All's well that ends well, I suppose.

[rivka]

I just got this e-mail:

From: Dr. Rivka [my old hotmail blog address]
To: rivka@livejournal.com
Subject: Sorry about taking your blog. Here is the info you need.

Blogger:
user: password:

Hotmail
user: password:

Sorry for any grief I caused.

They had cleared out the changes they made to the blog and the hotmail account was empty. They even deleted the message they sent to me from sent mail.

I'm glad to have the blog back under my control, although it's too bad that the old Haloscan comments are permanently lost. I guess I'll never know what all of this was about - who they were, how they got hold of the blog and hotmail account, why they got hold of it instead of just creating their own new one. It's not like it was a particularly valuable piece of internet real estate, after being defunct for so long.

Thank you to everyone who helped me!

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

How extremely peculiar.

But, yay!

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

How remarkable that they manned up and gave it back! Peculiar of them to do it in the first place, but very kind of them to give it back with an apology.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Weird. I'm glad it's back with you, though. But, yeah. Weird.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it was someone who used to read the blog? The post they made didn't seem all that out of place; perhaps they thought it would be a useful continuation.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

That's weird. I'm glad they had an attack of conscience, but...man, that's weird.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

That is so weird. Good though that you've got it back!

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Free hotmail accounts automatically clear out after you leave them unattended for a month. So that, at least, may not be down to the hijackers.

Still, bloody peculiar.

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

I think hotmail recently purged accounts that hadn't been used in a (relatively short) while and made them available to new users. I tried to get into an old hotmail account of mine a few weeks ago and ultimately had to sign up again for my old address. (No one else had taken it yet, but they easily could have.) Maybe your hotmail account had been purged as well and the hacker signed up for your old address.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is very cool!!

I'm so glad for you!

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Buh.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

How very odd, and I'm sorry.

If the hotmail account isn't your primary account, you may want to consider abandoning it -- who knows what he might have sent.

But how bizarre.

[journeywoman.livejournal.com]

WTF?

[ailbhe]

How very very weird.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Wow. I really want an explanation, as I imagine you do too, but this will do!

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm very pleased you have it back. I suspect someone who actually liked your blog, missed it, and is somewhat socially clueless about internet property and territoriality.