The very strange case of Distant Relative and moderation

 A situation has arisen with Blogger which is weird to say the least and its wider implications need to be looked at carefully.  Distant Relative's last comments at N.O. were on this post:

https://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2021/01/almost-live-report-on-nothing.html

And these were them - note the timestamps:

That was the last time he commented here ... or at least the last time a comment showed.

Now this is precisely how misunderstandings occur - when some third party gets in between two others. Readers here will know I wondered why DR, Andy and Ripper had stopped commenting.  Of course, they don't need to comment if they do not wish but it did seem strange.

Especially as I'd just gone to "moderation sometimes". What that meant, the way I'd set it, was that it should have been far easier for people to comment - all comments posted on the current day go straight through, those on the previous day are moderated.  Seemed a win-win.

But the effect seemed to be, by later today, that it had shut out those three readers - why? How?  Moderation is NOT on for today, why would they be stopped?  Also, remember that DR does not like captcha, Ivan cannot get through if it's on, so I was loathe to do that.

Fast forward:

I went to OoL just now, casually doing the rounds, and saw, to my shock, that DR had commented there on this post:

https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-usurpation-curiouser-and-curiouser.html

He felt that he was being shut out when nothing could be further than the truth - at least not by us. To say this was unsettling was an understatement, as any regular here would know that we work in tandem.  Whyever would either of us be in a huff?

Part two - the three parts of the dilemma

It's one thing discovering that it has been happening but it's quite another to reverse it if Google has been putting its oar in to prevent DR from commenting. I most certainly have not altered in my attitude in any way since his last comment, except to 'free up' moderation, which should have had the opposite effect.

I can only surmise that if I do that, Google scriptkiddies or censors step in and do their own moderation concerning who are good guys and who are bad guys.  That is freaky and quite worrying.  And what's more worrying is:

a] Is DR so annoyed now that he will not attempt another comment?

b] If Google is preventing him and he still can't comment, how can he then possibly communicate that, and how can I get a message to him?

c] How can I stop Google doing this?

And this has happened in spite of the work I did today trying to complete the working of the site which you can see before you, esp. in the comments gadget.

Best way forward

One good thing is that he was able to comment at OoL but that is moderated by Julia, not by me.  So there will be a time lag with her, especially this evening and tomorrow for reasons I cannot divulge.

Moderation is now on for everyone, as it was before and I can only wait to see if DR comments at either NO [moderated by me at my email] or at OoL [moderated by Julia at her email].  If a comment still does not appear at either, then I must think of another solution, e.g. moderation off and running just captcha for awhile, which also affects Ivan. It's a bleedin' nightmare.

In a few minutes, I am going to scour every part of the innards of this blog and try to find out what happened. 

That involves me checking my email every couple of minutes until shut-eye time later but a quick word about that - I do not actually sit there, the ipad in fact lights up and pings.  As I walk past, doing this or that, I read what is up there.

The most worrying thing of all

The most worrying thing is that all can be going well with us and suddenly, through the intervention of a third party - a cyber-Iago so to speak - allies can be split.  It's redolent of the whole biz in America, innit? How quickly things can disintegrate if we let 'em.

I've a reason for saying this and it's in this excerpt from my long book [there's a comment for almost every occasion in that tome].  

One evening [in the chapter], three or four things, simultaneously, started going wrong with different allies across the land.  Hugh and his best mate Viktor were but two of these.

Twenty seconds later, there was a call to Hugh’s landline from Ksenia, warning him to get out of the flat and go to either her friend Yulia’s place or to Anya’s. She’d possibly phone at any hour of the night or day, depending on developments, there appeared to be things happening. She also said it might be an idea not to go into work tomorrow.

Anya called to suggest Hugh phone Viktor, to put the scenario to him. In a cold voice, Viktor asked if the e-mails to his woman in America had been necessary.

‘What e-mails? I know nothing of any e-mails, all right, forward them to me.’ The call ended abruptly. Hugh scratched his head and reflected that whatever was going down, it was much too much all at once.

He switched on the computer and checked the e-mails. There, in his inbox, were forwarded copies of mails which only he could have sent, with his header data, written in his style of banter and very, very critical of Viktor and what he was up to in Shadzhara with other women.

Reader, you can imagine the net effect - it was to dislocate the allies, the ragtag, and even after it was all explained and the miscreant had been nailed, the aftertaste still remained.  

That's what I saw the moment the moment I read that comment at OoL a short time ago.

There is nothing like tech giants to break people up.  Yet there are ways around them. END.