The Real Blogger Status

Some blog owners buy domains, for publishing a Blogger blog, and ask about how to address the domain. What address do I use for "Points to"? Other owners may ask a similar question, referencing "Destination" or maybe "Target". There is no real difference, between all 3 labels. "Destination", "Target", and "Points to" all refer to the same DNS address value. To compound the confusion, 4 different addresses are required , when addressing a Blogger custom domain root.

There is some confusion, about including "search description" meta content , in blog template code, to provide source for data shares to social sharing sites. In various topics in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , I've seen references to "data:post.metaDescription", "data:post.snippet", and "data:post.pageTitle" used, in providing the blog post source for the FaceBook "og:description" tag. As far as I can tell, none of these exist.

We see the frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , almost daily. My blog has disappeared from my dashboard, and my subscribers are getting spam! How do I get my blog returned to me? and I got a new computer, and now I can't access my blog. Who can I call at Google, to get this fixed?? These are two blog owners who have the same problem, but do not understand the connection.

Occasionally, we have a would be blog owner, becoming confused about blog access, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I can look at the dashboard Posts page - but there are no posts listed. or I can't access the Template Designer (edit the template, add users to the blog, ... ). or maybe Why is Settings so small? These are bloggers who are confused over a blog where they are an Author , or have no access - as opposed to a blog where they are an Administrator . Along with knowing how to identify yourself , knowing what access you have to a given blog can be a key detail, when you are dealing with identity confusion - such as inadvertently created duplicate accounts , or possibly duplicated blogs .

Occasionally, we see signs of confusion, in in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Where are the buttons, in the toolbar? or Why don't I have a Colour / Font / Jump Break / Video Upload / whatever selection, in my post editor? The reason is very subtle - and not easy to spot. Blogger page / post editor is very elegant, with no feature being colourfully different. Most people compose their posts in Compose mode - and don't use HTML Mode, except for specific needs - or maybe by accident. And the people who don't use HTML mode, intentionally, can't always spot the difference, in the mode selector buttons.

Spend some time surfing Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - both in detail, for recent periods - and random sampling, over long periods. Read the comments, and questions. You'll see both complaints about spammy (aka "abusive") content - and objectionable (aka "adult") content. And, you'll see review requests, referencing previous abusive and adult content penalties. Given enough surfing, you'll discover that each is simply the other side of the same coin.

Some blog owners use Mail-to-Blogger, for publishing to their blogs, without considering the issues. Some owners can't get Mail-to-Blogger to work. I get Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: or I don't get any error - and the post never shows up in my Posts list. Other owners have no problems getting theirs to work, and later find posts that they didn't send - and don't appreciate . Where did all of the spam come from? Using Mail-to-Blogger seems simple - but maybe should not be treated so. The Mail-to-Blogger email address, at Settings - Mobile and email, is a major part of the challenge , in this case.

Sometimes, a problem with a specific gadget or post, when displayed, can affect the appearance of the entire blog. We've known for years, about the mysterious dropped sidebar . Sometimes, we see similar problems, in other blog performance. Gadgets missing. Gadgets visible, but they don't work. Gadgets visible in the desktop view - but not the mobile view (or, vice versa). Posts that are unreadable - or worse, previously published posts, in that index page, that are unreadable. Both the HTML / JavaScript gadget, and the page or post, can be edited either as code ("HTML"), and as displayed ("Compose" / "Rich Text"). If you spend a lot of time in "Compose" / "Rich Text" mode, when editing gadgets, pages and posts, you may not know about "HTML" mode - or its dangers.

With Google Domains registered custom domains becoming more normal, we are seeing one odd attention to detail, expressed as confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . My website uses "ghs.google.com" - am I supposed to use "ghs.googlehosted.com", instead? It's good to be attentive to detail, particularly with custom domain publishing . This is one detail that may not require immediate attention, however.

Sometimes, we see odd confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I deleted my blog - can somebody help me restore it? I worked so many days writing it! or alternately I am trying to write a new blog, but it says my url has already been taken (by me). If the first owner is kind enough to include the URL of the deleted "blog", we may use our favourite online diagnostic tool - and discover that the blog is still online, and not deleted! In the second case, we may find a new blog, with one post. Investigating further, we discover that the problem here involves terminology. This article that I am writing, "Blogger Terminology - Blogs Vs Posts", is a post, which is part of my blog, "The REAL Blogger Status" (which right now is actually The ONLY Blogger Status - but that is another tale ). The terminology here is pedantic, to us - but it's very real, to the blog owner who has just deleted an important post. Or to the owner who has publi...

