For the past week I have been trying to “recover” my account at maltbyblogger.com after being told by WordPress.com that it has been deactivated as the details I have tried to log in with do not match their records. To rectify this, I need to provide a transaction ID, the original activation link, or an email from the address with which the site was registered.

As I do not have access to this as I have changed my email address and was in fact attempting to inform WordPress.com of this, it seems that there is no way of proving my identity and the account can not be retrieved. I have had emails from 2 of WordPress’s “Happiness Engineers” to confirm that this is so. (I have, of course, responded to these “Engineers” and suggested that they are not fulfilling their job title/ description as happiness on my account has not been my experience of this situation. Frustration, confusion and disappointment maybe, but definately not happiness.

So, I am unable to verify my identity and can not recover the account which I have been posting on (and paying for) since 2012. However, I am actually typing this current post onto maltbyblogger.com at this moment and will, presumably, publish it in due course. The apparent paradox of this is that I am using a different device – my phone as opposed to laptop computer.

I do exist, I am who I say I am, I am the creator/owner of the blog in question and I don’t need to verify this by using an obsolete email address, despite WordPress.com not accepting this.

I would never claim to understand the ins and outs of internet workings nor the methods or algorithms used to achieve security and ID verification. I have an idea that this situation has happened because of something to do with my Google account, which is used on various devices of mine – but I wouldn’t swear to that.

It does seem to me though, that for all the ‘secure’ details and identity verification we involve ourselves with to be granted access to our own information, there’s always the risk that it can be compromised. User names, passwords and memorable information are all well and good … until we need to change them, or have them changed for us without our knowledge or consent.

The situation I’ve been describing is for a blog site on which I have, over the years, posted about various local events and political activities as well as personal ramblings which have engaged people in discussion of topical issues. Nothing vitally important in the big scheme of things, if it was lost forever in the ether of the worldwide web. But it has taken much time and research to publish posts and if it did become irretrievable, I would consider myself a bit cheated.

The indispensability of paper and pen or pencil once again confirmed to me.