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Saturday, May 9, 2015

Problem with my blog. I need your help


I have a big problem.

For the last 10 days, Twitter has been blocking me from tweeting any links to my blog.

This is the message I get whenever I try to send a tweet with "skepticalscalpel.blogspot.com" in it.



I have tried to contact Twitter through @twitter and @support four times and have received no reply, nor have they replied to numerous ticket requests through the Twitter Help Center.

I discovered a site called virustotal.com which compiles reports from 63 different programs that detect viruses, worms, trojans, and malware.

Originally a site called BitDefender claimed my site was malicious. The next day, BitDefender declared my site was clean, but AutoShun, which previously had no problem with my site, said it was malicious. The following day, AutoShun said my site was unrated and Clean MX said "malicious." But the day after, AutoShun went back to calling it malicious and Clean MX said my blog was clean. At no time, did more than one of the 63 detection programs identify my blogsite is being malicious.

You would think that if my blog contained any suspicious programs, more than one of the 63 virus detection organizations would have come up with a positive result on the same day.

None of the programs saying my blog was malicious gave me any clue as to what part of my site was supposedly creating the problem.

I attempted to get some help from Blogger, which hosts my blog. Although one person on a forum responded with some advice, it wasn't enough for me to solve the problem.

My blog is averaging 1600 page views per day. Not one person has contacted me to complain that I am harboring viruses or any other malicious software. That is because, to the best of my knowledge, no such malicious software exists on my blog.

Maybe it would help if you would go to the results section of the virustotal website and cast your vote in favor of my site as not being malicious. In the upper right-hand corner of the site you will see this cartoon.



 Please click on the green face to support my blog.

Meanwhile, I have discovered an interesting workaround which enables me to tweet links to my blog, but visitors to the site will still be blocked by Twitter from tweeting links.

If you consider yourself computer-savvy, maybe you can figure out how I did it. If you think you know the answer, please submit a comment.

I also would welcome any comments or suggestions that could help to resolve my problem. If anyone knows a way to contact a human at Twitter, please let me know.

Thanks.




29 comments:

Ellie K said...

You are using an Australian blogger domain name, .com.au now. I think that is your workaround. I have another idea to try as a workaround.

If worse comes to worst, I do know someone who works at Twitter. We follow each other, and I will ask him to look into this if you cannot get the issue resolved.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

You got the answer. I see no way out of this unless I can get a response from a real person at Twitter. I would appreciate learning the name of your person. Please email me at SkepticalScalpel at hotmail dot com. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible that someone has reported your site as malicious, perhaps because they disagree with what you say?

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Dr. Roy, I guess that is possible since believe it or not, some people disagree with me. If all it takes is one person to say my site is malicious, I'm surprised that any even mildly controversial blog still exists. The problem is that I can't see any way to rectify the situation. I can't identify the cause of the supposed maliciousness. so I can't fix it.

frankbill said...

Have you tried using more then one computer to sent the tweet?

frankbill said...

One answer

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140407204815AAA0dER

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Frank, the problem occurs when tweeting from a PC, an iPad or an iPhone. No one can tweet a link to my blog. Twitter won't allow it.

Thanks for the link but revoking all access for apps didn't work. Keep thinking. I appreciate all the help.

Anonymous said...

Try a search for all links posted in the comments of this blog. I have a feeling maybe one of them leads to a site that is on a list of dangerous sites. I'm thinking a decent RegEx search for links will turn up something of interest.

Anonymous said...

https://twittercommunity.com/t/error-code-226-this-request-looks-like-it-might-be-automated/12872

Try that SS.

Unknown said...

Try filing an appeal with each service where your blog has been marked malicious:http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=49682
Also, submit your original URL to TrustedSource.org

Moose said...

Most sites get reported as malicious automatically. The thing is, there are about 20 sites that define a site as "malicious" and it's not clear which Twitter uses (and they'd actually be smart not to share that data).