We're seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , mentioning problems adding or updating the HTML and Text gadgets. The most common symptom, when reported, is very simple. When I try to update the gadget, all that I see is javascript:void(0); In this case, we have to first explain that " javascript:void(0); " is not the problem - it's simply a symptom of the problem . Once we explore the problem itself, we see various possible causes. The base cause for problems with the HTML / Text gadget is simple - the script which processes gadget updates provides no diagnostics when detecting errors.

The schizophrenic nature of the HTML / Text gadget continues to confuse some blog owners. Recently, we're seeing claims about broken Text gadgets , in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I hit the Save button, and nothing happens! Why is my Text gadget not working?? Too many blog owners are causing their own problem, because of confusion about the caption in the gadget update wizard . The header of the HTML / Text wizard is the only visible difference, between the "HTML" and "Text" gadgets. You'll see "Configure HTML/JavaScript" (for an HTML gadget) or "Configure Text" (for a Text gadget), as the gadget header. The rest of the gadget will be the same, for both gadgets - and this is why some gadgets, being updated, appear to be broken.

People in Western nations have been arguing this topic , for years. Should the roll be hung, with the paper falling over the top, or underneath? Both choices have their logical reasoning. When this question is politely debated, the discussion goes on endlessly - and when the question is freely debated, the discussion generally degenerates into ad hominem insults and name calling. It's likely that this question will never be answered, authoritatively. Blogger has a similar question, resembling the toilet roll controversy. Should new list items be added over the top (as the top entry), or underneath (as the bottom entry)? Until this month, the only option, provided by Blogger, was "over the top".

A few blog owners become confused by the necessary configuration of the domain root, when setting up their custom domains. Some blog owners, who do not have a good understanding of DNS principles, make mistakes when setting up the domain root (aka "naked" domain). From good intentions (trying to ensure that the domain performs better or differently), their naivete may actually make the domain perform worse - or not at all. With more blog owners unable to buy a domain through Blogger , and forced to setup their own DNS addresses, this will become an common mistake , and an increasingly critical issue.

Some blog owners are never quite sure how to manage all characteristics of the Pages, in their blog. From time to time, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see evidence of the confusion. How do I hide the Home tab? or I can't rename my pages! Some blog owners may know of one Pages management wizard, but not another. To the untrained eye, it may all seem like one big magic show.

Not all blog owners appreciate the differences between using the various template wizards, and what they will actually see, once the blog is published. The confusion about the various template wizards, and what is actually seen, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , is numerous. Why aren't my changes to the template being saved? This question is expressed in a number of ways - and has a number of causes.

This week, we're seeing a small flood of problem reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with the Template Designer. Every time I change something, I have to refresh the page in order for it to show up. It won't "Save" when I try to save the layout changes. It just says "Saving..." at the top of the page and fades away, but doesn't actually save any changes. Many problems involve changes made to the template, using the Designer, which aren't being saved - or are broken when saved. Most of the people reporting these problems have made changes to the template, previously - some are so experienced at making changes, they can't believe that their latest changes could ever have problems. Interestingly, this history of changes is not a coincidence - and it's likely that some of the changes helps to cause these problems.

Now that the custom domain publishing feature is back online again, there remains one feature of custom domain publishing to be restored to the Blogger dashboard. The very popular Blogger dashboard option to redirect the domain root (aka "naked domain"), to the "www" alias, may not be reliable - or even available . Too many people report I can't redirect the naked domain - I can select the option, but the next time I look, the box will be un checked. and My "www" alias works just fine - but the domain root now returns a "404". Fortunately, there are alternative solutions to provide the naked domain redirect.

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see various queries about our blogs, and how to gain or regain control. How do I get a blog, which is attacking me (impersonating me, insulting me, publishing my secrets), removed from Blogger? How do I claim a dormant URL? How do I recover control of my blog? My blog is now under somebody else's control! How do I get my blog back? Any of these queries may be simply one more attempt to gain control of someone else's blog, or URL. As we gain experience in reading between the lines in Blogger Help Forum, and as Blogger Support gains experience in researching blog histories, we can start to see patterns, and signs of multiple attempts to assume control of the blog - or the URL - in question.

