The Real Blogger Status

We've been advising people about the complications involved in recovering disabled GMail / Google accounts , for a few months. Recently, we've been seeing a new complication, in this scenario. I tried logging in to GMail, and it says that my account has been disabled. So I tried verifying by sending codes to my mobile phone - I managed to log in, and it now redirects into my dashboard. Unfortunately, it now tells me The blog has been removed. So, I have my Blogger / GMail account back - but no blog! Apparently, there is a delay, between reinstatement of the Blogger / GMail account, and recovery of any owned blog(s), deleted when the account is disabled.

In spite of my recently published caution against gratuitous additions of third party blog accessories, we're seeing a small yet steady stream of reports about mysterious blog hijackings, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . When I view my blog, it shows up for a few seconds - and then forwards to this weird website, that I've never heard of. Not everybody is aware of the dangers of adding non Google developed code, to their blogs.

Mobile blogging is becoming more and more popular - and it's creating an interesting challenge. Many blog owners, freed from the daily use of the home computer, are publishing multiple smaller posts, throughout the day - instead of a few larger posts, at the end of the day. Also, they are using mobile computers, and emailing or messaging the posts using Mail-To-Blogger, rather than composing the posts using the GUI Post Editor. Lately, we're seeing more and more problem reports,in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Why are my posts not publishing? Many of the people reporting problems are mobile bloggers, not understanding about the unavoidable limitations.

Those Blogger blog owners who continue to use an older browser, and who have decided to check out the New Blogger GUI (2011) , may be familiar with the ominous advice Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems. If you are having problems, try Google Chrome. Some of you have opted to check out the New GUI, even when faced with the warning - and have been faced with a cold reality. I mistakenly clicked on the "Try the updated Blogger interface" link and now I just have a blank screen because my computer is outdated. Having seen a steady flood of the latter complaint, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , Blogger recently released a non GUI Recovery process . www.blogger.com/opt-in-new-ui.g?useNewUi=false

During the past weekend, we started seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners who participate in FaceBook, and who can't publish their blog posts to their FaceBook Wall. The problem appears to be common to both publishing using the "Share to FaceBook" button in the blog post (within Blogger), as well as the Wall posting wizard (within FaceBook).

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.

We continue to see evidence of frustration about getting a blog indexed, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I can find the blog using the URL - but my visitor log shows nobody is reading the blog! and My blog was #1 for my title, in Google, 3 months ago! Last month, it dropped out of sight!! Why does Google let people hack their results??? People who report these problems do not understand that getting traffic to the blog involves more than simply getting the blog indexed , using the Author, Title, or URL of the blog.

This post has been renamed, as Getting Traffic To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed .

As the New Blogger GUI (2011 Improvements) continues to gain support, there are still features missing, being identified occasionally. One interesting group of blog owners, who seem to feel overlooked, includes people who publish podcasts - and who use the Link field in their posts. How do I link my PodCasts, using the New GUI? This setting is not apparent, in the New GUI menus and wizards.

Many Blogger blog owners overlook the details, in the legal requirements for blog ownership and maintenance. Confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken is seen periodically. I faked my birthdate when I setup my first blog - and Blogger just cancelled my blog! and My 10 year old child created a blog, which is full of happy memories - and the blog was just deleted!! and Blogger will not tell me the email address, so I can login to my blog!!! None of these people understand that Blogger is not being capricious or petty, in denying them their rights to access / own / maintain their blog .

For a Blogger blog which needs a sitemap for indexing, changing the URL requires creating a new sitemap. For a blog newly published to a different URL - either a non BlogSpot URL, using custom domain publishing, or simply a different BlogSpot URL - the first few days under the new URL are critical to the success of the blog. Some blog owners find, to their horror, that their blog suddenly has no page rank, and has dropped out of visibility in the search engine results. I bought a domain from Google, and my blog is now invisible. Obviously, this is another swindle by Google, stealing my money! These blog owners have not done any research, about the custom domain migration process , or about any issues related to renaming the blog . The successful migration process starts with getting the blog, under its new URL, indexed by the search engines.

Recently, we've seen a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about email distribution of blog posts, from private blogs. I previously used a Google Group, to send an email to more than 102 people. This is now no longer working - my Google Group is not notified of a new post, automatically. Any idea what could have changed or be going wrong? Here, we see signs of the use of Google+ becoming more necessary.

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we see a curious question. My blog Stats display is missing a complete year. The problem is actually right there, in front of all of us - if we look.

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.

Every day, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we see the complaint I've been reporting this abuse to Google for a week, and I have yet to see a reply - or a result. What is up with that? This is possibly somebody who does not know what abuse category to use - or who maybe can't find the right category.