Q: What software is doing the Twitter -> Blogger conversion? Have you tried contacting them?

Twitter has a help topic about this error (https://twittercommunity.com/t/error-code-226-this-request-looks-like-it-might-be-automated/12872) and while there's a link there to a form that can be used to report the error, they seem to assume that the request is coming from the people who write/support the application that's causing the problem. (Although, the "api policy question not listed above" option might work for you.)

If you need some help figuring out what app you're using you can ping me at mizmoose at the old gmail :).

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Thanks for the comment. I moderate the comments section of this blog myself. I am very careful not to allow spam. If someone includes a link, I always click on the link myself to make sure it goes to a legitimate site. I have looked back through all the posted comments for the last 3 weeks and found nothing untoward.

You may be interested to learn that another medical blogger @jordangrumet (also a Blogger user) also has not been able to tweet links to his blog for the last 2 days. Totalvirus says that Autoshun and BitDefender say his site is malicious. See https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/ab0f898a071113a98cdc86e6f8e2bb7f7a9b538fb418b0c163b746f84a70b3c1/analysis/1431219077/

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Moose, as I have mentioned. I've filed 4 tickets on the Twitter support page. No response. Thanks for the offer to help. I will email you.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Also, on the link you supplied, all I see is people complaining about the same thing I complained about. What I didn't see is a solution.

Here's what someone from the Twitter staff said:

"Unfortunately since this is a forum for developer API issues, we cannot offer any support from here. The best way to help us to help you is to raise an issue via the support form (as it says in the very first post in this thread). This topic is now closed. New replies are no longer allowed."

That's great support. You get what you pay for, I guess.

Moose said...

What they're saying is, use the form (That they provide the link for), NOT the forum, which is for developers to talk about the Twitter API.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Moose, thanks. I understand.

I want to thank the 42 people (as of 5/10/15 at 6:52 am) who have voted that my blog site us not malicious.

Korhomme said...

I used the link to Twitter at the top of the page, and tweeted this article. I didn't get any warnings. Sunday 10 May, 12.34 BST.

Blogger can be tiresome; did you ever consider moving to Wordpress?

frankbill said...

Unless someone was able to get into your account the fix in this link most likely isn't going to work. But may be worth looking at. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091230014953AAOtrzP

This link has some ideas to try. http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/social-networking-sites/686070-help-me-twitter-please.html

frankbill said...

Korhomme

I think one of the problems is the number of times the same web address is sent from the same account. This turns on the spam filter and twitter blocks some or all web addresses from your account.

frankbill said...

Can try to contact someone here. https://about.twitter.com/company/leadership#aroetter

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Kor, I've considered everything from moving to Wordpress to stopping blogging altogether. I really think this is a Twitter problem so I'd like to have it resolved before switching hosting sites so I don't have the problem again.

Frank, i will try all of your suggestions. Thanks again.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Anon and CJ, I wasn't notified of your comments by email which is what usually happens so I just noted them in my "Awaiting Moderation" tab on Blogger. Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I will try them.

Anonymous said...

Don't even think of stopping blogging. We'll hunt you down and make you - just like in residency, it doesn't matter, you have to keep on performing. :)

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Thanks for the kind comment. I guess I'll stay with it for now.

Anonymous said...

Hi there - I work at Twitter in AU - drop me a line to flip@twitter.com outlining the issue and I'll see what I can do to assist.

Renard Moreau said...

[ Smiles ] Hello Sceptical Scalpel, do you still have that problem?

I too had that problem in the past, I sent an email to the folks at AutoShun and they sorted the problem out for me.

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Thanks but the problem was solved by the anonymous Twitter employee from Australia. I am eternally grateful.

TechnoWala said...

https://sites.google.com/site/geehelptech/google-toll-free-number
When user finds any technical issues , then he can call at the Google Toll Free Number. This number is all the time available. The experts of Google technology provides solutions for various issues like :

Skeptical Scalpel said...

Thanks for the info.

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