….not sure if I’ve been hacked

Almost a year ago I experienced some issues with my WordPress account because I couldn’t like any posts or leave comments on anybody else’s blog. It turned out to be a Safari problem and thanks to some of my readers I was able to correct the problem.

The same thing is happening again but this time going into Safari looking for the same setting is not the issue. I’ve contacted WordPress and they’ve informed me that the problem rests with my ‘over’ usage of my blog. Here is exactly what they said.

…..please note that your account has been flagged for an excessive amount of social activity which made your account appear more like a spam-bot than a human being.

Please keep in mind that our like features are designed to help you keep up with your favorite blogs, give easy feedback to their authors, and nurture direct conversations. They are not to be used as a means of promoting your site through mass notifications.

Does this sound like me? Many of you have probably wondered where I’ve been because I haven’t been able to keep up with all my emails in the last two months. To keep from getting too far behind again I’ve tried to read emails as they come in and many of those I do ‘like’. I’m probably reading 50 emails a day on average. Is that considered over use?

When I questioned them on what is considered excessive this is the answer I received:

To clarify, I’m specifically referring to the amount of times you’ve been using the Like feature. When you like content on WordPress.com, the owners of that content receive notifications each time. This is intended to inform content owners about who is interacting with their content and is not intended as a system to attract mass attention to your content.

After blogging for seven years I think I know how to use the Like feature. I only have 2000 followers, many of whom I assume are dormant. I don’t have time to look for new blogs. Anyway after 24 hours the Like feature will supposedly be enabled again.

I apologize to those who haven’t heard from me in awhile. I have tried to remedy that but WordPress has made that impossible. Hopefully all will be sorted soon. Has anyone else had a similar problem? I’d like to know and any advice that you can give me would be most appreciated.