We see evidence of confusion, from time to time, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from owners of private and team blogs.
When received, a blog membership invitation - whether to a private blog, or to a team blog - is supposed to be acted upon, by accepting membership in the blog.
For convenience, Blogger added the link to view the blog, so the prospective member could get a quick glance and decide whether this blog was worth becoming a member. This option is now gone - and invitations have limited expiry date.
Anybody, with a GMail or non GMail email account, can accept membership in the blog, after opening the email invitation. They can do so immediately, or after viewing the blog. They simply need to do so, before the invitation expires.
Blogger periodically tunes their procedures, and does not always update their instructions. It appears that the invitations, at one time, were set to expire after one month.
Maybe a one day expiry, clearly and consistently stated, would make more sense. It takes a mere 30 seconds to accept membership if you have a Blogger account - and maybe a minute if you do not yet have an account - so why not just accept membership, immediately after viewing the blog? You're not asked to pay anything, after all.
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.
When received, a blog membership invitation - whether to a private blog, or to a team blog - is supposed to be acted upon, by accepting membership in the blog.
For convenience, Blogger added the link to view the blog, so the prospective member could get a quick glance and decide whether this blog was worth becoming a member. This option is now gone - and invitations have limited expiry date.
Anybody, with a GMail or non GMail email account, can accept membership in the blog, after opening the email invitation. They can do so immediately, or after viewing the blog. They simply need to do so, before the invitation expires.
Blogger periodically tunes their procedures, and does not always update their instructions. It appears that the invitations, at one time, were set to expire after one month.
If you don't have a Google Account yet, we'll show you how to get one in minutes, or you can view the blog as a guest for up to 30 days.Blogger Help: How do I control who can view my blog? implies a shorter period.
As a guest, they'll be able to continue viewing your blog through the link in the invitation email, but this will expire after two weeks.We see that the expiry, now, appears to be one week.
Maybe a one day expiry, clearly and consistently stated, would make more sense. It takes a mere 30 seconds to accept membership if you have a Blogger account - and maybe a minute if you do not yet have an account - so why not just accept membership, immediately after viewing the blog? You're not asked to pay anything, after all.
Comments
Good information! This I get! About signing in to Google Account and guests are temporary. No problem.
I have 2 open blog for whoever wants to read and am a member of 2 team blogs. Currently, I am moving my blog posts from one of the team blogs individually to another blog(since no one else on the team is contributing).
I am wondering the advantages and disadvantages of making this a INVITE ONLY blog? and also once you click the Setting for "only the people I choose" can you open it up later?
I have looked in Blogger help and Googled it. One sent me to your blog but I could not find the article on this. I tried a search on your blog but I guess I did not have the right word choice to search.
I'd appreciate your wisdom on this.
If you do a blog post just send me the link, otherwise I think my email is linked... you have been very helpful on other issues for me. Thanks for taking the time to help.
Thanks ahead of time!
Peggy (mazmagi)