The Real Blogger Status

One of the more intriguing questions, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , is about blog accessories, and template antiquity. I feel the customization with HTML templates is a lot more unique - but I wanted a certain gadget, on my blog. I upgraded my template in order to add the gadget, and copy its coding. After reverting back to the Classic template, I placed the gadget into my HTML. How do I get the gadget to work? This blog owner does not understand the differences between HTML and XML.

We see an occasional would be blog member, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , bemoaning lack of private blog access . I used to follow a certain blogger - but found out, recently, that now his blog is blocked & only open to invited readers. I do not know the author and would like an invite. How do I contact the author? Lack of access to the fancy clubs and parties, in any city, is a disappointment to many - except the lucky members of the "AAA" list. Private blogs have the same exclusivity. Life is not fair.

We see various complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about perceived poor response, in removing offensive blogs. I've reported this blog, repeatedly, for impersonating me - and it's still online! or That other blog was removed from service after only a couple of days! Why is this blog still online?? These bloggers do not understand that complaint volume, against different blogs, can affect how promptly Blogger Policy / Google Legal can take action, and remove problem blogs.

The practice of " Due Diligence " is a responsible precaution, taken by all businesses that have any future as businesses. Blogger / Google, being a business, subscribes to this practice. This affects their involvement with us, their "customers", in various ways - though not all "customers" understand the implications. Some blog owners find out about the limitations unwillingly, in discussions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken .

Thanks to the tireless efforts of an ever growing community of expert Blogger Volunteer Helpers, the Google Blogger Help forums are becoming a useful source of effective and reliable help, to bloggers worldwide. Google is recognising this trend, and has shifted some of its support resources from answering Blogger Contact Form entries, to answering problem reports in the forums. And, having added the Google Blogger Help Resources Center , they are also replacing or augmenting the Blogger Help database . So, if you can't find help for your problem, or answers for your questions, here, in The Real Blogger Status, try the Google Blogger Help Resources Center , and the Google Blogger Help forums . Interactive help, from many knowledgeable volunteers, and Google staff, should prove to be more effective then simply using the Blogger Contact Form . >> Top

One currently popular joke goes If you don't think that God has a sense of humour, try shopping in WalMart sometime. Some folks go on to add more, possibly redundant, advice ... and look in the mirror. So how does this apply to Blogger? Blogger, like WalMart, caters to those with more basic human needs. WalMart, by carrying everything from grapes, to tires, to underwear, and vision care, is a one stop shopping center. And you'll see folks of all types there. Blogger, with its One Button Publishing service, appears to be targeting the WalMart customers of the Internet. Many people, who barely know how to turn the computer on, and to use a mouse, are busy creating their own web sites, and learning as they go . But there are some components of Blogger that aren't intended for WalMart shoppers. Google Custom Domains In the process of allowing us to setup a web site hosted on Google, using a non-BlogSpot URL , we have to setup a DNS referral. For those of us who understand ...

If any of you are fans of classical American (USA) literature, you may recall the tale by Samuel Clement aka Mark Twain, and Tom Sawyer and his White Picket Fence . I am imagining this conversation between two Google executives back a few years ago. Exec 1: We need to increase our ad sales. Exec 2: OK, let's set up more web sites, and put our ads on them. Exec 1: No way, bro. That's too much work. How will we ever come up with enough content? Exec 2: No problem, dude. We'll get the public to do it for us. We'll provide the network, and the servers, and con the Internet users of the world into creating all of the websites for us. Exec 1: That's the ticket! I've been looking at Blogger - they have an easy interface, we can get lots of dumb asses, who know nothing about computers or the web, to set up web sites, and write all sorts of shite. And we will own the web sites, and get richer from the ads that we put out there. Exec 2: But with millions of dumb ass...

Blogger is a free service - anybody can have a Blogger account, and setup as many websites (aka blogs) as he / she wishes, simply by providing an email address for registration . But - and don't be deceived here - Blogger is not a non-profit organisation. Blogger - and Google - is paid very well. From advertisements, that appear on our websites. Or in the browser display, on the computers of folks who are reading our websites. We build and maintain the websites. Our readers view our websites. Our readers view the ads, provided thru our websites. Our readers buy the products presented in the ads, provided thru our websites. The retail companies pay their advertisers. The advertisers pay Google. We don't charge Google for our time building and maintaining the websites, and they don't charge us for the hardware and software that hosts the websites. It's a circular partnership. And it's good that they don't charge us for support. Charging for support would requi...

In the story of Chicken Little , the main character runs around screaming The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!! Last week, Blogger / Blogspot had yet another major outage . Thousands of Bloggers were left with nothing to do but gather round and scream Blogger is down!! Blogger is down!! This week, we have some Bloggers who continue with Blogger is down!! Blogger is down!! even though they could be blogging. What's up with that? And unfortunately, like The Boy Who Cried Wolf , the more they scream Blogger is down!! Blogger is down!! the less folks will listen. Including Blogger Support. This affects all of us. Please, if you're able to post, and to read others posts, don't get online and scream Blogger is down!! Blogger is down!! . Because it's not. STFU unless you can contribute something useful . Update (10:55, June 17): I was wrong - Blogger really is down . I'm imaginarily typing (and publishing) these words, and you're not really reading them....

Having written about my early memories of shopping in Richmond, Virginia , I was saddened to read the news from a fellow Blogger and Richmond resident : ...Miller & Rhoads and Thalheimers are alas, no more. Both went out of business and their buildings are slated to be torn down in some downtown renovation. Miller & Rhoads, Richmond VA, c. 1931 (gone) That sad news was delivered thru my website GuestBook , as it was impossible to write a Blogger comment . Thalheimers, Richmond VA, somewhat later (gone) K-Mart, on the other hand, however questionable their service, is still with us. And K-Mart is getting bigger, having recently bought out Sears / Roebuck (aka Sears). So many Bloggers are thinking about moving to alternate blog hosts, like Wordpress. Well, The Real Blogger Status is being mirrored there, this week. But do I expect that to be a long term solution? Regretfully, no. K-Mart, though known for providing less customer support, outlasted both Miller & Rhoads and...

When I was young - back in the middle of the past century - I lived with my parents in rural Virginia. There were no real suburban areas then - just little towns with a an A&P or Piggly Wiggly for foods, Ben Franklin for toys and miscellaneous stuff, and Western Auto for auto parts and hardware. Sam Walton was just a kid then too, I guess. Anyway, the nearest town was the nascent metropolis of Richmond. It had a real urban downtown - with a Miller & Rhoads, and a Thalheimers (both chains now owned, I think, by Macys or Saks). And in the suburbs, a K-Mart. Now getting to Richmond was a couple hours of boredom on the country roads, and 2 hours in the car with my parents was like 6 hours nowadays - the car didn't have a radio, or air conditioning. But 1/2 hour outside the Richmond city limits was the K-Mart, and we would stop there first. After 2 hours in the car, K-Mart was always our favourite stop. But, we were always picky about actually buying anything there. For q...