Renaming Your Blog - Planning The Change Properly

Your blog depends upon traffic for its success. Anything that affects the traffic to your blog, such as a change in the URL, affects the success of your blog. If you republish your blog to a different BlogSpot URL, as with migration to a custom domain, you will not lose any content. Both comments, posts, the template, and all custom settings, will stay with the blog. And if you plan the republishing effort, you can minimise the loss of traffic.

Spell Check And Video Upload Now Available In New Post Editor

One point of contention, repeatedly echoed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, is

Bring back spell checker!

and

Where is the video upload icon in new post editor?

I've been explaining these omissions for a while, and sometimes feel like Sisyphus as I do so.

Well recently, I learned that this may be history sometime soon. If you are able to use Draft (Blue) Blogger, you can now enjoy both spell check and video upload, and new post editor, together. Just remember that the Draft features are only seen if you use the dashboard. If you use the "New Post" link in the navbar, you will get the features of Production (Orange) Blogger - either classic post editor with old photo capabilities, or new post editor without spell check / video upload.

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Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "freegadget2015.blogspot.com" / "freegadget-xde"

As yet another chapter in the tale of the hijacked Blogger blogs, today we have reports of blogs redirecting to "freegadget2015.blogspot.com" and "freegadget-xde".

For those newly experiencing this persistent assault upon our blogs, see the FAQ My Blog Has Been Hijacked - What Do I Do? for diagnosis and removal techniques. Note that you'll probably need to use the "Edit HTML" wizard, and delete the offending code, for expedient removal.

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Blogger / Blog*Spot Connectivity In MidWest USA

A few bloggers in the MidWest USA region - apparently AT&T DSL customers - are reporting inability to access Blogger, Blog*Spot, and in some cases, various Google services.

We have a Problem Rollup question in Blogger Help Forum, where the epidemiology of the problem is being explored.

For right now, if you are affected by this outage, please use a proxy server to access all Blog*Spot blogs. And read BHG Resources: My Blog Is Gone, or [FAQ] I Can't See My Blog. What Should I Do? for insight into diagnosing this problem.

---

(Update 10:00 3/28): This problem has been resolved.

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Including Content From Other Websites In Your Posts

I use excerpts of articles from other websites, in a few of my posts. I use some websites, such as WikiPedia, more than others. It's good practice to at least link back to the originating website, when copying or quoting any significant amount of unique content. There are so few restrictions, in general, what content we may include in our blogs - so it makes sense to be polite when we include content from other websites.

In most cases, and to keep my posts relatively short, I prefer to simply quote a brief, relevant snippet of content, and link back to the originating website.

In WikiPedia: Occam's razor, we see the advice

the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

I like to add " target="_blank"" to any link that takes the reader to another website, however temporary.

In WikiPedia: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">Occam's razor</a></span>, we see the advice<blockquote>the simplest solution is usually the correct one.</blockquote>

Content such as Lorem Ipsum is ancient public domain, and it's available all over the Net. It may or may not be necessary to attribute that, for brief snippets.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

When you include original content from a specific website, however, it's good practice to attribute.

The text is derived from sections 1.10.32-33 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils, or alternatively [About] The Purposes of Good and Evil ).[3] The original passage began: Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit (Translation: "Neither is there anyone who loves grief itself since it is grief and thus wants to obtain it"). It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; it may have been as late as the 1960s. The passage was discovered by Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar who is the publications director at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, by searching for citings of the rarely used Latin word "consectetur" in classical literature.[1][2]

The original version (with the excerpted items highlighted) appears in Book 1, sections 1.10.32-33 (pagination varies by publisher):

[32] Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
[33] At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.[2]

- From Wikipedia: Lorem Ipsum

Blogger is now diligently screening blogs for "spam" and other forms of misbehaviour. One of their classifications of "spam" is termed "scraping". Many blogs consist, largely, of content scraped from various websites, minimally relevant. People who publish blogs that contain whole articles, copied from other websites, simply must make it a consistent practice to distinctly attribute copied material, or face the possibility of spam classification by the Blogger bot.

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Static Pages In A Renamed Blog

It's possible that Blogger takes the term "static", as in "Static Pages", very seriously. I've been hearing rumours of odd URLs in blogs that are renamed - ie, published under a new URL - where static pages are present. Today, I setup a brief experiment.

You may see the result of my experiment, in my test blog "Nitecruzr Test Pages In Renamed Blog". The blog started out as "nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-rename.blogspot.com". You are welcome to click on that link, if you wish. It won't get you anywhere, though.

After I setup the blog, I published a couple Static Pages - "About Me" and "About This Blog", with a tab bar below the header, as the Pages index. After publishing the pages, I renamed the blog to its current URL "nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com". Do you see the name change?

nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-rename.blogspot.com
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com

A very small change, but it's significant.

And now, please examine the blog itself. Observe the URL of the first post, "Lorem Ipsum".

nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com/2010/03/lorem-ipsum.html

And look at the Pages Index

Home    About Me    About This Blog

The 3 static links:
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-rename.blogspot.com
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-rename.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-rename.blogspot.com/p/about-this-blog.html

That's a problem. What we should have is

Home    About Me    About This Blog

The 3 static links:
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html
nitecruzr-test-pages-blog-renamed.blogspot.com/p/about-this-blog.html

So, try it. Click on an link in the first example, above.

The blog you were looking for was not found.

What have we observed?

• Static Pages get a new URL, when the blog is renamed.
• The links in the Pages index are not changed.

I think somebody has some work to do, yet.

Fortunately, if you know that this oddity exists, it's not hard to correct it. Just delete the Pages index. Then go to "Page Elements", and add a Pages index again. The re added Pages index will now have links with the correct URLs.

But please, only delete the Pages index - please, do not delete the individual pages. It appears that pages are given the same duplication prevention treatment, as are posts. If you delete the pages, you'll end up with suffixed URLs, when you re create the pages.

There is more to consider, when we examine a blog published to a custom domain, and the blog In Transition. We will examine that, tomorrow.

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Blog Hijackings - The Worst May Be Over

Blogger Support took control of the blog hijacking problem yesterday. Today, I did a search in "Add a Gadget", and found encouraging results.







