This blog has moved

As of September 2018, I am moving Probably Overthinking It to a new location.

Blogger has been an excellent host; so far, this blog has received more than two million page views.

But earlier this month, when I published a new article, Blogger prompted me to post it on Google+, and I did.  A few hours later I discovered that my Google+ account had been suspended for violating terms of service, but I got no information about what terms I had violated.

While my Google+ account was suspended, I was unable to access Blogger and some other Google services.  And since Probably Overthinking It is a substantial part of my professional web presence, that was unacceptable.

I appealed the suspension by pressing a button, with no opportunity to ask a question.  Within 24 hours, my account was restored, but with no communication and still no information.

So for me, using Google+ has become a game of Russian Roulette.  Every time I post something, there seems to be a random chance that I will lose control of my web presence.  And maybe next time it will be permanent.

It is nice that using Blogger is free, but this episode has been a valuable reminder that "If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer".  (Who said that?)

I have moved Probably Overthinking It to a site I control, hosted by a company I pay, a company that has provided consistently excellent customer service.

Lesson learned.

[When I published this article, Blogger asked if I wanted to post it on Google+.  I did not.]

UPDATE: See the discussion of this post on Hacker News, with lots of good advice for migrating to services you have more control over.