The Internet Is a wonderful thing - it has brought many people, from many lands, together, ignoring geographic and political limitations. Unfortunately, "many people, from many lands" is not always a good thing. In any group of people, there will be people who do not know or understand each other - and there will be conflict. Blogger / Google has given us tools to report a problem, when we experience conflict - and when that conflict involves someone else, misusing a Blogger blog. These tools were developed on an "as needed" basis - so don't expect them to be well defined, and well instructed, in every problem which you may have. And, you have to use these tools correctly - they are not magic.

During the past few days, we're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from owners of blogs that use an image in the header, instead of or in addition to, plain text, claiming changes in the appearance of the header. The exact problem report varies - that the image has been resized, has shifted in position, has become pixelated, or has simply disappeared.

Today, we see, in Blogger Buzz: Connect to Google+ , a long awaited announcement , from Blogger. Starting today, if you have linked your blog to your Google+ account you will be presented with a prefilled Google+ share box immediately after publishing a post. The share box will contain a +snippet of your post that you can share with your circles on Google+. So, this is my test of the new feature.

When the New Blogger GUI (2011) was first introduced , it was optional. New Blogger blog owners, and other Blogger account holders, would get the (currently available) Classic GUI by default, with the offer Try the updated Blogger interface at the top of the dashboard. When in the "updated Blogger interface", we would see the reassuring link to Switch back at the top of the blog list or dashboard.

Some blog guests cannot understand why they can't get notifications, when someone leaves a comment after them, attached to a post comment form. Why don't I see the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"? or maybe I selected the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz", but I don't get any reply notifications. Why am I being mistreated by Blogger? These people do not realise that comment follow-up notifications are subject to the same problems as the embedded comment form .

One confusion, which we see in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken regularly, concerns blog owners and their understanding about search engine functionality. I can't find my blog! This is frequently more completely expressed as I can't find my blog, listed in a Search Engine Results Page, when I search by URL (blog title, some other obscure detail ...)! Equally as mystifying are people who report I typed in the name of some obscure porn concept, and found my blog listed. Why is my blog listed with porn? This problem is partially caused by some browser producers, who confuse us by combining the browser address and search windows . There are other reasons for the confusion, too.

I've been writing about spammer activities , and about various blog hijacks , for some time. There's a special, rather devious blog hijack, involving spammer activity, that we've been aware of, for some time. In Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we occasionally see the query How do I get rid of spam, in my Reading List? I did not Follow this blog! Nobody will, intentionally, Follow a blog full of spam. In some cases, though, people Follow blogs that are published by naive blog owners, who have been conned by the spammers, into working for them.

We see the pain, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , of blog owners who do not understand the need for keeping the name of their Blogger account a secret. I forgot the email address that I was using. Why can't Blogger just tell me the address?? and some ask How did this unknown person "xxxxx xxxxx" get control of my blog? Years ago, the local police would have to convince home owners Please, stop leaving a spare key under a rock, near the door! Both many blog owners (today) - like some home owners (years ago) - had the same basic problem - naivete.

Every day, we get various impassioned pleas from blog owners (active, former, and would be), in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , requesting assistance. How do I get access to my blog, that I published 10 years ago? and How do I keep my blog from being visible in Google? and How do I contact the owner of a blog that was published 10 years ago (and never updated)? All of these are valid concerns - and answering one question sometimes involves referring to various other concerns .

There's a lot of confusion seen in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about our blogs, and how they are treated by the search engines, after being published to a custom domain URL. Does the Page Rank transfer to the new domain? and Is the blog automatically indexed after the change? and Will my readers be able to find my blog after the change? Each of those questions has a simple answer - but each simple answer leads to interesting detail.

The discussion about Blogger account and blog access recovery, and authentication requirements, never ends. Account / blog ownership recovery is not at all a simple issue. Occasionally, we see the extreme cases, and the frustration . I made two blogs for school in im pretty sure 2009, so three years later I am no longer at that school, and it was registered with that school email, therefore I have no access to this email anymore, and the email account has most likely been deleted. I really need to delete these blogs because there are photos of people on there and they dont want them there. My personal opinion is that the solution is obvious. If you cannot maintain either primary access (account name and password) or secondary access (access to a working email account) to your Blogger account , you should not publish a Blogger blog. My opinion is not always well received, in Blogger Help forum. Some people have criticised me for my apparent lack of compassion, for the improvident ...

Today, we're getting a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners who setup blog clusters , with the cluster members linked using tabs in the Pages gadget - who suddenly found their clusters unlinked. The different page tabs on my blog redirect to my same blog!

In general, it's good to be adventurous - but not always. Sometimes, listening to our friends, to be adventurous, gets us into trouble. We're being urged to "Try the updated Blogger interface", by our "friends" - aka Blogger - in our Classic GUI dashboard. Blog owners who are still using an older browser, that's admittedly unsupported by Blogger, may find themselves with a problem, when they "Try the updated Blogger interface".