I believe that they are now trying to disable the installed gadgets - so if you see a blank space on your blog, that's possibly why.

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(Update 2010/11/25): And to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 2010, we see a report of yet another hijack attempt.

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Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "freegadget2014.blogspot.com"

In a disturbing repeat of problems experienced earlier this month, we have reports of blogs redirecting again, this time to "freegadget2014.blogspot.com".

For those of you experiencing this assault upon your blog, see the FAQ My Blog Has Been Hijacked - What Do I Do? for current diagnosis and removal techniques. Note that the gadgets noted this week, as earlier, appear to resist removal, so you'll probably need to use "Edit HTML", and delete the offending code.

---

(Update 2010/03/23): Blogger Support has taken ownership of the problem.

Our team is working to sort out these affected gadgets from our side, and hope to have this fix out shortly.

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The "Buy a domain for your blog" Wizard Is Broken

Sometimes, you have to tell people something twice, before they will listen to you. This month, the "Buy A Domain" wizard has that problem.

As always, start from Settings - Publishing, and select "Switch to: • Custom Domain". If you were buying "mydomain.net", for "What address would you like your blog to have?" you should simply enter "mydomain", select ".net", then hit "Check Availability". This month, if you do that, you will see

There was an error processing this form. Please try again.

URL should end in a valid domain extension, such as .com or .net.

In this case, you must enter "mydomain.net", then select ".net". The ".net" bit is validated, too. If you enter "mydomain.com", then select ".net", you'll get the same error.

Strange, but true.

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Auto Pagination And Shared Network Resources

Many of you who publish blogs have home computers, connected to the Internet. If you don't live alone, you probably share the use of your computer, or your Internet access. Even those who live alone may share resources occasionally.

It's possible that, if you own your computer and provide your Internet access, you recognise two truths about computer and Internet use:

1. Network resources have a cost. Neither your computer, nor your Internet service, is free. You (or somebody) had to buy your computer, at one time. Somebody pays your ISP a monthly fee, so you can surf the Internet.
2. Network resources are shared. You may have a problem downloading the latest blockbuster movie, while your roommate is listening to his / her favourite Internet radio station. You may notice that it takes 2 - 3 times as long to download a movie in the evening, as it does very late at night. If your household shares a computer (I believe this is still not uncommon), you may have to wait to use YouTube, while somebody else is reading email.

Believe it or not, the same limitations apply to Blogger and Google resources. There are millions of Blogger blogs, all sharing a handful of servers. At any time, your blog may be shared on a server, and a network, that is also sharing a few thousand other Blogger blogs. The servers and the network, are not free, and they are shared.

Since resources are not free, they are limited in availability. Not everybody maintains a second computer, to use when the first goes down. Nor do many bloggers have "dual WAN" Internet access - so if the phone line goes down, you can switch to cable based Internet. Or FIOS, if you're so lucky.

Google, believe it or not, is subject to some limitations. They do not manage their resources as tightly as I manage mine - from researching custom domain designs, I can tell you that. However, even Google does not have infinite network resources - there are limits, and those limits can be exceeded.

If your blogs main page display is 10 times the size of most blogs (and I've seen some that are 100 times the normal size), your blog will use the resources allocated to 9 other blogs, when it's being served to your readers. This is called peak resource use, and it's a problem. Blogger can plan for average use of servers, and the network, a lot easier than they can plan peak use.

If your blog is topical - for instance a school blog that may be accessed by 20 - 30 students simultaneously - and it uses 10 times as much resources, as other blogs, to serve its main page, your blog can possibly take over an entire server or network segment, temporarily. This could even be part of the cause of the occasional

Error 500 Server Error

that we see, from time to time.

Blogger doesn't want to prevent you from enjoying your blog, nor are they going to prevent your readers from accessing it. All that they do is take the archive or main page display, and serve it in segments. This helps your blog coexist with the thousands of other blogs, when it's being served.

You don't have to do anything extraordinary, either. Just design your main page so it doesn't require half the blog to be displayed at once. Alternatively, accept the need to use shared resources, politely. Remember - the life that you save may be your own.

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Auto Pagination And Broken Links To Archive And Main Pages

Among the many odd circumstances connected with the controversial Auto Pagination feature that was introduced a month ago, we see reports by a few bloggers of broken inlinks, caused by segmentation of archive and main pages. Most reports specifically mention broken SERP entries, which link to content that's now found in an archive or main page segment that's reached by one or more clicks of "Older Posts". The new and currently un indexed segments have URLs which differ from the SERP entries.

This effect is similar to a problem which I wrote about some time ago, which affect SERPs linking to main page content. Both the archive pages and the main page in a blog are more likely to be indexed by the search engines, because there is more content on these pages, and some content has already been indexed. Some posts, lacking inlinks completely, and depending upon the publishing frequency, may never be indexed except as archive or main page content.

In the case of the SERP entries affected by page segmentation, the potential reader may click on an interesting SERP entry which lands them on a page which contains only the later posts for the period, with the rest, including the content featured in the SERP entry just referenced, behind one or more "Older Posts" clicks. Finding no relevant content on the displayed page segment, the potential reader abandons this SERP entry, and moves on to the next in the retrieval page.

The bloggers with blogs subject to this treatment are naturally concerned about loss of potential readers, and cite this scenario to justify their demands that Auto Pagination be made optional; meaning that they want it turned off for their blog.

Fortunately for them, the broken inlinks are a temporary problem. Blogs that are properly publicised will be re indexed by the search engines, periodically. As the re indexing occurs, the content of the new page segments will be indexed, and will replace the current SERP entries. This effect is similar to the gradual re indexing of blogs re published under a different URL, for instance as part of publishing to a custom domain.

You can - and should - monitor the indexing of your blog, page segmentation or not. Here, the diagnostic reports provided in Google Webmaster Tools will be quite valuable.

The inaccuracy and latency, in indexing blog content, is an inherent problem with search engines in general. It's not a problem unique to Blogger blogs, and certainly not to the Auto Pagination feature in Blogger. It's simply a problem which we all have to live with.

