How did this happen? My Pinterest account was suspended for spammy behaviour!
Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows how much I love Pinterest. Besides this I hate spammers, and try to do my due diligence to combat spam. Then why is my account suspended?
Truth to be told, I am still not a 100% sure. After contacting Pinterest several times, I still have not had a clear answer.
It all started on January 26th.
Marjan50
Jan 26, 1:47 PM PST
Hello!
Just discovered that my account has been suspended. Not sure what is going on as I did not get an email. I did just recently update my password, wonder if that is maybe why?
Thank you for looking into this. Marjan
And this is the generic reply I got.
Zendesk (Pinterest Support)
Jan 26, 1:47 PM PST
Hi there,
Thanks for writing in. It looks like your Pinterest account is suspended.
Our team of experts will review your account. We’ll send you another email with the results of our review.
Thanks,
The Pinterest team
Not much to go on is there?
So I waited, and waited. I am a patient person, and did not want to harass Pinterest.
When I did not get any other reply, I contacted them again through their website. And I wrote in an appeal regarding my accounts suspension:
Feb 1, 9:27 AM PST
Dear Pinterest team,
I would like to appeal regarding my account suspension.
As per your spam policy, I do not pin any discriminating, sexual, religious, violent or other offensive material that I am aware off.
I am putting in a lot of time and effort to create different quality pins related to my blog posts. Pins are scheduled by Tailwind and I use the interval option for my own pins so not all pins are being pinned at the same time, but spaced out by a day. Maybe I should space them out more?
Or is using Tailwind against your policy?
I still pin to my areas of interest which are mostly arts and crafts.
I take care to pin to appropriate (group)boards.
So having gone over your spam policy again, I am still at a loss in how I violated this policy.
Could it have been that I had to delete someone from my group board as they were pinning 10-12 of the same pins together, and even after messaging them a few times, they continued with this. I deleted those duplicate pins and let them know that I removed their access.
In addition, I will also stop adding people to my group boards as this may have caused the problem?
I would really like to know how exactly my account violated your policy so that I can take care that this will never happen again.
When my account will be re-activated, I will delete all the pins in my que at Tailwind and only pin secondary pins, none of my own anymore. I truly hope this will meet with your expectations and that my account will be able to get reactivated.
If you would like to contact me by phone, you can do so.
Thank you for your time,
Marjan Beck
And again this generic reply:
Zendesk (Pinterest Support)
Feb 1, 9:27 AM PST
Hi there,
Thanks for writing in. It looks like your Pinterest account is suspended.
Our team of experts will review your account. We’ll send you another email with the results of our review.
Thanks,
The Pinterest team
I had been racking my brain to try and recall what I had done to violate this spam policy. And reviewed the terms several times, but each time came up short.
Finally, I contacted them again:
Marjan50
Feb 14, 10:16 AM PST
Dear Pinterest team,
I am writing again regarding my accounts suspension. Is there any way that it can be re-activated? Please contact me.
Marjan50
Feb 14, 10:18 AM PST
Dear Pinterest team.
Is there any way my account can be re-activated? I do not understand what I did wrong to have my account suspended.
Can you please contact me and clarify what I did wrong?
Gratefully,
Marjan Beck
And received this reply again!
Zendesk (Pinterest Support)
Feb 14, 10:16 AM PST
Hi there,
Thanks for writing in. It looks like your Pinterest account is suspended.
Our team of experts will review your account. We’ll send you another email with the results of our review.
Thanks
The Pinterest team
And then I got this email:
Ken (Pinterest Support)
Feb 17, 2:11 AM PST Hi there,
We’ve suspended your account because we noticed spammy activity that goes against our Acceptable Use Policy.
We consider Spam any content that’s fraudulent or deceptive. Saving large amounts of unwanted or repetitive Pins, posting unsolicited commercial messages in comments/descriptions, or trying to artificially boost views/Pins/comments or other metrics isn’t allowed. Unfortunately, we won’t be reactivating your account.