In 2009, Blogger Support became weary from handling too many problem reports from blog owners who had made such a simple mistake. I hit the wrong key, and deleted my blog! Help Me!! They started archiving deleted blogs, and gave us a wizard to un delete a newly deleted blog , from the archive. Unfortunately, that ability to un delete a blog has two major limitations . A deleted blog can be un deleted within 90 days. A deleted blog can be un deleted by a blog administrator. Some blog owners find out the relevance of the second limitation the hard way - after they delete their blog, then find out that they have two (or more) Blogger accounts .

Every week, somebody asks for such a simple blog feature. How do I have a single blog post always displayed, for the home page? There are many things that Blogger has yet to provide, and this is one. A blog, by definition, contains a dynamic home page, with the most current posts displayed. Today (sorry, too late!), if you view this blog, this post will be displayed, at the very top of the home page. Tomorrow, this post will be displayed, just not at the top of the home page. In a couple weeks, this post will not be displayed on the home page, at all. That is how blogs work. If you want to display anything else, you don't have a blog. That's the purist position, anyway. A blog is simply a web site with the latest posts displayed on home page (the main page), and hidden older posts (the archives).

If you believe some of the discussions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , a lot of Blogger blog owners are lining up at the gate - or will be doing that , starting 2011/12/05 23:59. For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011. Some discussions include speculation about deletion of blogs owned under legacy accounts, which will result in their personal dream URL being made available to them, finally.

Last week, I issued my annual reminder to blog owners , to consider their blog holiday decorations with care. That reminder mainly focuses on the more controversial issue of blog hijacks, and computer hacking . Besides the long term and subtle computer hacking, your readers, visiting your blog decorated with the latest animation, will have a more immediate and obvious problem to consider - browser freezes and other computer overload problems.

This week, Google announced the end to its website based community building accessory, Google Friend Connect, for non Blogger based websites . We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. The announcement notes its replacement with Google+. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch. Blogger blog owners can continue to use the Followers gadget, can use Google+, or can build their communities using both features.

Last week, after some complaints were heard from blog owners who were using the dynamic templates on their blogs, Blogger added "Dashboard" and "New Post" links in the header bar. These new links are accessible when the blog owner is logged in, as a blog administrator. Unfortunately, their improvement did not take into account the need to login. Blog owners, not logged in, will still see no links. If not logged in, you may access your dashboard simply using the link to Blogger. http://www.blogger.com/ Alternately, you may access the non dynamic alias of any blog, for instance http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/?v=0 and you may then use the "Login" link in the navbar. >> Top

Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see the naive request. Please, take a minute and let me know how safe my blog is. Here, the blog owner wants to know whether it's possible that his blog might be classified as a spam host, in the near future. This is a request that, no matter how genuine a blog, and a blog owner, may appear now, cannot be fulfilled with any degree of accuracy and authority.

The Winter Holiday season is approaching, and this week we're seeing queries by some blog owners, getting ready. Why do my readers see a search display - instead of my blog? and How do I make it snow on my blog? and a few owners, and visitors Why does my browser freeze or lag when viewing this blog? Many blog owners, who publish craft, family, and personal themed blogs, just have to make their blogs reflect their holiday wishes for their readers. Only later, they may re think their decision.

Ever since the New Blogger GUI (2011) was offered to us several months ago , we've been seeing odd questions about options for Comments in our blogs, in the New GUI. How do I select the "Full page" or "Pop-up window" comment form, for my blog? and How do I select CAPTCHA verification? and occasionally Can I still have notification of comments, as published? The latter question is easy enough to answer - it's just not as obvious as the other settings, in the New GUI. The first two questions represent genuine concerns, for some blog owners.

As a web master (aka blog master), besides adding posts and enhancing the template, you have a third activity - connecting your web site (blog) to other web sites and blogs. In many cases, you'll simply send the owners of the other web site (blog) a request to link to your blog. For links to large and very active web sites, you'll use an online wizard. To prove ownership of your web site, instead of sending email, you'll add a file of specific name, or maybe specific content, into the web site. You can't add a file to your blog, though. With a Blogger blog, you have no control over files and folders - all that you do is publish posts.

Yesterday, we saw a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , mentioning the lack of a link, in the dynamic views header bar, to our dashboards. I'm using dynamic views and now can't access my dashboard! It appears that the Blogger logo / Attribution ("Powered by Blogger" caption), which formerly linked to our dashboards, is not there, any more. This deficiency appears universal - the links no longer appear on all different dynamic views, on header bars with the views listed side by side or in the pulldown list, or on blogs where dynamic views are default, or optional.

A year ago, we noted a security change to BlogSend, which left many blog owners with severely deprecated ability to publicise blog updates , when using a private Google Group. At that time, the recommended workaround was to add "no-reply@blogger.com" as a Google Group member. Today, we see that the ability to add Google Group members directly is no longer offered. It appears now that the use of private Google Groups, for distribution of Blogger blog updates, is not an option.

