Skip to main content

Private Blog Owners Need To Use Google+, To Distribute Blog Updates

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.

Some months ago, Blogger, responding to a security vulnerability in BlogSend, changed the email address used by BlogSend. This required many owners of private blogs, using Google Groups to distribute BlogSend based email updates, to add "noreply@blogger.com" as a Group member. This requires the use of the Groups administrative control, to add a new member without consent.

The ability to add a new member, without consent (without requiring return confirmation from the new member), carried with it a warning, to Groups administrators.
If you misuse this option, your use of it may be revoked.
This ability, when provided, was an excellent tool for spammers, to maintain a spam victim mailing list.

Recently, and possibly involving the misuse of "noreply@blogger.com" as Groups members, the option to add Groups members without consent was removed from the Groups "invite members" wizard. Now, any new Groups memberships require return consent from the new member.

This change leaves owners of private Groups unable to add "noreply@blogger.com" as a Group member - which leaves Groups unusable for distribution of private blog content. Private blog owners now have only one option - Use Google+, and properly restricted Circles, to selectively distribute blog post updates.

Note that owners of publicly accessible blogs can use Google+ also, in addition to the also popular option to use FeedBurner Email Distribution. Or, if you want to continue using Groups for distribution, set "Who can post messages?" to "Anyone can post", in the "Group settings" Access tab.

Google+ will also be useful as a replacement for Private blogs, where membership has grown past the 100 member limit. This will, unfortunately, require that each member setup a Google+ account - and become less anonymous. One feature of Google+, which not every blog owner or member appreciates, is the loss of anonymity. Google+ accounts are based on our actual legal identity, by Google policy. Not everybody wants to be identifiable.

>> Top

Comments

Chris said…
I disagree that there's only one option - Feedburner works very well, and it has an email option, along with a form to post in your blog. Further, there is a new widget that allows subscriptions via email, and it uses Feedburner in the back-end.
Nitecruzr said…
Chris,

"blog.cswenson.com" is not a private blog. Private blogs do not publish feeds, and cannot use FeedBurner for distribution. Your blog has a feed, and is public.
i'm unsure from this post but how do you get the comments and posts emailed to a group in a private blog?? Most importantly the comments.
Nitecruzr said…
Chooky,

If you set your Group so "Anyone can post", then "noreply@blogger.com" can post - and your comments and posts will email to your group just fine. But that would leave your private blog with an exposed groups distribution list. If Anyone can post, then your Group will not be so private, will it?

Popular posts from this blog

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".

With Following, Anonymous Followers Can't Be Blocked

As people become used to Blogger Following as just another tool to connect people, they start to think about the implications . And we see questions like How do I block someone who's been following my blog secretly? I couldn't see her in my Followers list (hence I couldn't use the "Block this user" link), but I have looked at her profile and could see that she's Following my blog. Following, when you look at the bottom line, is no more than a feed subscription and an icon (possibly) displayed on your blog, and linking back to the profile of the Follower in question. If someone Follows your blog anonymously, all that they get is a subscription to the blog feed. If you publish a feed from your blog, and if the feed is open to anybody (which, right now, is the case ), then it's open to everybody. If someone wants to use Following to subscribe to the feed, you can't stop this. You can't block it before, or after, the fact. You can't Block w