The Real Blogger Status

Blog owners use many techniques for getting new readers - and for keeping existing readers happy. Some blog owners use techniques which work inconsistently, because they are not designed to work the way they are being used. Some blog owners becomes concerned when their blogs, listed in blogrolls on other peoples blogs, don't seem to be updated as regularly as they would expect. Blogrolls are good tools for getting new readers, in a casual manner. They may not be as good, for predictable, scheduled visitor activity.

One of the stranger confusions, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , refers to the posts feed, from our blog, displayed on other people's blogs. I just published a new blog post - but it does not show up on my friends blogs. Is there a problem, with my feed? When we investigate, the blog feed shows no problem. We display the feed in the browser, and compare with the blog main page - and everything on the main page is in the feed. It just does not show up on our friends feed gadgets. So, what's the problem here? Were we imagining a problem? No, it's not imagination.

Recently, we've seen a few reports from unhappy blog owners who used to publish blogs using FTP, who tried to delete the FTP published blogs from their Blogger account, and now can't access their dashboard bloglist - or even login to their Blogger accounts successfully. I recently tried to delete an old FTP published blog from our account, I hit the "delete blog" button, and I get error code bX-dm6o9e. When I try to access my dashboard, I get the same error. The option to publish a Blogger blog to remote, non Google hosted, server space - known as FTP Publishing - ended several years ago . Now, people attempting to clean up their blog list, and trying to remove old, FTP published blogs will find a problem. We note that the dashboard utilities, in general, can still be accessed, using the navbar links - or the quick edit post links.

Slightly less than 1 week ago , we started seeing reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , suggesting yet another hijack of Blogger blog readers. When trying to view my blog I am redirected to http://rpc.blogrolling.com. Has my blog been hacked? The titles (questions) are phrased so differently, and posted in such numbers, in the forums (and as comments to my blog), that suggests that nobody publishing these questions sees how many other people are reporting the same problem. And even with many of us knowing about the problem, and having developed a simple diagnostic procedure, the reports keep coming. Why do we see so many reports, about one simple problem?

This week, we're seeing a new small flood of complaints about redirecting blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . When I try to view my blog, I am being redirected to http://rpc.blogrolling.com! Many blog owners have forgotten the past, and the accessories they installed on their blogs, long ago. Sometimes - as now - the past can return, to haunt you.

A few bloggers, recently, are trying to add a Feed gadget to one of their blogs, and as they do so, the "Configure Feed" wizard shows a mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed". This typically happens when the feed in question has not been activated. If you're seeing the "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" when trying to "Configure Feed", you'll find The Save button will be non responsive. You can't publish a Feed gadget configured for a non existent feed. As soon as you correct the problem Activate the feed for your blog (when the feed is for your blog). Hit "Change Feed URL" from the "Configure Feed" display with "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" displayed. Hit "Continue". you'll see the feed for your blog in the "Configure Feed" gadget window. And, you'll be able to publish the new Feed gadget. Before you can do step #2, though, you may experience a small amount of panic OMG, my b...

As our blogs become more a part of us, and we connect more to our friends and their blogs, we use more gadgets that connect our blogs to our friends blogs. Things like lists, bloglists, and linklists become larger, and become more important in our blogs. Responsible practices, as bloggers, include backing up our blogs and their contents. Backing up the comments, the posts , and the template , are all possible, and all are a good idea. Unfortunately, the gadgets such as lists, bloglists, and linklists aren't part of the posts (they aren't blog content), and neither are they part of the template (they aren't blog structure). So occasionally, we hear the plaintive cry I just deleted my blog. I had the posts exported to an .xml file, and I back up my template regularly, but what about the blogroll in my sidebar? Oh no!!! and right now, we have no answer to that. Other than Start over. or Maybe Blogger Support will restore the blog - if you are patient enough. >> To...

When we want to connect our blogs to our friends blogs, and vice versa, the first thing we think about is a linklist. Taking a basic list, and attaching a link to each list member, gives a nice structured list of links, called in some cases a BlogRoll, and called by Blogger a LinkList . That's simple, and that's boring. So Blogger went one better, replacing the links with blog feeds, and voila - the BlogList. For each LinkList entry, you provide a caption, and a link (URL). For each BlogList entry, you provide only a URL. Blogger does the rest, and you have a list of feeds. You can display the feeds in several different formats. For each feeds, you can choose to display The FavIcon of the blog. Title of most recent item. Snippet of most recent item. Thumbnail of most recent item. Date of last update. THis gives you a nice set of choices what you want your BlogList to look like. Want to see one in action? Look at the bottom of my sidebar, for my current BlogList (subject ...