access my site and I got the same message. Danger, danger.
But it also told me what was on my site that was a problem. It was my link to this first site with the virus.
I figured if I removed all traces of her site from mine then I should be okay. I stopped following her blog and I took her name off of my blog roll list on my sidebar. IT WORKED. Well for me any way but poor Ann-Marie With a Dash is probably beside herself trying to get this fixed as she has had her site shut down by Google and I don't know how long it takes to get that fixed or if she even knows what to do to fix it.
This is so unfair for her. I love her site. She is smart and funny and a pleasure to read. If anyone out there knows her email address maybe you could let me know. If you happen to see her up and running again I would like to know that too so I can get right back on her follower list.
We put so much into building our sites. We cultivate friendships and we spend countless hours visiting others to help them build their sites too.
We notice when someone is missing for a while. We give advice and we take advice.
We send prayers when needed, we send our heartfelt thoughts. We listen when they lose someone. We celebrate when there is a new family member.
Now we need to rally together to help each other. If you have this happen to a blog you follow then email the blogger if you can to let them know. Make sure you try to follow them again when they have fixed their problem. Think about how you would appreciate the help if your blog was shut down.
So once again...anyone who knows Ann-Marie With a Dash's email address let me know and if you are a follower of hers you should check your blog through Google Chrome to see if yours is giving out the warning too. If so I recommend removing all connections to her blog, just until she can get it up and running again, and passing this along to anyone else that you know follows her. Through the grapevine we can clean this up and then get her numbers back up again..
I do want to mention that last year there was a virus of sorts in one of the falling snow gadgets too. We all like to tart up our blogs with fun things but we need to be really careful of what we are putting on our sites. A little blog bling can actually destroy us. Lets be careful out there.
I had a somewhat similar experience when my blog was "younger," though I don't know whether it happened to anyone else when they opened my blog page during the day that it was affected. I believe it only showed up on computers that had a content filter installed on the browser for age-appropriate content for children. Anyway, one day "Warning: Adult Content" appeared across my blog. What? I though and thought - the only thing I had added was a story about my grandmother. Who used ... chewing tobacco. Only I didn't call it that. I used the word that can also describe a horrible type of movie. And when I went in and changed it, the warning disappeared. But I certainly was worried there for a while. I haven't seen the blog you mention, but she has my sympathy and I hope the problem gets fixed.
ReplyDeleteI shut down Fabulously Good Life forever along with all my subscribers last week because of a domain name problem.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for me, the blog had run its course and I was ready to move on and explore new challenges - but two years ago if this had happened I would have been heart broken.
I feel for your friend.
Thank you for this post. A very important warning for us all. I have played about with my blog design as much as anyone, and would be devastated if this happened to me.
ReplyDeletethanks for the heads-up. That really is so sad and I hope it gets resolved soon. I would be more than heartbroken if that happened to me. Like you said, we have all invested so much of ourselves into our blogs...hoping it gets better soon. Thanks Lori
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame for her. Really, think how great it would be if these lame-o programmers would do something good with their talent instead of writing virus code! I did have to remove my beloved playlist (oh, I can hear you crying now LOL) because the site was infested with viruses. Darn near lost my entire drive, but quick fingers and malwarebytes saved the day :) Kat
ReplyDeleteOmgoodness, I hope she can get it sorted out. I would be devastated if this happened to me.
ReplyDeleteAghhhhh! Ackkkk! I am stunned. What is wrong with those people that have nothing better to do then to now target bloggers?
ReplyDeletePoor woman how absolutely horrid for her. She has a very good blog reader in you for helping her out. I hope that everything gets sorted soon.
I have always had that thought in the back of my mind, someday this might happen to many of us.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
"I hear you" and "feel your pain" so to speak.
ReplyDeleteMy website, www.riverstreamsmusic.com" has also been labeled as a potentially dangerous site. I am a Christian worship leader and recording artist...
my site has my worship and teaching discs on it.
Go figure...if someone would just look at these sites before labeling them it would save a lot of
frustration!
Thanks for all this information.
ReplyDeleteBeing a relatively new blogger I would think it was something I had done to create chaos.
As the above posters, I can not see any reason why someone wants to deliberately cause harm and grief to unknown others. How can it be considered fun? What benefit could someone possibly (mistakenly) believe they are getting or providing? What a waste of time and talent.