Several Egyptian bloggers lost their blogs whether to hackers or to web hosting services. Are those blogs being deliberately suspended by web hosting services or are there invisible hands at play behind the scenes? Last October, Egyptian blogger Epitaph lost her blog. A few day later, blogger Mohamed Al Gohary, or IRC President, along with more than 20 Egyptian bloggers who followed her blog sent the following plea to Blogger, which hosted the site, saying:
We are a group of Egyptian bloggers really bothered by the blockage of the two-year-old blog "Epitaph_87" ( http://www.epitaph-87.blogspot.com/) along her gmail account (epitaph87@gmail.com), since October, 4th , 2008. She has sent you her problem and requests on Google Help Center and Blogger Support, but in vain. We wish that you'd help us retrieve that blog and account and answer the requests of our fellow blogress, sending you from (epitaph_1987@hotmail.com), and hopefully ASAP! Thank you
On November 16, Tarek Amr of Global Voices Online wrote about another lost blog:
It seems that it is not only third world regimes who block people's blogs. Apparently, Google's Blogspot has decided to join the bandwagon, and has blocked Nawara Negm's Blog (Tahyees [Ar]), without specifying any reasons.
Now, Ahmed El Sabbagh writes a post about yet another blog that has vanished:
وبعد شوية لقيت مدونة وينكى اتحذفت تماماُ. موقف مؤسف جداً أصبح من الوارد أن نتعرض له فى أى لحظة. أعلم إن حذف المدونة ليس نهاية العالم وأن وينكى .. بروحها الجميلة تستطيع أن تنشئ مدونة أجمل لكن الموضوع أصبح مؤلم وسئ جدا. أحمد البوهى إقترح ان نرسل جميعا رسالة الى بلوجر يوم 10 ديمسبر
Winky's blog was deleted. We are very likely to face the same unfortunate situation. I know that deleting a blog is not the end of the world and that Winky, with her lovely spirit, could create a new and a better blog but still it is not the best of situations. Ahmed El Boohy suggested that we all send the following message to Blogger on December 10:
We are Egyptian bloggers. Please stop blocking the Egyptian blogs without cause and intervention in the published materials without violation terms of use. Please do not take the position of unjustified supervisor with our blogs. WE WAIT FOR REPLY
He also posted a special note on precautionary measures and on how to keep a copy of your blog on your PC
يمكنك حفظ نسخة من مدونتك فى صورة ملف واعادة تحميلها فى حالة حدوث مشكلة مع مدونتك الخطوات ادخل على بلوجر درافت هيفتح لك صفحة الداشبورد هتلاقى فوق على اليمين الإختيار ده Make Blogger in my Default dashboard علم علي الاختيار ده .. كما بالشكل وبعدين إدخل صفحة الإعدادات هيظهر لك تلات اختيارات Import Blog – Export Blog – Delete Blog
اختار إكسبورت أو تصدير لعمل ملف وحفظة على جهازك والان تستطيع اعادة مدونتك لبلوجر فى حالة حدوث مشكلة عن طريق امبورت – استيراد الملف
Now you can keep a copy of your blog in the form of a file on your PC and you can reload it in case you have trouble with your blog. The steps are:
Open Blogger Draft and when it opens the dashboard you will find a link that says "Make Blogger in my default dashboard"
Choose that option then go into settings, you will have three options: Import Blog – Export Blog – Delete Blog
Choose Export Blog to create the file on your PC and when you have a problem, you can use the Import option to return your blog.
Bella also shared with us the secret behind the disappearance of blogs:
