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Your Reading List Is Unique To You

One question, that I have never seen specifically asked, is about our following, reading lists, and blog subscriptions in general.
Why do I have to login to Blogger, to maintain my Reading List?
The blog follower / owner has asked a question that is involved in various problems, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - but with this question so easily overlooked.

The Blogger dashboard Reading List, which so many use transparently, is unique to each of us.

Similar to the confusion about the email address, mysteriously displayed on our Blogger dashboard, is the unstated detail that each of us has our own personal set of followed blogs - and consequently, our own Reading List.

If you want to maintain the (Blogger Following / Google Friend Connect) Followers community, on your blog, you are forced to do this, as part of the Followers GUI. When you are able to access the Reading List "gear" icon, and "Manage Blogs I'm Following", you have already logged in - possibly, without realising.

Sometimes, blog owners have learned of various dashboard shortcuts - and use them transparently. All blog dashboard access requires a login - to simply prove, to Blogger, that you are the owner of the blog in question.

Most blog owners understand, instinctively, that they must login to access each blog dashboard. Not everybody realises, however, that they have their individual Reading List - also accessed by their own login, on the dashboard "home" page.

Along with having your own Reading List, you have your own reading list maintenance wizard (aka "Manage Blogs I'm Following" - or possibly the Google Friend Connect equivalent, for Blogger accounts that use Google+ profiles). To access your own wizard, you must identify yourself, by logging in to Blogger.

Failure to use the right Blogger account, or using a computer that prevents proper identification, leads to an empty Reading List - or to a list with just one entry. This is one reason for some people claiming that the Reading List is unreliable.

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