Occasionally, in answering a problem report in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken which involves custom domain publishing , or the Post Editor , or maybe template editing , we'll start by simply advising the blog owner to revert to the Classic GUI . Click on the Gear icon, and select "Old Blogger interface". Even when reverting to the Classic GUI is an acceptable - and effective - solution, we may not always get a positive response. Where is the Gear icon? or I don't have a selection for "Old Blogger interface"! Sometimes, this is not purely from the blog owner, balking at the unwanted change.

An interesting bit of confusion is seen, occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I added a gadget using code from a third party website - but the new gadget shows the code, instead of the gadget content, when I view my blog! This is somebody who was confused by the options offered by the gadget setup wizard.

The New Blogger GUI (2011) was pushed out, during the past week, to a number of blog owners - and the complaints are showing up in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Some are polite. Please, Blogger - allow us the option of staying with the old format. and some less polite Are you listening Google? Your new interface SUCKS! Only one thing is obvious - many people, suddenly finding themselves using the New GUI, do not like the New GUI. Unfortunately, there are real reasons why the New GUI has been developed - and those reasons are not going to go away. The New GUI is here - to stay . Right now, comprehensive and objective criticism is needed, to convince Blogger to make it better - before they remove the Classic GUI altogether.

Occasionally, an oddity in our Blogger profiles will cause confusion - and offer some blog owners a opportunity to make a bad mistake. For some unknown reason, some Blogger blogs may be listed twice, in the dashboard or profile Blog List. If you are one of these blog owners, seeing the same blog listed twice in your dashboard or profile, think before you act! Check the URL behind the blog title , for each entry - you'll see an identical URL behind both.

Many blog owners and readers are completely unaware of the many ways our AdSense, Blogger, GMail, and Google accounts, our blogs, and our forum activity, are subject to spam classification - and the various consequences that we may suffer, when we trip a spam classification threshold. Questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken are seen daily. Why was my forum account locked? and Why do my comments go straight to the Spam tab, on my friend's blog? and Why am I seeing ominous messages about "suspicious activity" on my account, when I sign into Blogger or GMail? These are but 3 examples of the questions, that we deal with, almost constantly.

When you purchase a domain - either as part of the "Buy a domain" wizard , or when you purchase directly from a registrar - you are free to use any registrar that you wish, for the purchase. The "Buy a domain" wizard (which should be your preferred method of purchase ) lets you use either eNom or GoDaddy - and which registrar you use is your choice - though the choice is not made obvious, by the wizard layout.

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see questions about publishing a blog, anonymously . How do I publish a blog, without having my identity revealed? One of the best techniques for keeping yourself anonymous is to use different Blogger / Google accounts, for different blogs. But, there's a downside to that technique. I can't regain access to my blog, because I don't remember the email address! Sometimes, it's a bit more embarrassing. I can't regain access to my blog, because I don't remember the GMail address! And here, we see blog owners who took the need for secrecy a bit far.

One interesting example of the lack of precision in abuse reporting involves the nature of private information When will Google do something about this blog that is publishing private information about me? They have my home address, my Social Security Number, my telephone number, for everyone to see! This person does not appear to understand the difference between personal, and private, information.

We've been discussing referer spam for many years. Every week, besides many people who wonder Why doesn't Google put an end to this, for good? there are occasionally some folks who wonder But is this all bad? Doesn't this help us in our overall Blogger statistics as far as traffic counts go? If so, it's not all bad - for those of us with less than ginormous followings. And both attitudes reflect people who just don't understand what it is.

Not all blog owners understand the need for people to post anonymous comments, against our blog posts. Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see the naivete expressed by some. How do I find out who is posting anonymous comments to my blog? These people do not understand the need for anonymous commenting.

Many Blogger blog owners continue to ignore the need for third party cookies, in Blogger . Confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken continues daily. Even with the difference between Blogger and BlogSpot - and the need for cookies to be created under one, and read under the other - explained, some people see cookies and scripts as an equal threat. This is where problems with various Blogger features start.

The process of transferring control of a blog , from one Blogger account to another, involves 4 distinct steps, using 2 different Blogger accounts, alternately. If you do any step out of sequence, or if you fail to properly keep the 2 Blogger accounts separate, you end up with a blog successfully controlled by neither account. There are 3 ways to keep the two Blogger accounts separate - and the easiest yet most reliable is to use two separate browsers.