Ever since Google+ was released, blog owners have been asking how to post blog updates to Google+. Previously, there was only the possibility of publishing from Google+ to our blogs - and that option was not well designed . Last week, Blogger released this option , in Draft Blogger. Today we’re excited to announce the first way you will be able to leverage Google+ -- by making it possible to replace your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile. In addition to giving your readers a more robust and familiar sense of who you are, your social connections will see your posts in their Google search results with an annotation that you've shared the post.

We're getting a few reports today, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , from blog owners who publish blogs with static pages , that use the new dynamic templates , and that now have no ability to index the pages in the dynamic views. We're also seeing reports mentioning some blogs which have no menu bar visible, in dynamic views. Both problems were, reportedly, first observed mid morning today, Pacific time.

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature , blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs. When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget. There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.

A month ago, we discovered a problem with static pages and commenting , on our blogs. That problem was later fixed. Yesterday, while exploring a subtle problem with commenting on posts when using a dynamic template , I discovered a new problem with static pages and commenting, also on the dynamic template.

We've been observing problems with commenting on blogs using the inline comment form ("Embedded below post"), ever since Blogger changed the inline form, many months ago . First, we observed an overall problem with cookie filtering and the embedded comment form . Later, a more subtle problem with using the CAPTCHA form with embedded comments was discovered. Now, we're seeing a similar problem, with the new dynamic templates, and the embedded comment form. This problem may not be any more obvious, to some blog readers, than the preceding problems were.

I've explained the issues about Blogger account maintenance, and blog access, so many times. I've described it as possession being the law , or as reading between the lines , or even as responsible practice - and some people just don't understand these issues. Some people try to describe their problem, when they have a problem, as Blogger unlawfully stealing their possession. Blogger won't give me access to my blog - do I need a court order to get access to my blog, and to my content? At first glance, they have a point - Blogger has to give us access to our blogs, or they cease being our blogs. If you look closer though, there's a flaw in that reasoning.

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.

The articles in this blog, which discusses production and use of Blogger blogs , are written as posts. The various posts are combined, using embedded links , in different ways. Each new post appears on the main page, as it is written - and the various posts, appearing together on the main page, create opportunities for confusion, with the readers of the blog. Long ago, the task of moderating comments was rather depressing to me, as the focus of many of the comments made me think that nobody was actually reading the articles. Maybe, I would write an interesting post about URL availability ; but when moderating comments, I would find questions about posting comments on static pages . Or maybe a post about dynamic template concepts would attract complaints about referer spam . Why should I publish my advice, if nobody cares enough to read the articles and comment relevantly?

A few months ago, a few Blogger blog owners were given important news which may not have pleased them. For a number of technical and operational reasons, we’ve decided to finally end our support for migrating legacy accounts and blogs after December 5, 2011 .

Earlier today, I observed one new feature in New Blogger GUI (2011) - the Post Editor "Add or remove link" wizard now offers the option to Open this link in a new window. This, in my opinion, is a major improvement in the New GUI (in general), and in Post Editor (in particular). A few minutes later, to my disappointment, I discovered a major design deficiency, in Post Editor.

For many years, I have consistently used "Edit HTML" mode when creating and editing my posts, because I need to make some links, embedded in the post content, open in a new tab / window (subject to choice of the reader). Up to this month, this could only be done by manually editing the links, and inserting the link modifier target="_blank" . Today, in creating this post, in "Compose" mode, and adding the above link, I see the option Open this link in a new window. in the "Add link " wizard. If Blogger is able to resolve the many design issues with the New Blogger GUI (2011) in general, this change in the New GUI (2011) Post Editor will go a long way towards removing our need to use "Edit HTML" Mode. This will remove a significant amount of problems of using Post Editor in dual modes, and will allow them to stabilise Post Editor in general. >> Top

In the latest round of controversy about the interstitial warning display, we see reports from more publishers of "adult content" blogs, reporting inability to try the dynamic templates on their blogs. Why are Dynamic Views not available for my blog? Is this yet another conspiracy against "adult content" blogs? From what I can tell, it's simply another scenario where the interstitial warning causes problems.

Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see a naive query. How do I report a person who posts nasty things, in comments, on my blog? And the unfortunate response here is You can't report unwanted comments. There is no comment censoring agency. Blogger considers comments to be protected as freedom of speech. Outside of moderation for spam - which is a collaborative activity - comments are up to you, the blog owner, to treat as you please.

The problem of last week , with Stats, was fixed late yesterday, and our Stats displays once again are showing Posts pageview counts and enumerating individual Posts. Now, we have a perceived problem, being reported by newer blog owners. My Stats display does not show my newer posts! This concern is visually valid - but it's not real. It's most common with blogs that have just over 10 posts, which are owned by people who are not aware of the Stats display limitations , as we have explored.

In terms of Blogger problems, which occur seemingly randomly and have no obvious user solution, I can't think of too many that bring more dread into peoples hearts than 403 Forbidden That message is actually where I started this blog - many, many years ago . It's come up, in discussion, several times . The message "403 Forbidden" is literally a response by a computer somewhere, saying that you are not permitted to access this computer . For Blogger / Google customers, it generally has a slightly different origin.

