The Real Blogger Status

As the New Blogger GUI becomes more of a standard, in the Blogger blog world, we're seeing evidence of confusion about the differences in the icons and the menus. How do I UnFollow a blog? is one question that we're seeing, from a few confused blog Followers, this week. The answer is right there, in front of you, when you're looking at the Blog List / Reading list. The Gear icon, to the right of "Reading list"(in the New GUI), replaces the blue "Manage" button at the bottom of the page (in the Classic GUI). Just click on the Gear icon, and you're there, ready to Manage your blog community . But don't confuse the Gear icon to the right of "Reading list", with the Gear icon at the top of each dashboard page. >> Top

Occasionally, an oddity in our Blogger profiles will cause confusion - and offer some blog owners a opportunity to make a bad mistake. For some unknown reason, some Blogger blogs may be listed twice, in the dashboard or profile Blog List. If you are one of these blog owners, seeing the same blog listed twice in your dashboard or profile, think before you act! Check the URL behind the blog title , for each entry - you'll see an identical URL behind both.

The 21st Century is the beginning of new experiences for mankind. The Internet in general, and Blogger blogging in particular, are providing opportunities unparalleled in history - people of all nations and locations are coming together, casually and freely, to get acquainted. And with the opportunities come many challenges - some major, and others seemingly minor. One seemingly minor issue, with a significance which may not be realised by everybody, is how we write the date. In the USA, we generally write it as "mm/dd/yy", which stands, in computer speak, for "Month / Day / Year". A variation here is "mm/dd/yyyy", which denotes the year entered, and includes the century - which is also an important detail.

The new Blogger commenting system has been out for several weeks now , and as some blog owners are becoming accustomed to it, it appears that others are occasionally confused. We see recent reports in BHF: Something Is Broken I am moderating comments, yet I find some comments being published without my input. and I deleted the comments, and now I can't get them back! and All of the comments to my blog are going straight to Spam. These reports may be from folks who are not observing what queue they are looking at, or what the buttons do, in the Comments wizard.

The new "Preview" mode in Blogger Post Editor is a considerable improvement over what we used to have - but it still can cause confusion. Lately, we see occasional glimpses of confusion, about it's use. I changed my blog, and the changes were visible when I hit Preview - but the blog was unchanged when I Published, and then viewed my changes.

The ability to have a static home page for our blogs has been on the wishlist for many blog owners, for a long time. The wish, for a static home page, became even stronger when Blogger released the static pages option, and the Pages editor. With the tweak to index label searches and other dynamic pages , some folks really wanted a static home page, to accompany their indexed label searches and other dynamic pages. After Blogger continued to ignore our pleas for a static home page, we found a 2 step workaround for this omission. In Settings - "Posts and comments", we set "Show" to "0 posts" . With some clever custom template code, we make a text gadget that only displays on home page . This gives us a home page with nothing but a static text gadget displayed - and links (where provided) to other dynamic and static pages.

Occasionally, some bloggers report confusion over whether their blogs have been tagged as splogs, after receiving some odd email. Your blog at http://myblog.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: NONE. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible. The blog does not appear to be locked, nor does it's online status change. All that's seen is the ominous email notice. The response from Blogger Support is slightly encouraging. we have a bug in our system that has been sending those email inadvertently So if you get this email, apparently you can ignore it. Your blog should remain online, and accessible as before. Check your dashboard - you should have administrative access , and no need to worry. >> Top

As I write in Your Blog Is Like You - Unique , the name of this blog is "bloggerstatusforreal", and its URL is now " blogging.nitecruzr.net " (it's also known as " bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com "). There are many articles in this blog, and the articles are called "posts". If you have a social networking account, like FaceBook (Friendster, Multiply, ...), you may write a blog, to discuss a specific concern or interest which you may have. Both you and your friends may reply to your blog. If you have another concern or interest, you may create another blog for your account. A FaceBook (Friendster, Multiply, ...) blog , with many replies, is the equivalent to a Blogger (WordPress, TypePad, ...) post , with many comments. One FaceBook (Friendster, Multiply, ...) account can contain many blogs , just as one Blogger (WordPress, TypePad, ...) blog can contain many posts . All FaceBook (Friendster, Multiply, ...) blogs, and other accessories...

A frequently seen sign of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum , is the connection between Following and Private blogs (blogs designated "Only people I choose"). If I make my blog private, will people still be able to follow my blog? Like many Blogger Help Forum questions, this one suffers from a significant amount of ambiguity. There are several details, relevant to the above question. Classically, people were said to "follow" a blog when they would periodically view it online, and / or view its contents using a newsfeed reader . People designated as Readers will be able to view a blog in the browser, though new posts won't be visible in a newsfeed reader. Blogger recently developed the Following program, to involve Use of the newsfeed, automatically added to a Dashboard Followers Reading List, and Google Reader. For blogs displaying the Followers accessory gadget, the ability to, temporarily, have ones icon displayed in the Followers gadget. For blogs displaying ...

In my musings last month about spam blogs, and people victimised by spam blogs , I analogised the legendary college secret societies , and the impersonal and rude treatment of the unfortunates who did not get initiated. eventually, those who don't get elected will open their eyes, remove the blindfold, and find herself / himself in a pitiful group of rejects, all waiting (hopelessly) for that tap. The tap that never comes.

Every day, we see one or two queries from confused bloggers, about these boxes. I type the URL in my browser, and get No blog found. or Why doesn't it show more than what's in my blog? or I know the URL. I can see it on my dashboard even. But the search says that it's not there. All of these observations are evidence of people who don't know what all the boxes in the browser are intended to provide.