We've been seeing various reports of anguish and frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I can not access my blogs settings, I get the following error. Conflicting edit There was more than one attempt to edit this resource at the same time. This may have been because you double clicked on a link or a button or because someone else is also editing this blog or post. and I can't comment on anybody's blog! I get in an endless loop to sign in! Both the " Conflicting Edits ", and the " Login Loop ", symptoms have been reported for some time. It's possible that both of these symptoms are simply different faces of the same problem.

The New Blogger GUI (2011) has been publicly available for less than a month , and we are seeing signs of confusion, in various queries in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . People asking for help are not always sure which GUI version they are using - and many answers needed are dependent upon the version in use being known, for proper help to be provided.

The New Blogger GUI (2011) is newly available to the public - and many blog owners are, gradually, getting used to it's peccadilloes. One source of confusion is the post editor mode. As you publish posts, you can be in either Compose or HTML mode - and there's no obvious indication of which mode you're in.

The Followers gadget is a Blogger / Google accessory that has a long history of problems. In April / May 2011, we had numerous reports from blog owners, whose Followers gadget was visible to nobody, either themselves or their guests. Nobody can see my Followers! Blogger fixed that problem - but the problems, like some battery powered toys, just keep coming, and coming.

One of the odder questions, by folks who just don't get it, comes from the folks who value SEO - but don't want to work for it. Why is Blogger so weak on SEO? What many folks just don't realise is that Blogger leaves the SEO to us - because Blogger supports other folks rights to publish their blogs anonymously, and without SEO. It's your choice - and it's your effort to make - either way.

This week, many unhappy blog owners report inability to login to Blogger, and access their dashboards. In some cases, they are seeing the well known "404 Not Found" error. For a few folks, this error comes from an odd habit - which used to be supported by Blogger - but no more.

Some blog owners are confused about the function of the " DMCA Violation " complaint vs the " Report Abuse " form - and some blog owners use one complaint process when the other would be more appropriate. The Abuse Reporting process is for multiple offended parties to collaboratively complain about a given blog, using any of several different categories. Defamation/Libel/Slander. Copyright/Piracy issues. Spam. Nudity. Hate or violence. Impersonation. Someone is posting my private information. I think someone else is using my account. The "Report Abuse" wizard can be accessed from the navbar link, or directly. There are many categories for reporting a problem, and no specific details are required. This makes "Report Abuse" easy to use. To prevent abusive use of "Report Abuse", it's collaborative - many "votes" (in any one category) are required to be placed against a problem blog, before automated action takes...

Two questions we see, seemingly unrelated, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , relate to anonymity, and to search engine indexing. Why is my blog not listed by Google? You'd think that Blogger and Google would work together! Every non Blogger blog that I have is automatically indexed - why not Blogger blogs??!! and Why is my private blog indexed in Google? I don't want strangers reading my blog, certainly not from finding it listed in Google!! Both are valid concerns - and nether will ever be answered, unilaterally. We are permitted to publish our blogs, anonymously . Major world events - such as the Iranian revolution in the first decade of 2000 - legendarily were enabled by use of anonymous Internet resources, such as Blogger blogs. However, true anonymity is extremely difficult to guarantee - and simply won't happen without a lot of planning , starting before we " Create a blog ". On the other hand, most people who publish a Blogger blog want...

Recently, Blogger announced exciting new changes coming , in Blogger. This week, we are seeing signs of the confusion. What's the "New Blogger", that everyone is talking about? We see these questions, periodically. Every year, there is some type of "New Blogger". When Blogger releases another "New Blogger", everybody talks about "New Blogger" as if it was something completely rewritten, and obviously different from "Old Blogger". Remember that, at any time "Old Blogger" was "New Blogger" just the previous year, and was being fixed - as "Blogger" - just the previous week. Does anybody remember "New Coke", in 1985 ? People who liked "Coke" (aka "Old" Coke) and hated "Pepsi" (aka "New" Coke) kept and shared notes of where they could find stores still selling "Coke", and would drive miles to find "Coke". This was, obviously, long...

We see several problems weekly, which relate to custom domain redirects. My domain root isn't working! or How do I get my naked domain to redirect to my blog?? Generally, we'll investigate, discover an apparent Google server problem in the original publishing sequence, and recommend recycling of the domain . Sometimes, the solution is simpler - but we may not get to the simple solution, immediately.