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Static Pages And The Pages Index

As more people are adding static pages to their blogs, the questions about the possibilities have started coming.

How do I add a label search to my pages index?

or

How do I add a post to my labels index?

or even

How do I add a link to another blog as a page index entry?

And right now, you can't do any of these things, to a standard pages index.

A Pages Index gadget indexes the static pages in your blog. Period.

But as I've written before, a pages index is nothing more than a linklist (in the sidebar), or a horizontal menu bar (under the blog header), with the links to the pages enumerated in the linklist or menu bar.

A linklist is easy enough to make - that's just a simple gadget, in "Page Elements". A horizontal menu bar isn't all that much harder to make.

Just find the Pages List for the blog, and for each page, extract the page title, and the page URL. Each page title combined with the page URL becomes one clickable link in the linklist or horizontal index. When you want to add non pages to the pages index, those are simply more entries - a caption / title + a URL becomes yet one more clickable link in the linklist or index.

Then style the linklist or index, as you like.

The one thing that you won't get is a cute gadget, that morphs between a horizontal tab bar and a linklist, as you re position it below the header, or in the sidebar. You have to plan where you want your index, and style it accordingly. Other than that, it's a 30 minute task to make one or the other.

If you like the look of the Static Pages Tabs Index gadget, particularly in a Designer Template - but you want to index labels and / or post pages, you will need to use a linklist in place of the Pages gadget.

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Static Pages And Comments

After long waiting, Blogger added a static pages option to our blogs. And even as blogger are busy adding static pages to their blogs, they are learning what static pages are - and what they are not. And as we note what static pages are not, we have to note that one feature which they appear to provide - comments - may not work for everybody.

Some bloggers have observed that comments do not work on their static pages. Comments are a complex product, and are sensitive to many settings - both in the blog, and on the client computers.

Right now, we're just starting to look at this deficiency. Help us out here, if you are able.

• First (guess what is first?) what is the URL of the blog with the noted problem?
• Does the blog use Embedded, Popup, or Separate Page comments?
• Is the problem observed on the computer of the blog owner, on the computers of the readers, or all computers?
• If the problem is inconsistently observed on multiple computers, what operating system and browser is in use when the problem is noted? When the problem is not noted?
• Does the blog contain any customisations in the post template?
• Have you tried standard comments diagnostics?

That's where we start. The initial diagnoses start with you, and with what you can tell us.

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What Pages Are - And What Pages Are Not

For years - almost as long as Layout Blogger has been out - bloggers have wanted the option to create static pages - pages that do not change - as part of their blogs. We've suggested a workaround, created from backdated posts, with some success.

In January, Blogger gave us true static pages for our blogs. And even as people started adding static pages to their blogs, the confusion about what those pages are, and what we can do with them, surfaced.

How do I add a date to a page?

How do I link to a page using a label?

How do I publish multiple posts on a page?

A static page consists of a title, and a single article. The article is created using a wizard extremely similar to the posts editor - but a wizard without an option to set a date, or labels.

By default, a static page is indexed through a pages index. If you wish, you may add a page to any linklist which you setup. A page is not associated with a date, or a label, and it does not appear in an archive index, an archive retrieval, a label index, or a label retrieval. A page does not contain any posts, just static text.

If you want multiple articles of content on a page, simply edit the page and add multiple articles, separated by section headers - larger type. If you wish, you can add links to the section headers, and / or link to the section headers using anchor links.

If you want to index or reference an article in your blog using a date or label, you publish a post. If you want to index an article using only a static link in a post, a linklist, or a tab bar, you publish a page.

A Pages index, as supplied as a Pages gadget, will index the static Pages that are setup by the Pages editor. If you wish to index other blogs, and / or label searches or posts in your blog, you can make a custom tabs index and substitute that for the Pages index. You can examine a custom Designer tabs index above (just below the blog title), and a custom Layout tabs index in my home blog, "Nitecruzr Dot Net".

And there's a final limitation to static pages. Static pages are accessed only from links. The home page of the blog is still the main page of posts - there is no option to designate a static page as the home page - though you can substitute a static HTML / Text gadget, in place of the home page posts. And you can, similarly, make other gadgets appear only with specific static pages.

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Setting Up A Custom Domain

Having written my referential guide Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems, I have seen more than a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken that are solved by use of the guide. Maybe you can avoid use of that guide, if you plan ahead of time.

The vast majority of all bloggers, when seeking to publish their blog to a custom domain, will do quite well to use the "Buy A Domain For Your Blog" wizard.

1. Have a major bank issued credit card, for an account that's in good standing, in hand.
2. Pick an available domain.
3. Provide the credit card information.
4. Get the email from Google Apps.
5. Setup your new Google Apps account.
6. Get to work planning and managing the transition to the new URL.
7. If you just completed step #6, please skip to the end of the article, now. What's below is not your concern.

Maybe you can't use "Buy A Domain".

• Maybe you want a domain ending in other than ".com", ".net", ".info", ".org", or ".biz".
• Maybe you cannot provide a major credit card for payment.
• Maybe you want to use a local or personal registrar, for any of many different reasons.
• Maybe you already have a domain, and want to setup an additional host.
• Maybe you let the domain expire, and now you have to setup the DNS addresses on your own.

If you're in this group, I suggest that you plan the setup process, and save yourself (and us) a lot of headache.

1. Choose a registrar that will provide the proper DNS services, and the required support. Even if you do not use "Buy A Domain", you may do well to use eNom or GoDaddy as your registrar, if possible.
   • We are more familiar with their procedures and wizards. We can provide corrections, for well known problems.
   • Their CSRs are becoming increasingly familiar with needs of Google Custom Domains.
   • We are reasonably certain that they are able to provide the necessary services.
   • As a GoDaddy customer, you can use the GoDaddy "Update your DNS records" wizard, to setup your DNS, after your domain is registered by GoDaddy.
   It's your choice, but you can make it easier for yourself, and for us.
2. Setup a righteous set of DNS addresses, from one of three models. Start your domain properly, with the right DNS addresses.
3. Re publish the blog to the new domain. Select the "Redirect" option (if desired). Note that even if you do not (or cannot) redirect one URL to another, using one of the three models is seriously recommended.
4. Setup a new Google Apps account (if necessary).
5. Get to work planning and managing the transition to the new URL.