Thanks,
Ken
So I wrote back, This time not wanting to wait any more:
Hello Ken,
Thank you for your reply:
We consider Spam any content that’s fraudulent or deceptive. Saving large amounts of unwanted or repetitive Pins, posting unsolicited commercial messages in comments/descriptions, or trying to artificially boost views/Pins/comments or other metrics isn’t allowed. Unfortunately, we won’t be reactivating your account.
I am truly sorry, but I am still at a loss on how I violated your policy. As far as I am aware, I do not do any of the above.
And I was in the understanding that Tailwind was approved by Pinterest to schedule pins.Is it because I have a business account ? I do post in group boards, is that not allowed anymore?Should I have spaced the pins out more?
I had noticed on some of my group boards that some pinners are posting in-appropriate pins. I have reported to Pinterest some accounts, I felt were spammers. Also have tried to delete the inappropriate pins from the boards and message the people responsible. I even removed some from the different group boards as they continued with their spammy practice. And send them a message why they were removed. Was I wrong to do this, and is this why my account was suspended???
What can I do to make sure this does not happen ever again, and how can I get to re-activate my account?
Again, I love Pinterest and hope there is a way to clear this matter up.
Thank you,Marjan
To which I received this reply:
Ken (Pinterest Support)
Feb 18, 2:09 AM PST
Hi there,
Unfortunately, we can’t provide any more information about your account suspension.
If you have a different issue, let us know.
Ken
Well the “Let us know” tab just redirects you to the help centre, so I send them the same message I tried to email:
Good morning Ken,
It finally occurred to me what I think may be the problem.
All I ever wanted is to promote my blog. So I created pins related to the different posts. When I scheduled these pins they pointed to my blog, I suppose I should have pointed them to the post the pins represented. Believe me , I never wanted to mis direct or deceive anyone, just did not think to link the pins to the posts.
The pins I created are posted to about a dozen or so group boards, all spaced out by a day, in order to not spam. I am not trying to artificially promote my pins, or tamper with Pinterest metrics. I am not selling anything, so I am not posting any unsolicited commercial messages.
Is there a time line for when my account can be re-activated? Or a probation period? I wish I had had a warning that I was violating your policy as it really was unintentionally. I could have rectified the problem without having my account suspended if I had known what to do. Now I can not even monitor my group boards and have no idea if people are pinning the appropriate pins or not.
I have set up a second account: pinterest.ca/Wistco
Thank you for your time,
Regards Marjan
So far my communication with Pinterest. Clearly, I am getting very frustrated by all of this.
Spam policies and more
In the mean time I will again review some of Pinterest’s policies.
Their is a lot of information about their policies, but really nothing that I found helpful in my case.
In general I completely agree with their guidelines, here follows a synopsis of their policies:
Pinterest will remove porn. We may hide nudity or erotica.
(I do not like porn, and will not pin anything that looks like this.)
Pinterest will remove content that physically or sexually exploits people. We work with law enforcement to address the sexualization of minors.
(I think it is great practice that they will report any exploitation of minors to the National Centre of missing children.)
Pinterest will remove images that show gratuitous violence or glorify violence.
(I hate violence, so will not endorse anything that will promote violence.)
Pinterest will remove content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse.
(They even have resources available in their help centre for anyone struggling with this!)
Pinterest will remove hate speech and discrimination, or groups and people that advocate either.
Pinterest will remove content used to threaten or organize violence or support violent organizations.
Pinterest will remove attacks on private people or sharing of personally identifiable information.
Pinterest will remove content used to sell or buy regulated goods, like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, firearms and other hazardous materials.
Pinterest will remove accounts that impersonate any person or organization.
Pinterest will remove harmful advice, content that targets individuals or protected groups and content created as part of disinformation campaigns.
Spam
As per Pinterest:
We want the inspiration and ideas on Pinterest to be high-quality and useful, so we remove spam when we find it. We ask that you be considerate of others’ experiences on Pinterest and don’t spread spam or engage in spammy behavior.