For several days now, we've seen various reports from anxious Blogger blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , lamenting the lack of detail information in their Stats logs. My Stats logs does not show the page views for particular posts. This is just one example, of the many ways that blog owners perceive, and report , the ongoing problem.

This morning, we're seeing a number of questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Why are my Stats displays showing No stats yet, check back later. yet again? and more interestingly "blogging.nitecruzr.net" is showing multiple hits in my Stats log! And none of this is really surprising, personally.

Anyone is free to publish a Blogger blog, discussing any subject. The Blogosphere is full of many blogs, some discussing the same subject as others. A blog on any subject can have any title desired by the owner - and the title can be identical to the subject, or it may differ from the subject, as desired. This leads to many blogs having the same title - and this is OK. Unfortunately, though many blogs may have the same subject and title, each blog must have a unique URL . Some blog owners have a problem with this policy, since they believe that their subject, title, and URL must match. Not every blog owner understands why not every blog, ever written, can have a matching subject, title, and URL .

Today, we're seeing a significant number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from worried blog owners My blog reloads in peoples browsers, and causes high pageview counts! and My blog crashes my readers browsers when loading!! When a resource monitor is run while the reported blogs load, you can watch memory usage increase rampantly, as the main page of the blog, in question, loads.

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.

This week, we're seeing signs that Blogger is about to push the New Blogger GUI (2011) a step closer to reality . In about two weeks from today, all Blogger accounts that haven’t yet made the switch will be upgraded to the new user interface. You will be able to opt-out at any time by clicking the “Switch back” link; however, all accounts will eventually be permanently upgraded. For all the optimism, the New Blogger GUI (2011) just is not ready.

Last week, blog owners discovered a new problem with commenting on their blogs. I keep enabling comments on my pages, but Blogger keeps disabling them! From having observed the reports of the problem, it appears to affect all blogs - both varying template type, and use of the different GUIs (Classic and New 2011), appear to be referenced. Blogger Support has acknowledged the problem . Thanks everyone for your patience, we're hoping to have a fix rolled out shortly. (Update 10/19): This has been corrected. (Update 11/09): Today, we see a new problem with static pages and comments - this one involving dynamic views. >> Top

The new dynamic views , a truly innovative feature recently developed for Blogger blogs, are still receiving mixed reviews. Not everybody, able to use them, likes them - and not everybody, liking them, is able to use them. The reasons behind the decisions to use them - or not use them - are fascinating, when examined in proper context.

In October of this year , Blogger made a major change to the display of images and photos, in our blog posts. As we've seen a few times, this change was not provided as an option - and was not received graciously by all blog owners. After receiving a significant amount of complaints, Blogger removed Lightbox from our blogs image display. Last week, having redesigned the Lightbox feature, Blogger released it for a second attempt . Thanks to your feedback, we turned Lightbox off temporarily, and we’re re-launching it today with the option to disable it, along with a handful of fixes to bugs that you reported. As with any Blogger feature, it now deserves a closer look.

Almost daily, we see a confused query in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken I lost ownership access to my blog. Can Blogger restore my access? Not every blog owner realises that the Permissions wizard has a safeguard, ensuring that every blog will always have at least one administrator. Anybody who is the former owner is now a member of a team blog - and at least one other team member is an administrator.

As the dynamic templates continue to be installed on various Blogger blogs , more and more blog owners are noticing problems with their visitor logs. I installed a dynamic template on my blog, and my Stats display shows No stats yet, check back later. and StatCounter shows no traffic, now that my blog uses the dynamic views. These reports come from people who don't realise how the new templates work - and why they don't seem to work, in these cases.

The problem of auto pagination, triggering display page segmentation, has been with us since early 2010. Even in the beginning, auto pagination was not 100% popular with blog owners . As more blog owners got used to the inevitability of auto pagination, more scenarios were discovered, where it critically affected blogs. The most recently identified scenario, where auto pagination was involved, was with images hosted as Base64 content - first discovered a year after the initial opposition started.

Now that the new dynamic templates have been available for several weeks , and people are actually using them on their favourite blogs, some folks are disappointed that they can't use them. I'm trying to install the dynamic template on my blog, and I'm seeing Sorry, dynamic views aren't available for this blog. Why me? What did I do wrong?? And these people simply have no idea how the new templates work - and why they don't always work.

Blogger blog owners have been suffering from the onslaught of referer spam, in their Stats logs, for over 6 months now . Some blog owners, who use third party visitor logs / meters like FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter, have started to wonder. How do SiteMeter and StatCounter manage to filter out the referer spam, yet Google cannot do anything about it? This would be quite a magic trick indeed - if this was happening.

Like the Designer Templates from earlier this year , the Dynamic Templates being now offered by Blogger provide a significant change from the Layouts templates offered to us in 2007. Unlike the Designer templates , the Dynamic templates are easier to try out - both to apply to our blogs - and should we decide, to remove from our blogs.