This is simple advice, but it will be worth your while to understand the details, and to execute the details, religiously. Custom domains are very simple, in design - but if you set one up wrong, you can have all sorts of problems.

Get it right, from the start. Make it easier, for everybody.

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What's The BlogID Of My Blog?

This blog is (for those of you not familiar with it) "The Real Blogger Status". The URL (name) of this blog is currently "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/", and it was previously "http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/". Subject to the details involved in the renaming process, I am entitled to rename this blog anytime that I wish, and the name (URL) can change, anytime I do so.

There is another "name" for the blog, that does not change (unless I should perform a blog / URL swap). The BlogID is the internal name, that's setup when the blog is first created. Look at the source for the blog, in the header.

<head>

...

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/24069595/posts/default" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD"
href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=24069595" />

There we see two places to find the BlogID.

If you are a blog member, you can also find the BlogID in a few links in your dashboard. In some cases when asking for help in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, you may need the BlogID, as well as the URL.

If I were unlucky, and this blog was to be locked as suspected spam, the BlogID would become the LockedBlogID. In this case, the LockedBlogID may be the only thing useful in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

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Blogger Magic - Securing My Pictures From Being Copied

Every week, we see the naive query

How do I prevent my pictures from being copied?

and this, I regret to say, is a magic trick that has yet to be perfected. Others ask

Why does Google let people publish blogs with pictures stolen from other blogs?

and here, we have to note that Google has no interest in controlling, or even tracking, blog content.

Blogger Magic - Detecting The Blog Feed

Ever see a magician take a pack of playing cards, shuffle the deck, wave his wand over the deck, and make the Ace of Spades rise into the air? Pretty mysterious. How about I wave my wand over my blog, and make the blog feed rise into your browser? You've seen a BlogList wizard - you add a blog to your bloglist. Just type in the blog URL, and it pops up the feed. How did it do that?

The answer isn't hard to see, just look in the template header, for the live blog. Use View - "Page Source" with the blog displayed in your browser, or use an HTTP text proxy, to examine the blog code.

Here's the header for this blog.

<head>

...

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" 
title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/24069595/posts/default" />

...

</style>

There it is

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default

You won't see anything from the template source, in "Page Elements" - "Edit HTML". You have to look at the live, rendered HTML.

Here's what you may see, in "Edit HTML".

<head>
<meta content='IE=EmulateIE7' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible'/>
<meta content='width=1100' name='viewport'/>
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Not all third party templates will include the crucial code snippet:

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

If your template is missing that line of code, no magic for you.

Now, consider possible additional details which some folks have - both a custom domain redirect, and a custom feed (ala FeedBurner) redirect, may provide more challenge.

You do know, I hope, that if your blog is private, it will not publish a feed. And finally, be aware that not all online services accept a redirected feed.

It's not really magic, once you understand the details.

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Blogger Blogs - Know The Options

Remember buying an American manufactured car in the 1980's?

If you want Option a, you have to buy OptionPack 1. You cannot get Option b with OptionPack 1, Option b is only available with Option c and OptionPack 2. OptionPacks 1 and 2 cannot be ordered together. Option d is only available with Extended OptionPack 2, and cannot be ordered with Options b or c.

Some bloggers are starting to feel confused about Blogger and their options, reminiscing how I felt in the 1980s.

Right now, we have the following options, all ordered separately.

1. Classic vs Layout template.
   • Your blog is configured for a Classic (HTML) template using Layout - "Edit HTML" - "Revert".
   • Your blog is configured for a Layout (XML) template using Template - "Customize Design".
   • Your blog requires a Layout template, to have Gadgets, "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links (this distinction was removed in April 2010), Dynamic Label indexes, and Static Pages.
   • Your blog can use HTML content in a Layouts template, but cannot use XML content in a Classic template.
2. New Post Editor vs Old Post Editor.
   • The new post editor and old post editor are alternately selected, using Settings - Basic - "Global Settings".
   • The new post editor is required for the enhanced photo upload wizard and for static pages.
   • The old post editor is required, for spell check and video upload, in Production (Orange) Blogger.
   • The new post editor in Draft (Blue) Blogger has both spell check and video upload.
   • If you get the New Post Editor, it will apply to all of your blogs. If you are a member of a team blog, all members of the team will end up with the New Post Editor.
3. Draft (Blue) vs Production (Orange) Blogger.
   • Draft Blogger is accessed directly, as "draft.blogger.com".
   • Production Blogger is accessed directly, as "www.blogger.com".
   • Production Blogger will redirect to Draft Blogger, if you select "Make Draft Blogger my default", from the Draft Dashboard. But, you have to use the "Layout" link from the Draft Blogger dashboard. The navbar "Customize" link will always lead to Production (Orange) features, even if you have the Draft dashboard selected as your default.
   • Draft Blogger is was formerly required (the Template Designer was made a part of production Blogger in June 2010) to access the Designer Templates wizard.

So know your options, and pick what you need. And when you need help, state carefully which options you need help with.

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Private And Team Blog Membership Invitations Are Subject To Abuse

When you invite a designated reader to your private blog, or invite a member to your private or team blog, you use the Settings - Permissions wizard to send an email to the prospective member or reader. You select the email address to send the invitation to, based upon the known address of your prospective member or reader.

The prospective member / reader, upon receiving the email, is free to send it on, to any other email address that he or she uses, and to accept the membership by using any Blogger account - current, or setup at the time of accepting the invitation.

In A Custom Domain Setup, You Have Your Job - And The Registrar Staff Has Their Job

Setting up a custom domain for your Blogger blog is pretty simple, when you follow the rules. All that you need are "A" and "CNAME" referrals, redirecting to Google servers.

Some bloggers, when troubleshooting a custom domain problem, get confused, or frustrated, and try tweaking additional settings. Such attempts won't help, and will only make their job, and the registrars job, harder.

