Your Computer, And Blogger

All of the companies that I've worked for in my history, which had computers, controlled everything rather tightly.

Businesses do that. Businesses owned the big computers, aka mainframes.

• We, as programmers, would write code.
• We would test the code.
• We would give the code to a computer operator, who would run the code as a job.
• We would train the computer operators.

All code ran on company owned and controlled computers, over company owned and controlled networks, maintained by company trained personnel. Every change was made, and tested, by people working for the company. Very tightly focused, and controlled.

That was up to 30 years ago. Enough history, let's look at the current issues.

Now, we have Blogger / Google. Google owns thousands of computers (aka "servers"). The Google computers are

• Operated by millions of operators that Blogger neither employs or knows (blog owners / readers).
• Operated from computers that Blogger doesn't own (personal computers owned by blog owners / readers).
• Operated through networks that neither Blogger nor the blog owners / readers control, and running software produced by neither Blogger nor the blog owners / readers.

Not all computer owners have knowledge to maintain a personal computer.

Many of these millions of blog owners / readers have no concept of computer or network management. Some know just enough to turn their computers on - and not all know that even much.

Many computer owners think that Blogger is responsible for every problem.

Strangely, most blog owners / readers think that Blogger is responsible for all problems with blogger "owned" computers. This is despite Blogger owned computers being used from computers that Blogger doesn't own or control, over networks that Blogger does not control or support.

And occasionally, a blogger "owned" computer can become controlled by a third party.

Very few blog owners / readers consider the fact the Blogger provides them use of the Blogger computers, without charging them directly for the service. I say "directly", intentionally, because Blogger is not a non-profit organisation. Nor do they operate at a financial loss.

Blogger, and Google, make a very nice profit, and much of that thanks to the efforts from their millions of these blog owners / readers.

Too many owners load malicious software, based on bogus advice.

We also see that nowadays, people will listen to the wrong advice about blog content - or how to cleverly block Blogger features that are designed to make their blogs more accessible.

All of the financial issues aside, most blog owners / readers lack understanding of who is responsible for ensuring that Blogger code runs successfully on their computers. They seem to think that Blogger supports their computers, and there is part of The Problem.

Blogger does need to clean up their act - but not only Blogger has this problem.

Blogger / Google, though willing to benevolently offer the use of their computers to everyone worldwide, still needs to accept some responsibility for dealing with their users more consistently. I will keep saying that, and writing the same.

Blogger controls and supports the Blogger computers. They don't control your computer, nor how you use it. Nor should they. Very few blog owners / readers do nothing but blog, and very few computers owned or used by the blog owners / readers are used for nothing but blogging.

Every privately owned computer is different from every other computer.

One of my theories about computers is that, outside large corporations with a very anal Corporate Security Policy, there are not any two computers in the entire world that are identical.

Owners must accept responsibility for settings and software, on their computers.

Blog owners / readers absolutely must take responsibility for their computers, and for ensuring that Blogger code runs successfully on their computers. And they need to also take responsibility for the fact that they use the Blogger computers over networks that Blogger / Google does not own or control.

Blogger does not have the resources, nor the moral or legal mandate, to support your computer, nor the networks that you use to access the Blogger computers.

Yet, the first time that someone can't access their blog, or post to it, or view someone else's blog, what do we hear?

Is Blogger down again??

Never a thought of

What did I just change on my computer, to prevent Blogger from working?

or

Maybe I shouldn't have loaded that software. It's interfering with Blogger.

It's more normally

What did Blogger break again??

Please, be aware of problems which are your responsibility. Examine the universal nature of your symptoms, carefully and objectively, before claiming that there is a global problem with Blogger.

Reporting

It worked last month - but mysteriously stopped working, last week!

does not, necessarily, indicate a change made by Blogger.

Involving your computer and your network connections, when publishing your blog, can cause odd problems - such as the mysterious "Another blog ...", and the complementary but equally mysterious "Not found ...". And the "It was working last week!" observation can result from various setup mistakes, combined with the unbelievable complexity of Internet infrastructure.

Learn and use basic diagnostic skills, before complaining to Blogger.

Learn the processes of affinity diagnosis, and of differential diagnosis, and of learn, as you publish. And be aware of the different domains which Blogger and Google use, in allowing us to maintain our blogs, and our readers to view our blogs, safely.

And if you have a problem with Blogger - either accessing / using a dashboard page, or using / viewing a blog - check / correct the browser cookie filters, and then check / correct the browser script filters.