The Real Blogger Status

We periodically see hopeful - yet naive - requests from blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , asking about comment moderation improvement. How do I add a disruptive commenter to a killfile list - and never see his/her nonsense ever again, without moderating every comment, being published? This would be a popular feature - if it could be provided, in any way that would achieve results .

If you've been publishing a Blogger blog for any amount of time, you'll eventually discover the need to use a second (third, ...) Blogger account. Maybe you want the benefit of publishing blog posts using two different names, or maybe you need to obscure your identity and publish a new blog - the reason is not relevant. The need for a second account is what matters. And you start new account creation, as any Blogger session, from Google "One account" login .

When you have a Google+ profile, and you use it with your Blogger blog, it replaces your Blogger profile - and becomes the public part of your Blogger identity. Google+ displays your profile more transparently than Blogger displays your Blogger profile . Your Google+ profile is clearly and consistently linked to your Google+ comments and posts, for your readers to view - and it's part of the Google+ desktop, for you to view and to edit. And Google+ lets you display or hide sensitive portions of your profile, with more options than Blogger provides. As a Blogger blog owner, you can probably find your Google+ profile , as attached to your Blogger dashboard. All that aside, Google+ is not completely obvious, in letting you view and edit all profile content. One of the challenges of Google+, and showing and editing your profile, is that Google+ is being updated, right now - and there are now two Google+ desktops.

We see the occasional query, about name changes, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . I just got married, and now I have a new email address, and a new name. How do I change my Blogger identity? And the usual advice was You can change youe email address, and / or change the display name (not the account name) - and you can transfer control of the blog to a new Blogger account, which bears your new name. But old posts will remain, with your old name. And there, we would have one more disappointed blog owner. But that does not have to be the final answer.

Your Blogger profile is the public part of your Blogger identity , that can be seen by others. You will want your profile to provide the best representation of you - but do not display too many details. Revealing account names and email addresses , for instance, can put your blogs at risk of theft.

One of the most intriguing subjects, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , is about account access - and the dashboard menu. My menu only gives me Posts, and Settings! How do I manage my blog? This blog member (owner?) may be simply logged in to the wrong Google account.

Google has been playing games with their online products, so much, that some people seem to ignore the seriousness of the issues. We see the occasional naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I feel like Google has gone over some sort of security event horizon -- trying so hard to evade hackers that too many authentic account holders are getting locked out, irreparably. This would be blog owner (or possibly, blog thief) feels that she should not be responsible for remembering the necessary details , to login to her Blogger account. Alternately, she should cruise through account recovery, with no challenges.

In 2012, Blogger ended support for legacy accounts . This year, we see that account recovery does not support legacy accounts , any more. People who don't remember their legacy account names / passwords are now unable to migrate - and are unable to recover account access, so they can migrate. Every year, any account which remains unmigrated is less likely to be accessible, by the owner. As that happens, and with account recovery not working for legacy accounts, migration won't be possible - and the account will be unusable.

Changing your Blogger account name is like changing your birth name - it can't be done, without legal complications. You can have a nickname - I have several, depending upon who's calling me. But when a cop stops you , you're going to need your government issued vehicle operator certificate - and there's no nickname there. Just your birth name. If you don't like your current Blogger account name, you transfer control of the blog - using two browsers - to an account that you like.

Many problems with the Blogger dashboard are caused by the account / profile in use. If the wrong account or profile is in use, the simplest solution - in many cases - is simply to logout from Blogger / Google , then login using the correct Blogger / Google account. This is much less disruptive then advice to " clear cache, cookies, and sessions - then restart the browser".

Occasionally, we see confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue ?, about a rather obvious process. How do I logout? The blog owner, here, is not being completely facetious, or obtuse. Many applications, on the web and in other scenarios, have a "Logout Complete" display - maybe with a link, to login, again. You have now logged out of XXXXXXX. Thank you for visiting! >> Login And "Login" would be clickable, and would take you back to the Login screen.

Every day we see the complaints, of the hundreds. Your instructions, for recovering access to my Blogger account, don't work! And alternately, we see the anguish. I can't login to my Blogger account, because my account is locked!! And the final complaint, which is the most heartbreaking. I can login, but my blog is not on my dashboard - and someone has filled my blog, with spam!!! These are all reports about the same problem , in alternate universes. Any time Blogger Engineering changes their account / blog recovery options, and cuts down on the numbers of one of the three, the other two will surely increase in number - because all three are symptoms of the same problem. People simply refuse to remember their account names and passwords .

Every week, we see the anguished cry of blog owners, who don't have access to maintain, or publish to, their blogs. Help me! My email address changed last month, I dropped my phone into the sink, and now I can't sign in to my blog! If you look at the fine print, you see the full story.

Ever since the new, integrated 2014 Google login was provided for us, several months ago, some Blogger blog owners have been losing access to their blogs. Problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , illustrate the confusion. I can't login to my blog! and I can only use my GMail, not my Blogger, account!! These are typical examples of the problems which come from misunderstanding the new login process .

One of the most constantly seen discussions, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , involves people who have forgotten their Blogger account name or password. Generally, it's a rather simple task to recover access to one's Blogger account , should you forget / lose access to any one Blogger authentication token . The Blogger Forgot your username or password? wizard will send, upon request, an account recovery email message, to the email address associated with the Blogger account needed, for any active and online blog. Just provide the blog name, read the email, and follow instructions. Unfortunately, not all Blogger blog owners can always use email based account recovery.

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 ...

Blog owners use the Blogger / Google login wizard in several different tasks - and sometimes cause problems, when they login using the wrong Blogger account. Besides intentionally logging in to Blogger to access the dashboard or publish a new post, the Blogger / Google login wizard is involved in several support tasks. When retrieving a blog owned by a "legacy" Blogger account . When executing an account recovery . When accepting membership in a blog - either someone else's blog - or your own blog as you transfer it, from one account to another. When preparing you to setup yourself as a Follower of a Blogger blog

Recently, we're seeing various problem reports, in BHF: How Do I? , from confused bloggers unable to login to Blogger using a non GMail email account. I created a Blogger account with a non GMail email address, and can no longer access it without a GMail account! How do I login now? as if using a non GMail email address as a Blogger account name is no longer an option.

One of the most common problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum , comes from people who can't sign in to their Blogger accounts , and manage their blogs. Frequently, this is because some can't remember their account name or password - or are confused by the Google multi account login . Sometimes, this is because they have an account name that they can't change - because they don't understand the connection between the email address and the account name. And occasionally, this confusion leads to worse problems, such as unintended creation of an additional account - or even creation of a duplicate blog . A Blogger account is simply a Google account, used to access or to manage blogs. A Blogger account can be setup intentionally - or on the fly, when you create a blog, or when you accept membership in someone else's blog .

Almost every Internet service, that requires us to identify ourselves, provides a backup identification option. Every properly planned Internet service provides a way to access their services, should we forget our account name and / or password. Some services provide backdoor access in such easy fashion, that some people don't bother about using front door access. Some Blogger blog owners use backdoor access to Blogger, routinely. This is a problem, in several ways.