• In specific cases, you may make changes to "MX" records. But "MX" record changes won't solve any problems with your custom domain.
• If you are setting up your own DNS server, you may change or create "NS" records using your registrar's CPANEL utility.
• If you're using registrar supplied DNS hosting, the "NS" records are the responsibility of the registrar.
• You have no need to create or change "PTR", "SOA", "TXT", or similar records. Ever.

You do your job - and let your registrar do theirs.

Please, know your responsibilities, and the limitations of your responsibilities.

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Diagnosing Problems With Custom Domains: An Alternative Dig Tool

As I wrote earlier, when I'm diagnosing a problem with a custom domain - and occasionally, with other blog and network problems - my most frequently used tool is a Kloth online Dig. With Dig being an important diagnostic procedure, it's a good idea to have more than one Dig utility available.

• The Kloth server may be down.
• The Kloth server may not offer the right options.
• It's good practice to occasionally (and sometimes, intentionally) cross check results against another server.

For many Dig investigations, I like to use a second online Dig service - WhoIs, provided by All-NetTools. The All-NetTools WhoIs Dig actually provides more than a standard Dig. A WhoIs Dig, for a domain, provides much valuable information about the domain / registrar relationship. Here, for instance, we can see an All-NetTools WhoIs Dig for this domain, nitecruzr.net.

http://www.who.is/whois/nitecruzr.net/

REGISTRY WHOIS FOR NITECRUZR.NET

Domain Name: nitecruzr.net

Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, 
clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Expiration Date: 2010-03-24
Creation Date: 2008-03-24
Last Update Date: 2009-05-01

Name Servers:
ns11.domaincontrol.com
ns12.domaincontrol.com
ns53.domaincontrol.com
ns54.domaincontrol.com

Here, we see useful information about this domain, including the fact that it expires within the month. In cases where the domain in question is seen to be parked, knowing that a domain recently expired helps us advise a blogger that it's necessary to contact the registrar immediately, and avoid loss of domain registration.

A an All-NetTools DNS Dig against nitecruzr.net provides still more interesting and useful information.

http://www.who.is/dns/nitecruzr.net/

The WhoIs SOA Dig shows us the SOA record.

NITECRUZR.NET SOA RECORD
Name Server  ns11.domaincontrol.com
Email   (masked)
Serial Number  2009121603
Refresh  8 hours
Retry   2 hours
Expiry   7 days
Minimum  1 day

Here, we see the name of the domain master server, and the various expiry times for the domain.

The Whois DNS Dig shows us the well known host records.

NITECRUZR.NET DNS RECORDS
Record  Type   TTL  Priority  Content
mail.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.36.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.32.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.34.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.38.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  10  aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  20  alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  30  alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  40  aspmx2.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  50  aspmx3.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns11.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns12.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns53.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns54.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   SOA  1 day   ns11.domaincontrol.com. dns.jomax.net. 2009121603 28800 7200 604800 86400
www.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com

This will never replace the Kloth Dig log, completely. The Kloth server offers many more options, such as the ability to selectively Dig against aliases besides the domain root and well known aliases. It is a worthy complement to a Kloth Dig in many cases, and can be used as a backup or cross check.

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The New Blogger Template Designer Is Here

After months of waiting, Blogger today released their new template library. Instead of a static library, though, they chose to provide an array of combinable choices.

• Multiple, exciting styles.
• A huge library of theme organised backgrounds, each with an associated colour palette.
• A selection of layouts, with symmetrical combinations of
  • 2, 3, and 4 columns
  • with and without split sidebars
  • in both left and right variations
• Adjustable column widths.
• An updated Fonts and Colors GUI interface, with selections for new template objects like Pages Index gadgets.

From the dashboard or navbar, select "Design". From "Page Elements", then select "Template Designer" - and check out the possibilities.

What we have, now, is an almost infinite variety of possibilities, which should keep many bloggers happily occupied for days.

Yet, there are missing pieces.

• There are no dynamic width (aka "fluid") templates, a feature that was quite useful, to this blog, with a layout template.
• The "Layout" GUI will only let you rearrange existing objects - there's no ability to add new objects. You'll still use "Page Elements" to add custom accessories, headers, etc.
• There's no GUI to save the old layout, before moving forward. If I had an existing blog, I would try a new template only after backing up the existing template.
• There's no link to "Edit HTML". You have to go "Back to Blogger" to "Edit HTML", or to use "Page Elements".

As with every new feature Blogger presents to us, always remain aware of security restrictions on your computer and network, and consider how the Designer content is hosted. If you can't get the Designer to work on your browser, try another browser or another computer.

Those deficiencies aside, I now have a new look for my Buzz blog, and another for my Recipes blog.

---

Note this product, like all shiny new Blogger improvements, will have its rough edges. Blogger expects that, and provides Blogger Help Forum: Problem with the new Template Designer? Report it HERE! for reporting problems with the template designer. Note that the question will be closely moderated.

Fair warning though, all off-topic relies will be removed

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The Layout Template "Edit HTML" Wizard And "Expand Widget Templates"

Sometimes, when we're working on a problem that requires editing the HTML in a layout template, we need to understand the need to expand (or not expand) the widget templates. This month, for instance, we have hundreds of blogs containing malicious code, unknowingly installed by the blog owners. The malicious code must be removed, but the installed code aggressively prevents use of the "Page Elements" wizard, and the "Remove" button.

When the "Page Elements" wizard can't be used to remove code, you have to use the "Edit HTML" wizard, and remove the individual gadget entries, one by one.

Here's what the unexpanded line entry for one problem gadget looks like

<div class='widget Gadget' id='Gadget1' />

That's easy enough to find - and to delete.

Here's what that entry looks like, expanded. To examine, and maybe modify, the gadget code, you have to select "Expand Widget Templates". To simply remove an entire gadget, on the other hand, do not select "Expand Widget Templates".

