The Google Custom Domain Photo Hosting Problem Hits Harder

The Google Custom Domain photo hosting problem has been with us for a while. I first reported this problem in August, 2007 - and again, last week. Last year, it was simply a chronic problem that I had noted. Last week, it affected my blogs, but only on one important photo.

This week, the problem became more obnoxious. It now affects multiple photos, which are used in multiple blogs (possibly a lot of blogs). The Cumulus Blogs Hidden LinkLists, the Cumulus Blogs MultiStyle Labels, and the Language Translator Bar, are used by a few bloggers who I've never met. Maybe you're one of them (you've read this far, so maybe you are).

Look in the sidebars of my blogs - like this blog "The Real Blogger Status" or my networking blog "PChuck's Network", at the "Topics" section, or even "Topics" in Roberto's Report (Roberto, a bud of mine, uses the same graphics in his blogs). On most days, you'll see one or more missing buttons / icons / photos, in one or more blogs.

Houston, we have a problem.

A Problem That's Ugly


This is what I see, at 18:00 PDT, 11/05/2008.



This is what I saw just earlier this afternoon, at 13:00 PDT, 11/05/2008.


This is merely ugly. You can use the "en|el" as a button - try it and see (when you see that). You can still see this blog translated into Greek, even if you can't see the flag in the translator bar.

A Problem That's Worse Than Ugly


This is what you'd see on good days, like April 14, 2008.



This is what you'd see on April 15, 2008, the day this article was written, in this blog - though the problem is currently not active, here. Today, May 10, 2008, you'll see something like this, in my recipes blog. Also my bud Roberto reports the same problem in his blogs.


Most cases of missing photos are merely annoying. Unless your blog revolves around the missing photos, your readers simply see a minor bit of ugly blog.

There's bad news, and there's good news.

The bad news is - this case is more than annoying. The 4 missing photos, as you know if they are part of your blog, are actually buttons. Those buttons allow your readers to show a hidden linklist, or to select a style for displaying hidden labels. Without the use of those buttons, your readers can't see a linklist or label list. This might be a major issue in blog organisation or blog visibility, for you.

A Workaround

The good news is - there is a workaround for you, if your blog uses Hidden Linklists or MultiStyle Labels, with the buttons that I provided originally. Until Blogger fixes this, simply tweak your template. Switch the Hidden Linklist feature to "Show", and / or switch the MultiStyle Labels to "Menu" style. It's not difficult, though if your blog uses multiple, hidden linklists, it will be a bit tedious, and your blog will lose a bit of functionality.

1. First (and always) backup your template.
2. Edit the template.
3. Select "Expand Widget Templates".
4. For each hidden linklist, carefully find

   // set default to hide blogroll
   hideBlogroll1();

   and (noting and retaining the linklist number) (they won't all be "1"), change to

   // set default to (hide) show blogroll
   showBlogroll1();

   Remember that linklists are numbered. Do not mess up the linklist numbers.
5. For multistyle labels, find

   // set default to null style
   nullStyle();

   and change to

   // set default to (null) menu style
   menuStyle();

6. Save Template.
7. Last (and always) backup your template, again.
8. And also last (and also always) test your changes.

Not all problems can be worked around this easily. This is a functionality problem, and not too ugly. If you really want to display a photo (not a button or icon) in your blog, and it doesn't display, you're just out of luck. Sorry. No easy answers here - Blogger needs to fix the problem.

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