Many blog owners, and would be blog owners, have no idea how the Blogger spam classification and review process works. We see frequent complaints in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken Blogger is deleting many blogs, and refusing to restore them! and Once your blog is classified, you'll probably not get it back. The process is broken, and thousands of innocent blog owners are being abused! These complaints totally ignore the fuzzy nature of spam classification , the unfortunate reality that not all spam blogs will ever be classified during the same day (or probably, even the same week), and the irritation that not all spam blogs will be immediately, or consistently, obvious . The spam classification and review process returns paradoxical feelings, to those of us who participate in it. Please remember that the folks who deliver the news are human. During some weeks, we must return the sad news Sorry, your blog will not be restored. It was confirmed as spam. Blogger sugge...

Since the beginning of the Google Custom Domain option, the ability to publish a blog to "www.mydomain.com", and optionally have Blogger associate "mydomain.com" with "www.mydomain.com" , has been an assumed feature in custom domain publishing. Similarly, the ability to publish to "blog.mydomain.com", and optionally have "www.blog.mydomain.com" as an association, was an assumed, if slightly less popular option.

The new Blogger commenting system has been out for several weeks now , and as some blog owners are becoming accustomed to it, it appears that others are occasionally confused. We see recent reports in BHF: Something Is Broken I am moderating comments, yet I find some comments being published without my input. and I deleted the comments, and now I can't get them back! and All of the comments to my blog are going straight to Spam. These reports may be from folks who are not observing what queue they are looking at, or what the buttons do, in the Comments wizard.

The ability to have a static home page for our blogs has been on the wishlist for many blog owners, for a long time. The wish, for a static home page, became even stronger when Blogger released the static pages option, and the Pages editor. With the tweak to index label searches and other dynamic pages , some folks really wanted a static home page, to accompany their indexed label searches and other dynamic pages. After Blogger continued to ignore our pleas for a static home page, we found a 2 step workaround for this omission. In Settings - "Posts and comments", we set "Show" to "0 posts" . With some clever custom template code, we make a text gadget that only displays on home page . This gives us a home page with nothing but a static text gadget displayed - and links (where provided) to other dynamic and static pages.

If you enjoy single deck card games, such as the magic trick of Three Card Monte , you probably depend upon an unbroken rule. All cards, in a deck, are unique. There can be only one Queen Of Spades. Some blog owners don't accept this rule, when setting up their custom domains. How do I use two domains, with one blog? This question is vaguely similar to swapping domains between one blog - and there is where some confusion starts. I bought a second domain for the blog - and the first domain stopped working!

Long ago, before my previous blog improvement , I would include a link to the top of the displayed page, at the end of my posts. Before I added my "Top Of Page" button , I would compose my posts in "Edit HTML" mode, and at the end of each post, I would add >> Top <a href="#Top">&gt;&gt; Top</a> That gave me a link to the top of the page, since I included an anchor link "Top" inside an HTML gadget, at the top of the page. <a name="Top"></a> That's simple enough , once you get used to adding the code. There's a caveat here, though.

As I noted in an earlier article, the Template Designer is now a part of Production (Orange) Blogger - and now, merely a day after having noted the fact, inconsistencies in the design of the displays are becoming visible. A very lamentable omission from the Template Designer screen itself is the lack of the Blogger "B" logo, which should link to the dashboard . Such a basic feature, and now it's gone. The schizophrenic nature of the "Design" link is also disturbing. From the dashboard, the "Design" link leads to the "Page Elements" display. You click on "Template Designer" to get to the Template Designer. From the navbar, the "Design" link leads to the Template Designer. You click on "Back to Blogger" to get to "Page Elements". The " Page Elements " GUI appears to be where we will add and rearrange the gadgets on the screen. A former "Layout" component is thus necessary f...

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. 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 blo...

As blogs are being increasingly used by ordinary people, to make their mark in the world, they are also being used by people to annoy or assault others, mock others, and other attacks of varying severity. In Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we regularly get questions like How do I get a stalker's defamatory blog removed? or How long does it take to resolve an impersonated blog complaint? or Someone has created a fake blog using my name - how do I get Blogger to remove this, or do I just sue?