One odd feature of the dynamic templates - giving your readers the choice how they want to view your blog - is a detail that not everybody seems to get. In the ongoing discussion What do you think of Dynamic Views? , we see some dissenting opinions. I don't like the fact that readers can change the way they view my blog. I want things to be viewed the way I set them up, and not have them be changeable by the viewer. Personally, as long as each view lets some people view my blog, I'm happy to let anybody select the template that lets them view the blog, as it pleases them.

We've been observing the ongoing problem with referer spam since the beginning of the year - yet we see that some blog owners still haven't heard of the problem. Some folks who are advised later, to be more cautious Don't click on the links! come back with anxious queries I already clicked on the link! What will happen now? Have I been hacked? Here, there's no authoritative answer.

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.

When Auto Pagination was introduced , many blog owners, who preferred to display their blog as one long main page, were insulted. If I design my blog to display all of my articles on the front page, my readers should see my blog on the front page! They were unable to see the need to segment the main page display . If your blog uses one of the new dynamic templates, you may have noticed that there is no Archives link (nor an Archives gadget). With a Dynamic Template, there is no Archives link, because there are no archived posts, period.

Now that support for "legacy" Blogger accounts (accounts created before 2005, without Google account association) ends after this month , blog owners are trying to catch up. Some blog owners are reporting that, when trying to use the "Forgot?" wizard , they are seeing bX-2uckqc Blogger Support has accepted responsibility of the problem, and announced yesterday We're investigating reports of users seeing bX errors when using the recovery form found at http://blogger.com/forgot.g (Update 10/13): This code has been resolved . I was finally able to recover my blogs. >> Top

Recently, we're seeing signs of Blogger blog owners who are tired of seeing references to referer spam, in their Stats displays . Why doesn't Blogger put an end to referer spam? Some are angrier, and tragically so . Why can't Google put an end to referer spam? I'm moving my blog to WordPress! There are several options, to ending referer spam - but not any option will be 100%, immediately, effective.

Some people have decided that Blogger One Button Publishing, though a somewhat free service, is simply not to their liking. Some such opinions are possibly tragic, or misguided . Other similar cases, however, may be quite reasonable. I want a URL that's not available. It's inactive, but nobody will help me claim it, so I'm moving my blog to WordPress!

In the late 1900's, people would find promises from Publishers Clearinghouse You may have won A Million Dollars! in their mailboxes. Some recipients of the mail would rush down to their neighbourhood car dealership, and buy the car of their dreams - so they could drive to the post office, to receive their first payment of the award, in style. This kept many repo businesses quite busy. Every month, someone posts a new example of paranoia, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Who is this ominous Follower, "uGotCrossedSon"? Am I being hacked? This is another example of needless worrying - and it's equal in reality to the PCH fraud.

This week, we're seeing a new flood of complaints from people who report I posted my comment, but it vanished! and blog owners, who report My readers report inability to find their comments after they are published. And no, they are not in my "Spam" folder. Why are all of these comments disappearing?

For over a year , I've been suggesting that the time for using Classic (HTML Based) templates has become a thing of the past. This month, we are hearing suggestions that we are truly nearing the end of support for the Classic templates. As many blog owners found out about the end to FTP Publishing , you do not benefit by waiting until the last minute.

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.

Many blog owners, mindful of the various ongoing problems with Following , fear loss of their Followers when planning migration of their blog to a custom domain . Various anxious questions about Following, and custom domain publishing, are seen from time to time, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . Can I setup custom domain publishing, without losing my Followers? This is one concern where the perception is much worse than the reality.

We see evidence of confusion, from time to time, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from owners of private and team blogs. My friends have contacted me this week (only one week after receiving the invitation to my blog), saying that they could only access it once with the invitation - and now cannot sign in. These blog owners fail to observe that membership invitations have an expiry date, to prevent unwanted sharing of invitations .

A persistent complaint, seen periodically in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken is I can't stay logged in to my blog! Like many symptoms of Blogger login problems , this complaint can have multiple causes.

Many imaginative blog owners are finding out, from time to time, that deletion is not the way to continue - or to start over. I deleted my blog, and now I can't recreate it! and My domain is offline, and the registrar refuses to help me! or even I deleted my post, and now I get a weird URL! Each of these complaints are examples of people who tried to delete something to get something done, to a Blogger blog. In the first two cases, they were trying to transfer control (a blog, to a different Blogger account / a domain, to a different domain registration); in the latter case, they were trying to clear out unwanted content from a blog post. In neither of these cases did the blog owner accomplish the attempted goal.

A few folks find unexpected content in their Reading List. How do I stop Following that blog? It's not listed, in "Manage Blogs I'm Following", and I never Followed it! When you check the "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard, you get a list of the blogs that you Follow, with the Settings link for each. Oddly enough, these mysterious blogs - that you can't remember Following - won't be listed, under the observed title, on the "Manage" wizard display.

