I’ve had a really good run with my blog and have to thank Blogger for making it so easy to write and publish content. However, for all that is good about Blogger, I’ve had my share of frustrations. Top on that list is Blogger’s random hijacking of my photographs. You may have noticed in some of my postings a mysterious black box with an exclamation point inside a triangle – that is a Blogger censor pulling down that photo because it is deemed inappropriate.
While I’ll freely admit, I’ve repeatedly exhibited low-brow humor, shirtless men and often times bad taste, nothing on my blog is inappropriate or pornographic so I’m constantly left to wonder why Blogger does this.
Blogger really exasperated me when they pulled a photo of my friend Graham in my 9/11 post this year. The photo I originally had on my post was of him in a pool looking up and smiling. The only thing naked about Graham was his chest, but the photo for some reason was removed. I’ve since replaced it with a picture of him when he was in VT (hopefully flannel is not too naughty for Blogger’s censors). That action by Blogger really touched a nerve with me, and now I’m left wondering if the end is near.
The thought of figuring out another platform such as WordPress and following up with all the very thoughtful bloggers who over the past few years have placed links to my blog seems daunting so my blog may go quiet for a few days while I figure out how to proceed. All are welcome to comment of course, but if there are bloggers who have some insights or suggestions, I’d welcome hearing from you. You can email me at bosguymail-AT-gmail-DOT-com.
BosGuy 
It doesn’t have to do with the photos being racy, that’s for sure… because I had photos of flowers and cupcakes (totally non-erotic ones) blocked on my blog.
The message boards are saying it’s a Picassa issue. Picassa is where blogger stores all uploaded photos and they indicate that something went wrong with that, deleting lots of random photos. They also indicate they’re trying to fix it.
I’m more inclined to think it’s the beginning of an inevitable tightening up of the enforcement of copyright laws. For years we’ve been able to freely use photos from all over the internet to illustrate our posts, in a kind of open-source way… and it’s led to a richer experience on many levels. Photos and illustrations have often been used by third parties in much more imaginative ways than they ever were by the actual creators (and/or official licencees) of said images. That said, there companies like Getty Images who want to be able to make as much money as they can off of everything they have and they’ve got major legal teams working for them. I suspect that most independent bloggers on most platforms will ultimately find that many photos they didn’t pay for will be blocked from their sites. I’m not sure that’s what’s happening with the “black square, white triangle/exclamation point warnings” but I wouldn’t be surprised.
In any case good luck with your blog, it’s a very entertaining read. :o)
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I'd have to say the censorship you talk off seem more of a copyright issues, it's not the normal/usual google/blogger image that happens when photo has been pulled because of it's indecent nature. I do blogs on both wordpress and blogger, both as you know have good points and bad points. WordPress with little storage for photos and charges more for pretty much anything other than the basics. Also, they are way more rapid to close a blog if it has questionable content. Good luck with whatever you decide
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GET YOUR BUTT OVER TO WORDPRESS STAT!!!And you know I'll follow you.And give you free tutorials.And love you more.XXT
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Hi BosGuy — Sorry to learn of your troubles with Blogger. I suggest you contact someone at Blogger to explain their policy. I'm a long-time visitor and I don't recall anything being censored before. Certainly I've seen much more explicit photos on other Blogger sites. I have to wonder whether something else is at work here other than Blogger rules and regulations…WillyDog
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I'm astonished that Blogger would spend resources on censoring photos and I can't understand why anything I have seen on your blog would be censored.I hope you keep going whichever format you chose. I enjoy checking in your blog.
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I've seen those warning 'signs' even on sites with an adult "Content Warning" page, but never on WordPress. BTW, the free version of WP has many widgets and the choice in themes is enormous.Of course I follow you there too!Have a great weekend, Rob!
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I get your frustration! Whatever you do I will support you.
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BosGuy, I post pornography quite often and have never had a problem BECAUSE I have Blogger's "Warning" page has the gateway to my blog. Why not put that up, so you don't have to worry anymore photos being censored? đ
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Come on over to WordPress. You can import ALL your blogger content and it's fairly intuitive. When you log in you're presented with a splash page with suggested blogs, and at the very top of the screen is a menu bar item for Blogs which drops down to all your blog(s), and then from there you're presented with sub menus for Dashboard, New Post, Site Stats, Comments. Simple, simple. So go and sign up as WordPress doesn't hose images and you can embed Flickr photos too.
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Blogger has never done that to me, and I've put up all sorts of pictures.Strange strange strange this Blogger thingy.
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I doubt that Blogger has the technology to identify "inappropriate" images posted to a blog. Some homophobe troll is flagging up your photos as inappropriate.
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Wow. I just switched back to Blogger after a two-year hiatus and I've never heard of this happening unless someone complained about using a copyrighted photo. I would compare notes with Sean over at Just A Jeep Guy. Both of you post similar photos all the time but I don't think anyone's ever censored him.
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I wondered what those things were. How rude! I see far more racy things on other Blogger blogs. Curious.I hope you don't give up altogether. I enjoy stopping by.
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Wherever you go, I will visit đ
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I use a self-hosted WordPress blog on hostgator.com. They can even import your old blog into the new one for free. I think it's $10/month…ping me if you want to talk offline. I did tons of research of price vs. Benefits vs. Political stance. Until recently, DanNation was on blue host.com – a huge funded of anti-gay Prop 8.No censorship, lots more themes available, and tons of cool plugins from WordPress.
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The whole censoring thing seems odd since many blogs (including mine) have far more explicit photos than anything you've ever posted.I wonder if you activated the adult "Content Warning" page, then the censoring would stop.
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