Long ago, when custom domain publishing was first offered as an option by Blogger, there was a noticeable design deficiency . If you published your blog to the root of the domain ("xxxxxxx.com"), you'd have no content for the "www" alias ("www.xxxxxxx.com") - and if you published to the "www" alias, the root would, similarly, lack content. It was a significant day for many custom domain bloggers, when this discrepancy was eliminated .

One of my most intriguing subjects (to me, anyway) examines the differences between the "root" alias of a BlogSpot blog, and the "www" alias (ie, "bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com" and "www.bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com"). The fact that they are separately stored in browser cache will cause mysterious results, when the blog is viewed alternately using the two different aliases . This is not a terrible problem for your readers, when they simply read the blog. It can cause problems with the search engines, though, as they index your blog based upon inlinks from your readers.

I've written separately about a problem that the search engines might have with possibly duplicated content. If you're not careful, and Blogger wasn't looking out for your interests, your blog (web site) could get a duplicated content penalty from the search engines, for your possible use of label searches to index your blog . Yet, there may be another way for your blog to get a duplicated content penalty from the search engines. Your blog, as published by Blogger, comes with 2 aliases - "yourblog.blogspot.com" and "www.yourblog.blogspot.com", or maybe "yourdomain.com" and "www.yourdomain.com". If not managed properly, these aliases may cause the search engines to see duplicated content. To properly manage this dual personality, you use the Google Webmaster Tools "Preferred domain" wizard. For a properly verified website , go to "Site configuration", then to "Settings". Under "Preferred domain...

Many bloggers are totally unaware of how many different domains make up the Blogger and Google address space. Daily, we see passionate yet vague problem reports My Followers gadget doesn't show any pictures. The links in my Navbar don't do anything when you click on them. I can't publish a post - the buttons don't work (aren't there in the toolbar). The feed gadgets on my blog don't update. Each of these complaints, phrased as they are, result in part from bloggers who don't understand how many addresses (domains) Blogger and Google use, in providing us the ability to publish and maintain our blogs, and in providing our readers with the ability to view and to enjoy our blogs. Most of us are aware of the dual nature of Blogger / BlogSpot , hopefully when we setup and maintain security settings in our browser . Blogger contains the code ("scripts") that lets us setup and maintain our blogs. We will have to trust Blogger, since it contains the code t...

Do you see the Followers gadget in the sidebar here? See the "Sign in" link at the top of the gadget (if you're not signed in to Following), or the "Invite your friends" link at the bottom of the gadget (if you are signed in to Following)? Move your mouse over either link, and watch the browser status bar (generally, the lower left of the browser window border). When you move the mouse pointer over a normal link, you should see the URL of the link. In this case, you see javascript:void(0); A lot of blog owners don't understand the reason for this, and think that the blog is broken, or maybe hacked. I can't publish any posts on my blog, or moderate any comments. At the bottom of the page I get an "Errors on page" message, and if I hover over certain areas of my dashboard, I get the "javascript:void(0);" message.

When you setup a Blog*Spot blog, and publish to "myblog.blogspot.com", Blogger automatically defines "www.myblog.blogspot.com" and redirects it for you, to "myblog.blogspot.com". This is a traditional convenience for your readers, and lets them address the blog as either "myblog.blogspot.com" or "www.myblog.blogspot.com". It's not a built in privilege for all web sites, and neither is the ability to address a non BlogSpot blog as either "www.mydomain.com" or "mydomain.com". A few bloggers don't understand the necessity for the schizophrenic URLs . My readers only need to use "www.mydomain.com". or I don't care about "www.blog.mydomain.com", I only need "blog.mydomain.com" to work. It's possible that, in a differently designed database, "www.mydomain.com" and "mydomain.com" would be two separate, and distinctly unique addresses, capable of working on ...

Many bloggers, grown weary of the periodic and unpredictable nature of the ubiquitous Not Found Error 404 and its cousins, the old Another blog is already hosted at this address and the newer Blogs may not be hosted at naked domains errors, are losing their grip. Recently, we see too frequently I tired of worrying about it, just published my blog to www.mydomain.com, and decided to forget about the option Redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com. Imagine my surprise when I typed "mydomain.com" into the browser address window, and up popped the blog! Those of us experienced with this issue simply ask Were you using the Firefox browser? and following the surprised reply Yes, but how did you know? we explain Firefox does this automatically. If Firefox gets a "404" when retrieving "mydomain.com", it automatically tries for "www.mydomain.com", and vice versa. Not all browsers work this way. Anybody using Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, ... is...