A few Blogger blog owners, trying to resolve their custom domain publishing problem , may see Google Apps mentioned in the diagnosis procedures, and try the brute force way out - deleting the Apps account. Unfortunately, the Google Apps desktop, when (only when) it provides administrative domain control , simply gives the domain administrator the ability to recycle the domain settings .

We see this naive question, from time to time, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . I added my friend as an administrator, to my blog. He changed permissions, locked me out, and now I don't have access. Can Blogger get my blog back? Here, we have bad news for you.

We've known for some time, about problems with GMail based Google accounts, and reports of disabled accounts with mysterious mention of "unusual activity on your account". This problem gives frustrated Blogger blog owners yet another exercise in frustration, where they spend time getting their Google accounts reactivated. This month, we are seeing reports of another, rather alarming detail, now involving Picasa.

Like problems with people who can't remember their GMail email addresses , we're seeing complaints from blog owners who never bothered to remember their non GMail based Blogger account name or password, and who now cannot login to Blogger . Help me! My previous email account is defunct, and now I can't access my blog! Everybody makes mistakes - and some mistakes must be resolved by the blog owners.

Slightly less than 1 week ago , we started seeing reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , suggesting yet another hijack of Blogger blog readers. When trying to view my blog I am redirected to http://rpc.blogrolling.com. Has my blog been hacked? The titles (questions) are phrased so differently, and posted in such numbers, in the forums (and as comments to my blog), that suggests that nobody publishing these questions sees how many other people are reporting the same problem. And even with many of us knowing about the problem, and having developed a simple diagnostic procedure, the reports keep coming. Why do we see so many reports, about one simple problem?

One question that we see regularly, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , comes from worried new blog owners. Why do my pageview counts go up and down all of the time? or, less normally Why have my pageview counts been going down, recently? In many cases, this is a normal result of (for example) more traffic last week, than this week. This won't always be the cause of the questions, though.

Mail-To-Blogger is a very simple way of using your email client or mobile computer, to submit photos and text as posts in your Blogger blog. As simple as it is, it offers less options than some folks would wish. Some post content can't be immediately published, using email - but must be later added into the post, using Post Editor.

Blogger has been making it progressively easier for us to manage our blogs, ourselves, without having to waste time posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken Help me!!! They have provided us with various tools, such as the ability to restore an accidentally deleted blog . The tools that they provide are not immediately, perpetually, or universally available, however.

Less than 2 months ago, Blogger announced their new and shiny GUI, in Draft Blogger . This week, they made it an option, in Production Blogger . As you may have heard, things are starting to look a little different across many Google products—and today, Blogger is the next product to get a makeover.

This week, we're seeing a new small flood of complaints about redirecting blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . When I try to view my blog, I am being redirected to http://rpc.blogrolling.com! Many blog owners have forgotten the past, and the accessories they installed on their blogs, long ago. Sometimes - as now - the past can return, to haunt you.

Last month, Blogger released the initial access to their new (2011) GUI, as a part of Draft Blogger. Today, it was released as an option in Production Blogger . As you may have heard, things are starting to look a little different across many Google products—and today, Blogger is the next product to get a makeover.

Identifying Blogger blogs, as with identifying people, is an exercise in futility - or at least, complexity. As a person, you are addressed in number of ways, which will be contextually significant. Depending upon how / where you live, you may have: First name. Last name. Nickname (one, or many). Government identifier (" Social Security Number ", and others). Home address. Business address. "Phone" number. How many phones do you have? Email address. How many email addresses do you have? SMS address (which may or may not be same as one or more "phone" numbers). Website address. How many websites do you publish? I'm not going to take all day writing this - give me a break! Your blog has a number of ways of addressing it, too - and it may be to your benefit to consider each identifier, canonically.

The practice of " Due Diligence " is a responsible precaution, taken by all businesses that have any future as businesses. Blogger / Google, being a business, subscribes to this practice. This affects their involvement with us, their "customers", in various ways - though not all "customers" understand the implications. Some blog owners find out about the limitations unwillingly, in discussions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken .

As people are starting to use the New GUI (2011) , we're seeing questions about apparent restrictions on labels, in the new post editor. Why can't I use an apostrophe in my labels? and Why can't I have a label "Red & Blue" any more? Not all blog owners appreciate the special nature of certain characters, in HTML. Nevertheless, we are all affected by how these special characters are treated.

We've been seeing too many complaints from blog owners who never bothered to remember their Blogger account name or password, and who now cannot login to Blogger . Help me! My email address changed last month, and now I can't sign in to my blog! Everybody makes mistakes - but not all mistakes are equal in consequence.