<div class='widget Gadget' id='Gadget1'>
<h2 class='title'>Maukie - the virtual cat</h2>

<div class='widget-content'>
<script type="text/javascript">
if (!window.gadgets || !gadgets.rpc) {
document.write('<script type="text/javascript"' +


'src="http://www.gmodules.com/gadgets/js/rpc.js?v\x3d9261b340ef5af1e5faca55914670c7\x26container\x3dblogger\x26debug\x3d0\x26c\x3d1">' 

+
'</scr' + 'ipt>');
}
</script>

...


</span>
</span>
<div class='clear'></div>
</div>

OK, the example above was heavily excerpted. If I was to include the entire code set for this one gadget, I would risk this post (my main page display) being subject to segmentation, caused by Auto Pagination. So, I gutted 95% of the interior code. But, you should get the idea.

The point is, when you need to remove malicious code, do not select "Expand Widget Templates". Then, find (as an example)

<div class='widget Gadget' id='Gadget1' />

and delete that one line.

Problem solved.

And next time, be more selective what gadgets you install in your blog.

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Loss Of Comments After Publishing Blog To A New URL

Recently, we've started to see a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken of comments being lost after a blog is newly published to a Google Custom Domain - or in some cases, to a different Blog*Spot URL. Like many problems involving comments, custom domain problems, and / or URL changes in general, this problem warrants further investigation.

To start with, there are a few questions which are relevant, which may help us diagnose where the problem originates.

• Blogger Support suggests two useful details.
  1. The exact URL of a post on your old blog which has comments.
  2. The exact URL of a post on your new blog which is missing comments.
• Where are the comments being lost - can you find them still inventoried in "Edit Posts", for instance?
• Were the comments moderated, or unmoderated?
• When were the comments posted (by the blog readers)? When were they approved (if moderated) by you?
• Is the blog owned (and moderated) by you only, or is it a team effort?
• From how many different browsers and / or computers have you observed the comments lost?
  • Your computer / your readers computers?
  • Any affinity as to browser or computer operating system?
  • Does your blog have any cultural, geographical, or linguistic relevance?
  • Do you observe this problem with just this one blog, or with other blogs too?
• What type of comment display does your blog use - Embedded, Popup Window, or Separate Page?
• Did you buy the domain through Blogger ("Buy A Domain"), or directly from a registrar? If directly from a registrar, did you use a righteous DNS setup?
• When you observe the lost comments, is the blog "In Transition", or does this happen after Transition ends? Or is this a simple blog rename, to another BlogSpot URL?

This is just a beginning effort, to diagnose the problem. Help us out here, and maybe help yourself.

• Answer the above questions, either in your forum question, or as a comment below.
• Subscribe to the comments feed for this post.
• Check this post occasionally for more questions, and answer more questions when asked.

---

(Update 2010/05/20): In a private note from Blogger Support, we are told

Comments should usually sync within 24 hours of the time when you changed your URL, most of the time much sooner.

(Update 2010/05/06): We have an update from Blogger Support.

We released a fix on May 1st which should prevent pretty much any 'my comments havent synced after a few days' issues.' So for any person reporting the change after May 1st, it should be a matter of hours. If we see cases where its longer, please let me know!

Note if you change the blog back to the previous URL, you'll just make things worse. That puts the comments through two URL changes. If you change the URL yet again, when you find out that changing the URL back didn't accomplish anything, you're going to have to wait still longer.

---

Help us to help you, and provide details. Please.

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Editing The Blog Template

The template is like the skeleton of your body - you can't see it (easily), but the success of the blog depends upon its being there, and being structured properly. If you're going to have a blog, and publish it effectively, eventually the "Fonts and Colors" and "Page Elements" wizards won't do enough for you. You're going to want to get to the details, underneath the GUI processes.

With a Classic template, the "Customise" link from the navbar, or the "Template" link in the dashboard, will put you right into "Edit HTML".

With a Designer / Layout template, you'll have two ways to access "Edit Template".

• Generally, you use the "Design" link in the navbar, then "Back to Blogger" - or the "Design" link in the dashboard - to put you into "Page Elements". From "Page Elements", you select "Edit HTML".
• In extreme cases, you will want to access "Edit HTML" directly.

With a classic template, you have just one major activity when you're in "Edit HTML" - and that's what the name suggests, you edit the HTML. You'll have some CSS code, but no XML - so it's all relatively straightforward.

With a layout template, you'll have a few minor options.

• Backup ("Download a copy") the template.
• Upload the template.
• Revert widget templates to default.
• Revert to classic template.
• View classic template. If you started the blog with a classic template, and upgraded to layout, you can look here to find any left behind HTML accessories and tweaks. You can add as "HTML / JavaScript" gadgets, any well defined accessories and tweaks.

With a Designer template, you'll have one additional minor option.

• Revert the template to Layout.

And with a layout template, you'll have "Edit HTML", but with a few more tweaks than with a classic template. You'll have CSS and HTML - and XML - code to edit. And don't overlook the possibility of using HTML code in place of XML code, in a layout template.

One of the least understood selections in the layout "Edit HTML" wizard is the "Expand Widget Templates" option.

• If you want to delete or move a gadget, for instance to delete (refresh) the post template, or to remove a duplicate post template, or simply remove a gadget containing malicious code, you do not expand widget templates.
• If you wish to add content to the post template, or tweak the post template, you do expand widget templates.

Just understand when to expand, and when to not expand.

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Some Hijack Malware Is Being Claimed To Be Blogger Provided

As the ongoing investigations into the nature of the latest malware based blog hijacks continues, some victims are claiming that the malware that they installed, unwittingly, was possibly part of a Blogger provided gadget, installed using the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard in "Page Elements".

If you find this as you clean your blog, will you please report your finding here. Please state, in a comment below, as completely as possible

• The title of the offending gadget.
• The author of the offending gadget - this detail is very useful, as many popular gadgets are provided by multiple authors!
• Any specific selections or settings that you made, when installing the gadget.

What you find, and what you provide here, will be passed on to Blogger Support, at all possible speed, for their verification.

All responsible bloggers thank you, for your honest contributions.

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Identifying And Removing HTML / JavaScript / XML Based Malware From Your Blog

Occasionally, in the recently discovered social engineering blog attacks that involve shiny blog accessories, we've seen reports of aggressively protected malware, that's being installed on some blogs.