Blogger / Google is based in the USA, where freedom of speech is one of the most acknowledged basic freedoms. They try to balance the schizophrenic right of you (the blog owner) to publish (without feeling harassed by reader opinion), against you (the blog reader) to surf and read blogs (without feeling harassed by publisher opinion). And, they do this in a multi-lingual fashion. What's objectionable in Portuguese may be only slang in American. Everybody has an opinion. If it's your opinion that a particular Blogger blog contains material that's harmful, hateful, or otherwise objectionable, and violates Blogger Terms Of Service , Blogger has provided their form Blogger Help: Report a Terms of Service Violation . There, you can state your opinion. Having stated your opinion, please don't post the URL of the objectionable blog in an open forum . Leave it to Blogger to evaluate the blog in question, and be patient. >> Top

Not everybody asking for help in GBH: Something Is Broken , or one of the other forums, provides a lot of detail in their problem reports. Occasionally, we see some gems When I access the server, I get a blank page.

Every day in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we see the demurrals. Having read the definition of a spam blog, I fail quite to see how my blog can fall into this category. and My blog is not spam! It is nowhere near spam!! and WHy is spam blog xxxxxxx still online? all reports, such as these, are coming from people who don't know about fuzzy logic. You spend a lot of time publishing, and publicising , your blog. You want a blog that's interesting, innovative, up to date, and / or useful - and you want readers who appreciate your effort.

Last month, I reported an oddity in custom domain publishing - the observation that, for some domains, the selection Redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com. was apparently treated as selected, even if not so, by some custom domain scripts. A number of bloggers reported seeing "Server Not Found Error 404" for custom domains that had been operational for some time, and subsequently revealed that they were only publishing to "www.mydomain.com", with no DNS address definition for "mydomain.com". In the latter cases, my advice would be Add a DNS address definition for "mydomain.com" (or "www.mydomain.com", as necessary). Wait for the appropriate TTL latency period to expire. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot, then forward to "www.mydomain.com" again.

People with multiple identities have been objects of interest for many years. Occasionally, we see activity by the less public faces. Sometimes, odd behaviour by Blogger will make you think that you have a second personality - one that you (your more public face, you hope), of course, aren't aware.

When you setup a Blog*Spot blog, and publish to "myblog.blogspot.com", Blogger automatically defines "www.myblog.blogspot.com" and redirects it for you, to "myblog.blogspot.com". This is a traditional convenience for your readers. When custom domains were first developed, they didn't provide the same thoughtfulness - the ability to (optionally) redirect "www.mydomain.com" to "mydomain.com" (or vice versa) wasn't added, as an option, until much later, and after a lot of pleading by the blogger community. The great majority of all bloggers consistently select the "Redirect mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com." option, when setting up their custom domain publishing. It's also possible that Blogger has, maybe not intentionally, enabled that option by default, in some (though maybe not all) custom domain scripts. I am trying to use the custom domains option to publish my blog but I keep getting the 'Another blog...

People with multiple identities have been objects of interest for many years. Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a literary classic, that many people refer to, when mentioning schizophrenia. Schizophrenia becomes a common problem when we use Blogger, and other Google products, too.

Occasionally, you see bloggers becoming confused about what access they have to their blog. I can look at the Edit Posts menu, but there are no posts listed. or I can't access the Template Designer (edit the template, add users to the blog, ...). These are bloggers who are confused over a blog where they are an Administrator, vs a blog where they are an Author. Let's look at my dashboard , and at a pair of blogs which we see there. Here's my dashboard. Among the many entries, you'll see one blog listed where I am an Author, and a second where I am an Administrator. Let's first look at a blog where I am an Author. Let's look at "Edit Posts". I'm an Author in this blog, and I haven't created any posts. There are plenty of posts in the blog, just none that I've created. I have no access to any posts that I haven't created. Let's look at "Settings". I'm an Author in this blog, so all of the Settings that I...

Your Blogger blog uses two different yet related HTML / XML templates , in formatting and displaying your posts. The blog template defines objects that are consistent for the entire blog - and the post template defines objects that are consistent for each post (though the content of each post will vary, from post to post). You can change the blog tempate, when you wish. The post template , when the blog is published, becomes part of the blog template - but the two are maintained separately. This lets you change your blog template (and the page layout) without affecting the post template (and the posts layout), and vice versa. When Blogger makes changes to post related features, they change post template code.