We see this complaint, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , almost daily. I hate the comment filters - I'm moving my blog to WordPress! or WordPress gives you SEO tools, why are there no SEO tools for Blogger? or I can't stand Blogger requiring that I enable third party cookies to not count my pageviews - I'm setting up a Tumblr blog!! or How dare Blogger tell me that I can't publish my entire blog on the main page! I'm setting up my blog on my ISP's blogging service, where there no limits!!!

Last month, Blogger announced their new browser support policy . Starting next month Blogger.com will only support modern browsers. While seemingly dismissive and rude, this change will ultimately lead to a more stable Blogger experience for all of us.

Following, now using Google Friend Connect , gives its members several options - and some of these options may cause confusion. You can login to Following using any account, hosted on any of six different Internet services , and Follow using any of seven different Following profiles . Many Blogger blog owners and guests assume that any blog that they Follow will be visible in their Reading List - and this won't always be the case.

This week, we're seeing a number of problem reports, from anxious blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , who can't see the Stats detail upon which they depend. My Stats display does not include individual posts counts!

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.

We've been using the static Pages editor for over a year . When the Pages editor was first released, we saw a few questions, which indicated a shortsided design for the Pages index gadget. How do I link a page to my other blog? and How do I index a label search, in the Pages gadget? These were just two typical questions. Up until this month, the only possible answer, to either query, was to suggest that the blog owner replace the Pages gadget with a linklist . This is simpler than it appears - but still, not all blog owners wanted to take the effort. We've been asking Blogger to make this easier, for a while.

This month, the new Blogger browser support policy goes into effect. Starting next month Blogger.com will only support modern browsers. This week, we're seeing new reports of problems with posting comments . It's possible that these newly reported problems, as well as other problems reported with Following, and with Stats, are partially caused by lack of support for older browsers.

Last month, Blogger Support announced a dramatic change in their browser support policy . Starting next month Blogger.com will only support modern browsers. It is now more important than ever, to be aware of the browser version that you are using.

Nowadays, even if you're going to the corner store for a six pack, you'll lock up your house before you leave. Generally, you do the same at night, before going to bed. Security is a way of life, with the world as it is now. What happens if you go to the store, leaving the house unlocked because somebody else is in there, and neglect to take your key? The last person in the house is responsible for locking up, before leaving. If you get home, discover the house locked, and realise then that you have no key to get inside, what do you do? Do you call the police, and demand that they send an officer over, to help you break in? Do you call the home owners association, or maybe the landlord, and request key service? If the home owners association, or the landlord, can't be reached, do you complain if they can't provide a 24 hour emergency number, to service you when you are locked out?

This week, we have been notified by Blogger Support that Blogger is going to attempt capacity expansion, later today. Blogger will go into read-only mode Wednesday (8/10) 5:00PM PST for about an hour as we work to expand capacity for our users. We pray that lessons learned from the previous attempt of May 11 were not wasted. (Update 18:30): Blogger appears to be up. If you can't login, clear cache, cookies and sessions , restart the browser, and try again. >> Top

Several weeks ago, we observed that some blog guests and owners were reporting problems posting comments to blogs with embedded comment forms . I can't comment on anybody's blog! I get in an endless loop to sign in! Today, we're getting reports of a new problem. I try to post a comment. When I click "Post" it tells me Your account does not have access to view this page. It appears that Blogger is trying to refine the comment authentication problem, by providing warning of the problem. In the attempt, they may be causing more confusion. It's also possible that this new symptom may be a side effect of the new Blogger browser support policy .

Some blog owners are learning about the reality of comment moderation - or lack of moderation - when comment feeds are being published. Today, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , we see a blog owner getting bad news. I deleted a comment, but in the 'Recent Comments' gadget, it's still there! Help me!! This blog owner is about to learn about the "Recent Comments" gadget, in an unpleasant way.

We've seen a few reports today, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , from blog owners who can't login, or load their dashboard. What does bX-1tj3ze mean?

Not every blog owner wants to display current posts on their blog Home page. How do I display just a Welcome message, on my Home page? Some owners are satisfied with displaying a fixed welcome message - and let the readers click on links in the menu bar , or a menu gadget in the sidebar, to see the posts.

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see the curious and naive query How do I SEO my blog? or odder still What SEO kit can I get, for my Blogger blog?

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , we see a hopeful and naive query How do I get the email addresses of people who comment, on my blog? or alternately How do I keep my email address secret, when I post comments, surf Blogger blogs, join a blog? The promise to keep our email addresses secret is a part of the strategy employed by Blogger, in keeping our blogs secure, and under our control.

Recently, we're seeing a number of problem reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about various gadgets that display content from the blog and comments feeds. My Recent Posts (Recent Comments, Popular Posts) gadgets aren't displaying! From the reports, this appears to be happening with gadgets installed using " Add a Gadget ", from the "Featured" list.

The XML based Layout template has been a Blogger feature for almost 4 years now . Occasionally, we get a strange problem report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . My Profile gadget disappeared from my blog. I went to "Page Elements" to add it back, and the error says that it's already added, even though it isn't. Where did the Profile gadget go?