When a misbehaving HTML gadget is the source of the problem, it's sometimes possible to click on the "Quick Edit" icon for the gadget, and click "Remove". Alternatively, go to "Page Elements", and click on the "Edit" link for the gadget in question. This does not always work so simply, however.

If you can't remove a recently installed gadget, because you get redirected when trying to use the "Layout" button from the dashboard, or the "Remove" button from the "Page Elements" wizard, you may have to be imaginative.

• Use a hardened browser - minimally, one which blocks scripts from any non Blogger / Google domain, to clean your blog. This is the simplest possibility here.
• Use an HTTP text proxy, to examine the blog code.
• Remove the code manually.
  1. Use a protected browser or proxy server to access the blog, and "View Source".
  2. Look in the source, and find the offending gadget / module. If it was installed as an "HTML / JavaScript" or Blogger "Add a Gadget" (XML) gadget, look at the code carefully, and look for "Gadgetnn" and "HTMLnn", where "nn" will be the sequential number for that HTML / XML gadget. This is important.
  3. Manually access the Layout "Edit HTML" wizard for the blog.
  4. Do not check "Expand widget templates" - just "Edit HTML".
  5. Look in the code, carefully, for each "Gadgetnn" or "HTMLnn" entry.

     <div class='widget Gadget' id='Gadget1' />

     or

     <div class='widget HTML' id='HTML1' />

  6. Remove that line of code.
  7. Save.
• As always, please backup the template before and after you do this cleanup!

If you cannot find an obvious culprit from a quick "View Source", then start removing all "HTML / JavaScript" gadgets, and all XML gadgets (possibly including some installed from the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard), installed most recently ("recently", in some cases, being 2 - 3 months back).

1. Remove a gadget.
2. Clear browser cache.
3. Test.
4. If no improvement, repeat.

Alternatively, just remove all accessories and gadgets - then re install and test everything, one by one.

1. Add a gadget back.
2. Clear browser cache.
3. Test.
4. If a problem is seen, remove that gadget and identify it.
5. Repeat.

It's your blog, and your decision which way to go. Barring any obvious suspects, I think I'd try the latter.

If you do put some accessories back, or add anything more, keep an eye on what you add, and check your blog frequently. A lot of the complaints this week appears to involve hacks that may have been installed 2 or 3 months ago. Watch out for smart code, that doesn't activate (reactivate) the hacking immediately when installed.

---

It appears that some malware may be included in some gadgets installed by the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard. If you find removing any Blogger gadgets to provide you any relief, please report your findings in my article Some Hijack Malware Is Being Claimed To Be Blogger Provided. Your details, provided there, would be greatly appreciated.

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Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "deplayer.net "

This week, we are seeing a few reports from anxious bloggers that their blogs are redirecting to mysterious URLs containing the domain "deplayer.net". This is somewhat reminiscent of the "searchinvented.com / smashingfeeds.com" hijacks seen during January 2010, and to the "sendptp.com" hijacks seen during February 2010.

Early reports mention the "Real time hit counter" gadget, seen by some as the "Halifax 2011" countdown gadget, or possibly the "Halloween 2010" countdown gadget, as being the gadget most successfully removed. It's also possible that the "falling snow" and "Tweet This" gadget code has been upgraded to redirect to "deplayer.net". We also have reports of an "ITunes" accessory, a "Martin Luther King Jr Quotes" gadget, and a "yoga journal" / "yoga pose" gadget being involved this month.

As always, I'll caution you to be wary of any third party gadgets. It appears from some comments received that there is protective code in these newest gadgets, which aggressively blocks use of the "Page Elements" gadget GUI removal. If you try to hit the "Remove" button, or hit "Layout" from the dashboard link, and you are redirected, you have 2 choices.

1. Use "the Page Elements" wizard from a browser / computer which blocks scripts from all third party domains, outside the Blogger / Google world.
2. Access the Layout "Edit HTML" wizard directly, and remove the entry for the HTML / JavaScript gadget directly from the template code.

After removing the offending code, don't forget to clear cache, before testing your change!

---

It appears that some malware may be included in some gadgets installed by the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard. If you find removing any Blogger gadgets to provide you any relief, please report your findings in my article Some Hijack Malware Is Being Claimed To Be Blogger Provided. Your details, provided there, would be greatly appreciated.

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Auto Pagination And The Difference Between Blogs And Static Web Sites

Some bloggers seem to treat Blogger blogs like static web sites, and design their blogs so specific blog posts are consistently presented as part of the main page view. They overlook the basic design of blogs, where the main page simply contains the most currently published posts.

This attitude is merely eccentric, except in cases like the current controversy about Auto Pagination.

I have chosen to display 12 posts, because mine is a listing of twelve exact posts which i update daily. I now have only nine of the posts showing regardless of how many - 12 or 50 or 500 - that I preset to display. I need them all to show, because I daily print out this entire list in an MS Word booklet format - and without having the entire blog display, I can no longer do this.

This is merely one example of the bloggers who are having trouble accepting the reality of Auto Pagination, and the consequently segmented archives, labels, and / or main page displays.

Let's look at how web sites are setup, for background.

The smallest unit of content in a web site is a page. Pages are structured hierarchically, where the main page indexes child pages, and the various child pages index other child pages. Each page in a web site is built statically - both content and links never change.

In the above example, the blogger wishes to display the 12 posts as one static page. Now, let's look at how blogs are setup.

The smallest unit of content in a blog is a post. Pages are structured based upon relationships of the various posts, on the pages, to each other. Each page in a blog is built dynamically, and is based upon the relationship of the posts being displayed in the page. Both content and links are dynamic, and change as the nature of the retrieval changes.

Posts are associated with other posts by date, and by subject. Posts associated by date are displayed in archive / main page retrievals, and posts associated by subject are displayed in label retrievals. Even when displayed by date or by subject, specific posts may or may not be displayed on the same physical page. Displays are segmented, and various posts are displayed on different pages, when the amount of physical information in a given retrieval exceeds a given size.