Our guidelines around spam are:
Don’t use automation that hasn’t been explicitly approved by Pinterest. This includes unauthorized services that automatically perform actions on your behalf. You can find information on approved partner tools on our Partners website.
(Tailwind is the platform I use to schedule my pins. I love this tool, as it gives lots of flexibility. Usually I schedule between 15 and 25 pins a day. Tailwind has many features, like Tribes, smartloop and an interval option, so your pins will get spaced out and they will not get pinned all the same day. I also use organic pinning when ever the mood strikes. )
Don’t create or operate accounts that aren’t authentic, create accounts en masse, or create new accounts for the purpose of violating these guidelines.
(Well my account is authentic! And yes I did create a second account because I cannot get into my main account)
Don’t create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money. To learn how to make great Pins, you can always refer to our creative best practices.
(I did make my own pins, as Pinterest likes new content, the platform I use is Visme, and you can read here how I did this. I take care to create different pins for the same posts, so not all pins will look the same. For each post I choose a different template and look to make them even more appealing. It makes it hard when you want to create a “brand”, because of the unique look for each pin.)
In general, don’t attempt to make money from Pinners or Pinner web traffic in ways that are misleading, detract from the Pinner experience, or don’t add value for Pinners.
(Well, my blog is only costing me money, I do not earn enough to pay the expenses, so I cannot say that I am trying to attempt to make money from fellow winners.)
Don’t link too websites that are unsafe, deceptive, untrustworthy, unoriginal, or that facilitate or encourage spam. Websites should have original content that adds unique value for Pinners.
( I link to my personal blog, and from now on also just to the appropriate posts)
Don’t send unsolicited messages or make irrelevant comments in bulk, especially when these are deceptive or commercial in nature.
( Also do not send unsolicited messages.)
Don’t attempt to artificially manipulate distribution, clicks or other metrics, including but not limited to: buying or selling engagement, “stuffing” irrelevant keywords, generating inauthentic traffic, redirecting existing Pins to new destinations, using fake or compromised accounts to perform coordinated actions.
(Nope do not do this either)
Don’t attempt to evade our anti-spam systems, for example, by using shorteners, redirects or intermediate websites to obscure a link’s final destination.
(and again, I do not do any of this.)
So looking through all this, I did not violate their spam policies as far as I can see.
Then why can I not get it re-instated?
Did I find the answer?
This morning I woke up and all of a sudden I realized that the pins I so painstakingly created for my blog posts, only pointed to my blog. I should have them pointed to the specific posts. Big mistake on my part! It truly never did occur to me until this morning what I had done wrong!
Google helped me find some great websites about the same issue.
One I found very help full: https://blog.tailwindapp.com/how-to-avoid-being-reported-for-spam-on-pinterest-in-2019/
Pinterest Spam Behavior #3 – Saving Pins that go to Unrelated Content
When a Pinner sees your image of a gorgeous apple pie, they expect to click on it and arrive on a page that tells them more about the apple pie. Using something popular on Pinterest, like images of irresistible desserts to get someone to a site about something totally unrelated provides a less-than-ideal experience for everyone.
Make sure that, even if your page doesn’t contain the EXACT image you Pin, that there is consistency between Pin and page.
Wish I had known this before!!!
https://www.raisingkidsmakingmoney.com/pinterest-account-marked-as-spam/
Did have a useful email address I finally contacted with my query: creators-support@pinterest.com,
Pleading them to please believe that I do not intentionally spam.
Right now I am just wanting to throw out all my own pins and not create any new pins for a very long time. And I also am not so sure about continuing with Tailwind, other then just scheduling arts and crafts pins, forget about the blog!
Don’t be shy, leave a reply!
Update February 19 2020.
