(UPDATE, March 22: After hours on the phone and hours in text chat with Trend Micro, this is finally fixed… but not cleared up. They have NO idea what caused it. They don’t even know that it’s impossible for wordpress.COM sites to have malicious code or even have java on them. How are these people a major malware/spyware company?

I’m going to do this more formally at the site today, but I want to thank all of you that helped, made noise, tweeted, emailed, nagged, or otherwise made Trend Micro aware that they can’t get away with this. I think it really surprised them. It certainly made them take me a lot more seriously.

The silver lining with all of this is that this is just one more example of my readers showing me what awesome, caring people you all are.

THANK YOU.)

(UPDATE, March 21: Trend Micro has “reclassified” Lovecraft eZine as safe… at THEIR site. THIS DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM, because there is NO change on the error message when clicking from Facebook to Lovecraft eZine, which is what the problem really is. So, despite what they tell you, it is NOT fixed.)

Dear Lovecraft eZine readers: I need your help. I badly need your help. And no, I’m not asking for money.

I am very frustrated. That’s saying a lot, because I’m usually a calm person. Here is why:

For the past week or so, if someone tries to click a link from Facebook to Lovecraft eZine, they get the following message:

The link you are trying to visit has been classified as potentially abusive by a Facebook partner. Trend Micro: This website was classified as abusive. This warning is provided in collaboration with Trend Micro.

First of all, there cannot be malicious software at Lovecraft eZine. Why? Because I host it at WordPress.COM. Note the dot com in caps, because there’s a difference between WordPress.COM and WordPress.ORG. One of the reasons why I host Lovecraft eZine at WordPress.COM is because you CAN’T put your own code there; you CAN’T even use Java.

If you still aren’t convinced, click here to check Lovecraft eZine at Sucuri SiteCheck, a free malware scanner. It classifies Lovecraft eZine as “clean” in every way.

Obviously, Trend Micro has some glitches. OK, mistakes happen. I can accept that. But what is unacceptable is that I have repeatedly contacted Trend Micro, and they don’t reply. At all. And, of course, the “Lovecraft eZine is malicious” report still stands.

So in the meantime, anyone who tried to click on a link from Facebook to Lovecraft eZine will receive a very scary message — and of course, most people will not click the “ignore this warning” link.

This hurts my traffic. This hurts my income (such as it is). Worst of all, this damages Lovecraft eZine‘s reputation.

I really need your help. I really need everyone reading these words to contact Trend Micro and let them know that you frequent this website and that there is nothing malicious, illegal, or otherwise negative going on. (And no spam — everyone who signs up for email notifications at this website is using the WordPress.com “opt-in”, and they can unsubscribe any time they want.)

Please, please do the following:

Click here to “re-classify” Lovecraft eZine as a safe site. I’ve already done this three times, with no luck, but maybe if hundreds of people do it, they will pay attention. Type in “www.lovecraftzine.com” into their box at that page, then click CHECK NOW and follow the instructions. Click here to send Trend Micro a message at their Facebook page. Just click MESSAGE on the right side of the page. Please let them know that they are damaging a good website’s reputation, and costing me traffic, every day that this continues. Post the following text on your Twitter account: @TrendMicro is falsely reporting the Lovecraft eZine website as malicious, without a shred of proof. Please RT @misanthropemike Go to their community forum (malware section) and post about this. You may have to “log in with Facebook” to post. I wish I had an email address for them, but of course they don’t provide one anywhere at their website that I’ve been able to find. UPDATE: An awesome Lovecraft eZine reader provided the top guy’s email address: steve_chang@trendmicro.com . Please let Steve Chang know that his company is damaging a good website’s reputation, and costing me traffic, every day that this continues.

And, if you have the time:

Call Trend Micro at (408) 257-1500. Start a live chat with Trend Micro.

Thanks, everyone. I really need as many people as possible to do the above. Obviously, this is the only way to get Trend Micro’s attention.

Mike Davis