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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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Comments

Unknown said…
When are they going to implement this thing? Everybody says it is bad but my blog is still the same. I didnt understand this.
Nitecruzr said…
Tyler,

If your blog is still the same, your main page did not need segmentation. This feature only affects blogs with excessively heavy displays.
WNY Softball said…
Can provide a link to a blog that has been segmented?
Nitecruzr said…
Lena,

See my discussion from today, about "imperialflags.blogspot.com".
Nitecruzr said…
J D,

Yes, it surely does, for those who insist on building blogs with static main pages.
Emmie Wong said…
I hate this Auto pagination and I'm sure MANY MANY other fellow bloggers would agree with me. Please find an alternative solution. I've used blogger for many years and loved it. This is one of the first disappointments that I've encountered.
Nitecruzr said…
You're using shared network resource. Every network engineer knows that there are limits, to any resource.

No, it's not a complete bullshit. It's not even a partial bullshit.

Blogger is simply asking you to share politely. If you can't share, politely, maybe you would be better off paying for your own server / network access.
Unknown said…
Hi Chuck

What solution is there for blogs that use Classic templates? I read an extremly popular blog on London called Diamond Geezer (http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/) and as this blog uses a classic template half the posts cannot be accessed. If Diamond Geezer switched to a Layout template he would lose his comments due to using Haloscan.
Nitecruzr said…
Richard,

I suspect that owners of blogs with classic templates may need to look to the future too. Without FTP publishing to necessitate classic templates, Blogger may be better off suggesting that folks like Diamond Geezer bite the bullet.
Me Against Them said…
I don't have an issue with it. However, I'm finding posts being sucked into the void. For example, i'm now displaying 30 posts on my main page, after you hit "older posts" on the next page, there are 3 posts that are not shown. same thing happens 2 pages later, expect it's 6 posts this time. Is there a fix for these posts just getting skipped over like this?

thanks for any ideas.
Nitecruzr said…
Me,

That's interesting. This would be a good question to ask in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, being careful to ask a new question, and to not get added into the rollup questions - so we can address your problem, specifically.
Me Against Them said…
Thanks Chuck,

But i did that already.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=588cc6b9880d35c4&hl=en

no responses yet. i guess for now i wait.

Thanka again.
Blogger said…
Just track how many users use the "Older Post" Link... you will see a 0 "cero"

This change really sucks

Also i don't get it... have a lot of things to fix on Blogger to reduce the time loading, or the file size before start to reduce, affect, and discriminate some blogs.

One things that shoud be fixed is Picasa Vs Blogger Images... Why they have stored the same image twice??? one on Picasa and other in Blogger???

Sorry for my english
pomi said…
thank you it is good material to read this post increases my knowledge
Nadja said…
I think this applies mostly for photoblogs? My blog still looks the same. I have photos only. Uploaded from Picasa albums. Big size. They can be viewed big size too, by clicking on them. I did that because I read that this way the blog would not 'get full'. (This way also no double storing the photos!) I know as good as nothing about these things, forgive me if I am wrong! But maybe this is an idea that some people could use? I saw that some people post Flickr images on their blogs too.
Maja said…
Hm, I am a little late to the party, but I just recently (today!) noticed the change. Now only 1 instead of 5 post show up on the main page.
I get the sharingthing, but I have a hard time understanding, when a main page is to big, or photo sizes are to large. I don't think my either of these criterias apply to my blog, but it still happened.
Do youhave any tips?

Thanks,
Maja
Nitecruzr said…
Maja,

Currently, the most commonly used diagnosis is Base64 encoded images in the posts. If that suggestion does not help, please feel free to post the details of your problem, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where you can be advised, with personal diagnosis.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/10/auto-pagination-being-triggered-by-post.html

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