So far my account with Pinterest is still suspended, and I am very sad about this. I truly hope they will understand that I never intentionally misdirected people. I did point them to my blog, where I wanted people to go. My blog is laid out so that it is not hard to find the post you might be looking for. Was I wrong? Absolutely. But I did not mean to harm anyone.
On Pinterest I have encountered numerous times that the pin did not go to the post I was looking for. Annoying, yes, a crime? I do not think so. Often with a little looking at the site, you will be able to find what you are looking for.
In most instances, it is a poor blogger, like myself, who just forgot to link the pin to the post. Really no big deal.
I am not saying that Pinterest should not crack down on spammers, absolutely they should! But it would be nice if they would give people, like myself, a second change and not heap them together with the real spammers who are out to get innocent people.
So the waiting continues….
On top of that, my SSL certificate on my blog expired today of all days! Lucky enough the wonderful people at GoDaddy, where able to help me right away.
And! Because my Pinterest account was blocked I was not able to get into my Tailwind account. Again, a wonderful assistant was able to help me out and linked my “new” Pinterest account. So I am happy pinning away again, just not on my main account :(.
Just received this email from Pinterest:
Hi there,
This is an automated reminder that we’ve closed your support request. We won’t be able to provide any further support regarding your account deactivation. While this may be frustrating, we’re doing what we can to keep Pinterest a secure place of inspiration.
For further information, review our Community Guidelines: https://policy.pinterest.com/community-guidelines.
Thanks,
The Pinterest Support Team
And because I was not sure if this was related to my “Ticket”, I send an email back:
Hello Joshu,
I appreciate you looking into my account.
And, I understand you are all very busy, so I am trying to be patient.
How ever I have received several emails from Pinterest that the appeal I send is closed.
Not sure if this was the team you forwarded my ticket number to.
I updated my blog post if you are interested in further information regarding this issue: https://www.aroundthefirepit.com/help-they-suspended-my-pinterest-account/
Again, I did not have any bad intentions, just was happy pinning away and creating new content, well that turned out to bite me in the ###.
Hopefully my account can be re-activated.
Thank you for your help and support, Marjan
Well this email did not go through, as indeed the ticket number was closed, so back to the regular email:
Marjan
Feb 19, 14:30Dear Pinterest team,
It looks like my previous appeals have not been heard.
So I am contacting you again in the hope you will hear me this time.
I am truly sorry that you think I am a dangerous spammer. Anyone who knows me would know this to be the farthest from the truth.
Yes, I created pins and yes I scheduled them with Tailwind. My biggest mistake has been that I directed these pins to my blog, not directly to the blog post. In such, I suppose, misdirecting anyone who would click on the pin. I can tell you that this has happened to me lots, it is annoying because you do not get where you thought you were going. I do not think it a crime. Most of the time it was another blogger, who forgot to link the pin to the appropriate webpage.
Now my account has been suspended because I am being marked as a spammer.Ironically, this all started after I contacted Pinterest because I was concerned about some other pinners, I believed were truly spammers .
You can read a bit more here:
https://www.aroundthefirepit.com/help!-they-suspended-my-pinterest-account!
If you are interested in more information.
Again, I do hope you will hear my appeal and re-activate my account.
Gratefully,Marjan
This time the email was confirmed as received, so hopefully we will get some where.
To be continued…
Update February 20, 2020
I am so happy!!!
Margo (Pinterest Support)
Feb 20, 3:20 AM PST Hi Marjan,
Your account was suspended because our system detected spammy activity. After reviewing it, we’ve decided to reactivate it. To avoid this in the future, we suggest reading the Spam & Quality section of our Acceptable Use Policy.
Thanks,
Margo
My account has been re-activated! Hip hip hooray!
Thank you Pinterest! Now I can update all those pins and add the correct URL’s so people will get to the correct place. Just don’t mark me as a spammer while I am doing this….
Also many thanks for Mo from Tailwind who has been a wonderful and caring support during these past few days. She was able to delete all my scheduled pins, so none will go live for now.
Leave your comments below!
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