I'll be honest here. I was a nerd in college (and I am one even now ). So this story is one that I've only seen in movies - neither I, nor my friends, got even this far. College Secret Societies Some of them have no name even. There are no published entrance rules - membership is by invitation only, and rules are communicated by word of mouth. And the initiation process starts like this: The prospective members are blindfolded, and led to a dark room. The prospective members are put into a circle, in silence. The prospective members wait, for what will happen, they are told nothing. Periodically, one prospect will feel a slight tap on the shoulder. In silence, he / she will be taken by the hand, and led into another room where they will join the elite. And eventually, those who don't get elected will open their eyes, remove the blindfold, and find herself / himself in a pitiful group of rejects, all waiting (hopelessly) for that tap. The tap that never comes.

A couple months ago, we had various bloggers report that they are initially informed that a given URL is available, but the "Create a blog" wizard later shows that the same URL is not available . This month, we seem to have more of the same, plus a new, disturbing detail . I am unable to see my blog on the web or sign in to it on Blogger Dashboard. I initially thought my blog had been given a false positive as a spam blog and blocked. A Blogger Help forum post said that often happens and I should send a "review request." I sent a review request from my Blogger Dashboard. It took me to a page that says: Blog is not locked. Your blog is not locked and does not need a review. If you are having problems accessing your blog or if you received an email saying that it was locked, please leave a message in the Help Group and we will investigate the issue. Further conversation returns additional details. On my Dashboard, next to the name of my blog "This Day in Famous...

This week, we have various bloggers report that they are initially informed that a given URL is available, but the "Create a blog" wizard later shows that the same URL is not available. Whenever I try to register, after Blogger suggests "The name xxxxxxx is available to register!", I get the message "Sorry, this blog address is not available". This seems coincidental, coming after the recent occurrence of people being told that their blogs had been locked for being splogs, then told not when trying to request review. Now, you see it ("available"). Now, you don't. And it was this same way yesterday, when I identified this URL . Are you seeing this confusion? What URL are you trying to use or to register? Was this ever registered to you? Did you ever get a spam warning for this URL? You use the "Create a blog" wizard, which gives you your new blog if and only if the URL is available. If "Create a blog" (aka "Name your ...

Many problems which are reported by bloggers have simple resolution procedures. Clear cache in the browser, and restart the browser. Some problems are slightly more complex. Clear both cache and cookies, and restart the browser. and, at the center of each procedure, we see Clear cache. Cache, or local storage of Internet content , is at the center of many problems with blogs and web sites. If a copy of your blog is in a cache somewhere, the computers that access the cached copy will continue to display that copy, until told to get a fresh copy. If you just updated your blog, folks accessing the cached copy won't see your changes. One way to ensure that you see fresh copies of everything is to clear cache, which forces fresh retrieval of everything. For all of its simplicity, clearing cache isn't a universal solution, and neither is it consistently productive - even for problems which are generally known to respond to clearing of cache.

Occasionally, we see a confused query in Blogger Help Group On my blog when I choose I want to see 8 days in the main page, it shows posts from today (January 29, 2009) to December 22, 2008. Is this "8" days for you? or Why can't I ever predict how many posts I'll see in 5 days? and what we have here are bloggers who don't understand what "Show 7 Days" really means. If we select " Show 7 Posts on the main page ", we get a maximum of 7 posts displayed in main page view. Many bloggers figure that "Show 7 Days on the main page", similarly, means show all of the posts in the most recent 7 days span of time. Blogger, however, doesn't see it that way. If you set "Show" to "7 days", you could get anywhere from 7, to any number, of posts. If you posted once / day for 6 days, and 5 times on the 7th day, you'll end up with 11 posts. If that 7 days is from 6 days in a consecutive stretch, plus one day a month ago ...

The Maximum Transmission Unit , aka MTU, is a critical setting on your computer. The MTU setting controls the size of the messages that it passes to other computers. When you surf the Internet, your computer is in communication with hundreds of other computers, each with their own possibility to contribute to packet loss . Packet loss is caused partly because of an optimistic MTU setting on your computer, and partly because of constantly varying paths between the computers, resulting from packet switching .

Having multiple blogs in a custom domain is a simple matter - but like all custom domain details, it's rigid in its simplicity . A custom domain array consists of a home blog, plus any number of alternate blogs. These alternate blogs are generally setup as virtual hosts, using "CNAME" referrals to "ghs.google.com" .

One of the least understood details about Google Custom Domains is the need to wait, when setting up, or when making changes to, the DNS addressing for the domain. This is important, before publishing the blog within Blogger, or telling our readers about our new non-BlogSpot blog. Daily, we see anxious queries I just used the " Buy a Domain For My Blog " wizard, and paid for my domain with my credit card. The credit card company confirmed the charge. But I see that it's " In Transition"?? or You told me how to fix my DNS problem, and I did just what you told me. But I don't see my changes when I Dig the addresses for my domain. I know that I made the changes! What is going on here? Why do I have to wait, unpredictably?

Along with the similar cry, " Why Isn't Google Solving The Server Not Found Error 404 Issue? ", this is a concern of many blog owners . Many blog owners only want to publish to their newly setup non-BlogSpot URL, and have their readers able to access their blogs. Like the answer to the latter question, the answer to this question is simple. Google is solving " the problem ". One problem, at a time.