This post, Auto Pagination And The Difference Between Blogs And Static Web Sites, may be part of a dynamic retrieval for Archive: March 2010, for a Label such as Auto Pagination, or Blogger, or maybe New Blogger Experiences, or - well, it was for a while - as part of the main page.

As I published a few more posts, this post dropped off the main page. That's a dynamic main page - you showcase your most current posts, archive your older posts, and keep the main page brief and clean. All of your posts are indexed, and can be found by your readers, using any index, or hyper text links, such as links in this post.

That's how blogs work best.

1. Brief and clean main page display.
2. Dynamic retrieval of all posts, as relevant and needed.
3. Showcasing of new posts.

Why would you want anything different?

Auto Pagination moderates peak resource use, caused by excessively large archive, label, and main page displays. When appropriate, Auto Pagination segments large displays, and simply requires the blog reader to use the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links to move between display segments. As implemented a month ago, it's been quite effective.

There are several issues, which are causing some confusion and ill will.

• Blogs with classic templates can't use "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links (This issue was resolved on 2010/04/12).
• Some blogs appear smaller than actual page size, because the posts use "Read More" code which reduces visual page size, yet does not reduce content downloaded to the client computer.
• Some blogs appear smaller than actual page size, because the posts contain meta code created by MS Word.
• Search engine indexing of posts won't be consistent. Not all post content will be indexed, because of segmentation. Some posts that are indexed may be present on segmented pages, which will cause SERP entries that lead to non visible content.

Besides these issues, the bloggers who design their blogs with static displays may need to rethink their actual needs. Some bloggers may be happier hosting their web sites with services outside Blogger - services that display content as static web site pages, instead of dynamic blog pages.

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Help Me! I Can't Access My Blogger Account To Publish My Blog!

Every week, we see the anguished cry of bloggers who don't have access to maintain, or publish to, their blogs.

Help me! My email address changed last month, and now I can't sign in to my blog!

But, if you look at the fine print, you see the full story

Help Me! I never bothered to remember my password - I used the Forgot Password wizard to reset my password every time I wanted to sign in to my Blogger account. My email address changed last month, I can't get the email from the Forgot Password wizard, and now I can't sign in to my blog!

As I have repeatedly advised folks, Blogger lets us maintain our blogs anonymously, and promises anonymous access and ownership for eternity. There is no magic token attached to our blogs, that let us conveniently email Blogger and ask for a second back door access to our accounts.

Blogs Composed Using Microsoft Word Causing Problems With Auto Pagination

Besides the somewhat predictable cases of blogs with lots of text and / or pictures, comes a third possibility for problems with Auto Pagination - excessively complex HTML. We've noted before that Microsoft Word generates a lot of complex and mysterious HTML - and some large blogs, which contain a lot of articles composed under Microsoft Word, appear to be suffering from segmentation - possibly without justification.

My blog was BIG, and no one ever, not once, complained it was slow loading.

It's (almost) unbelievable how long Google is taking to flick the switch and restore things to how they were pre auto-pagination.

and the reply

It appears that you have done a lot of copy-pasting from MS Word into your blog, and unfortunately doing so will add a very large amount of unseen (but still 'heavy') HTML tags to your post.

If you look at the source code of this very short post (http://naturealert.blogspot.com/2010/02/bbc-news-panorama-palm-oil-products-and.html), you will notice the huge amount of garbage that MS Word adds.

If your blog is big (but not that big), and lacks huge amounts of text and / or pictures - and you're still seeing segmentation of the archives or main page - and you use MS Word for composing your posts, this is a possible reason why your blog display is being segmented.

Whether Blogger can actually filter MS Word ML code, before generating the blog display pages, is an interesting question. You might be better off removing it on your own, if possible.

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Auto Pagination Is Not Optional

The Mercedes brand automobile is a marvel of efficiency, engineering, and safety (so I've heard). It's designed for comfort, and for speed. If you drive one in Germany, where it is designed and built, you can even enjoy its comfort at speed - whatever speed you desire - perfectly legally.

Get on the Autobahn, get in the fast lane, and use your headlight flashers when you approach someone from the rear. Keep an eye in the mirror, for someone using their flashers at you - and be prepared to move over, when someone uses their flashers.

In this country, Mercedes owners (and other drivers) have to obey the speed laws, just as everybody else does. Try telling the policeman

My car is safe at 90 MPH. I'll pay extra fuel tax, and use the premium lanes - and I can go 90 MPH, because I want to go 90 MPH.

and see what response you get.

In Blogger, we have some folks who publish blogs with lots of pictures, and who wish to display their entire blog as the main page. And until last month, they have been doing just that. They designed their blog to look good, using a large main page display.

A couple of weeks ago, that changed. Blogger started segmenting the main page displays, for blogs that have excessively heavy front pages. Predictably, this wasn't a popular change, for the owners of the blogs that now have segmented archives or main page, displays. Readers of blogs that do not have excessively heavy front pages won't see any difference, as those blogs won't need display segmentation.

Auto Pagination isn't arbitrary, nor is it excessively harsh. Your entire blog is still served - your readers simply use "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links, to navigate from page segment to page segment. "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links have been used, since Layouts Blogger was deployed, for reading an entire blog in sequence. And now, "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links are available for blogs with classic templates.

In order for Auto Pagination to have a consistent effect, every Blogger blog, including Blogger blogs published to non BlogSpot URLs, has to be subject to it. Reasoning

My ISP is providing unlimited bandwidth packages for normal users, so there won't be any bandwidth problem in my country.

would be valid, if you had a dedicated server, and dedicated Internet connection, used by your blog.

Unfortunately, your blog shares server space, and bandwidth, with millions of other Blogger blogs. When your blog requires excessive server space, or bandwidth, to display the main page, that's server space and / or bandwidth denied the readers of other Blogger blogs.

Blogger didn't terminate your blog, they just segmented the main page display size (when necessary) - and asks that your readers use the "Older Posts" / "Newer Posts" links, to access the main page in it's entirety.

Learn to share - slow down, and maybe save a few lives. An alternate solution would be to try the new, dynamic views, for your blog.

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