DNS, which is the backbone of Google Custom Domain publishing , is a distributed directory of all Internet hosts - like the Google servers where your domain is published. We say that DNS is a "distributed" service, because the data provided to you, by DNS, resides not in one, or two, but millions of servers - all over the Internet, and owned by many different companies and individuals. When you setup a new domain, using a DNS Management utility provided by your domain registrar or another DNS host, you can add the DNS entry when convenient to you. Some DNS management utilities will provide advice Please wait 12 to 24 hours before trying to use your new URL. or a similar message, simply because the DNS information that you enter, through the utility to your DNS server, has to be distributed to the other DNS servers , all over the Internet.

Does anybody remember Old Blogger (pre 2006), and the process of adding or relocating an accessory - maybe a picture or linklist - to the blog? For many of us, that memory is fast fading. New Blogger 2006, and the Layouts templates with their GUI linklist setup, is so much more user friendly. You can use a Layouts template with any blog published to a BlogSpot URL - or to a non-BlogSpot URL on a Google server, using Custom Domain publishing . Even with New Blogger 2006 being the reality (and Old Blogger a distant memory), some bloggers are still stuck with a Classic template. Maybe by choice I hate new Blogger, and the widgets. I like having a template that I can understand. or maybe forced upon them I want to publish my blog to my own server. some bloggers are sticking with a Classic template. Publishing your blog to a non-BlogSpot URL on an external server, using FTP, requires static HTML and a Classical template . Occasionally, you hear the puzzled question What does this ...

To protect your computer, and your network, any security expert with any experience will tell you to use a layered security strategy . One layer of security is to only run programs that you can trust, and to only access web sites that have trustable content. Occasionally, you may need to run a program that you don't trust, or access a web site that has untrustable content. For many years, anti virus and similar security programs have used replicas of the operating system, called sandboxes, to do just that. When you open a file, run a program, or surf a web site from inside a sandbox, any changes produced by what you're doing go into the sandbox, not out into the computer operating system. When you finish what you're doing, you flush the sandbox, and any possible malware (along with any other results) gets flushed. You can, just as easily, use a sandbox to run two parallel processes, like using your browser. If you want to upgrade your blog, and simultaneously examin...

One of the most well known, and resented, shortcomings of the Google Custom Domain product has always been the inability to have your blog respond to both "www.yourdomain.com" and "yourdomain.com", simultaneously. Bloggers have been requesting, and waiting for, this shortcoming to be corrected constantly, since January 2007, when Custom Domains was released. Today, I idly went to check the Settings for one of my blogs, that's published to a Custom Domain. What did I happen to spot? Surprise!!! Now to find a way to test it, and hopefully make it work??!! Obviously, we need to start with both "martinezumc.org" and "www.martinezumc.org" hosted by Google. C:\>ping www.martinezumc.org Pinging ghs.l.google.com [64.233.179.121] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 64.233.179.121: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=247 Reply from 64.233.179.121: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=247 Reply from 64.233.179.121: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=247 Reply from 64.233.179.121: bytes=32 ...

The power and majesty of the trinity has been a part of mankind for years, before the Internet. From religion (the Christian nature of the supreme being - The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost), to properly robust systems, using triple redundancy (as in Robert Heinlein's science fiction - "I now tell you, three times, to do this!"), the number three has always had almost mystical significance. And with your web site, there is a trinity too. You are using, and may be paying (directly or indirectly) for 3 different services. Registration . DNS Hosting . Content Hosting .

Lately, there have been a few odd complaints in the Google Blogger Help forums . Help, my toolbar is missing buttons! I can't change the text colour. Where's my font name / size list selection? Why do I see code, instead of text and pictures? Now, these complaints aren't strange at all. Blogger makes changes to their code , and has even admitted to causing these problems , occasionally. You, too, can cause your problems - on your computer or network . Besides permanent changes caused by security on the computer or the network, you can also have temporary, and transient, problems. If we don't use the same URL when we login, consistently , we can have problems. If we don't use the Post Editor the same way, consistently, we can have problems too. Oh No! Where are my toolbar buttons? If you don't see a tab for Compose mode, do not panic. Go to Settings - Basic, and under Global Settings, set "Select post editor" to "Old editor" (or to ...