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Managing Your Following Community

Blogger gives us our blogs, and our Blogger accounts, for eternity - should we wish to retain them.
Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.
Independently of what choices Blogger allows us, we do change.
This, too, shall pass.
We will want to occasionally remove ourselves as Followers, from some blogs.
  • Maybe we have reached the limit for blogs simultaneously Followed.
  • Maybe we have lost interest in a blog that we are Following.
  • Maybe a blog that we are Following becomes dormant, or even deleted.

Should we feel the need to stop Following any blog, there are two wizards, equally useful.
  • The dashboard "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard.
  • The Following "Sites I've joined" wizard.

At the bottom of your Blogger dashboard, you'll find a blue "Manage" button (Classic GUI) or the familiar "Gear" icon (New GUI). This lets you manage Following, for all blogs that you are Following using this Blogger / Google account.
  • Click on the button / icon, which takes you to your "Manage Blogs I'm Following" menu.
  • Click on the "Settings" link for any blog that interests you, which takes you to the Site Settings wizard for that site.

From any blog that you Follow, or that you manage, you have (after you sign in to Following, using the right Following account host) an "Options" link.
When you use the "Site Settings" wizard, take care that you are logged in using the appropriate Following profile. You'll have two separate choices, for every blog that you choose to Follow.
  1. You can choose to Follow anonymously or publicly. This controls whether you want a link from the blog in question, to your Blogger profile - if you are Following using your Blogger profile.
  2. You can choose to "Include this site on your profile". This controls whether you want a link from your Blogger profile, to the blog in question - if your profile is selected to "Show sites I follow", and if you are Following using your Blogger profile.

Here, I'll note that the "Sites you've joined" wizard displays blogs Followed by the Blogger account, under which you're currently logged in. If you're seeing a list of "Sites you've joined" that doesn't agree with your recollection, you need to consider both the reality of logging in to Following, and the confusion from multiple Blogger accounts. It's also possible that you may have blogs listed in your Reading List that are not immediately obvious, in the Manage menu. Either condition can cause you to see a Followed or Following community that you do not expect.

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Comments

Unknown said…
Since about 2 months now my Google Friend Connect gadget on my nevertheless blog (http://www.neverthelessnation.com/) is missing in Firefox, Chrome and Safari but always present in Camino.

This strange problem is prevalent across many other system browsers, evidenced by some keen bloggers finding a way to message me wanting to Google Friend Connect with neverheless.

Why does the gadget always appear in Camino but never in the other 3 browsers ?

I constantly return to the google friend connect site and where my widget ought be, but in place where I ought be able to re-edit it, there's this little message that says:

"Sorry we are working on this and should be repaired soon."

I visit and read my fair share of other people's Google blogs - none of which seem to have this problem ?
TheCrankyCrow said…
This would be all great and well, if it were actually possible to access my reading list from the Wizard, but I cannot and therefore I CANNOT remove an unwanted blog from my reading list.

I used to follow a blog entitled howmytimeflys. That blog was "hijacked" many months ago. Recently, my reading list has been flooded with UNWANTED posts by whomever took over the blog. There is no "follower" widget on the overtaken blog, so I cannot remove myself that way. When I click on the gear icon to manage the blogs I'm following, I get the following message: "We are unable to load your FriendConnect data at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again shortly." ALL THE TIME. I have never, ever, been able to use this option....regardless of whether I'm using Mozilla or IE. HELP....any other way to get rid of this low-life scumbag blog???
Nitecruzr said…
Cranky,

Your problem is that you are Following a blog which is misdirecting its feed. You have to use the "Manage" icon on your Reading List, and remove the "hijacked" blog.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/09/getting-rid-of-mystery-blogs-in-reading.html
TheCrankyCrow said…
Therein lies my problem....As I said, every time I attempt to use the "Manage icon on my Reading List," I get the message "We are unable to load your FriendConnect data at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again shortly." I have NEVER been able to access this feature.
Nitecruzr said…
Cranky,

Your problem is that you are Following a blog which is misdirecting its feed. You have to use the "Manage" icon on your Reading List, and remove the "hijacked" blog from your Reading List.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/02/removing-blogs-from-your-reading-list.html
Nitecruzr said…
OK, Cranky,

This problem "We are unable to load your FriendConnect data at this time. ..." comes up, from time to time. I'll ping Blogger Support with this, if you will kindly start a new topic, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

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