The Real Blogger Status

Besides the confusion about being in the right Circles, some Google+ comments can be overlooked, because of the comment view selector. We see odd problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When a friend mentioned she'd commented, I found that odd - because I couldn't find the comment anymore. It had shown up previously - but it was now gone. The view selector is not so obvious, either. It's similar to the "Compose" / "HTML" buttons , in Post Editor.

We see an occasional sign of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I let my readers search my entire blog? or Why does my Search not find all of my posts? Both of these questions - and more - are seen, because not every blog owner is aware of the limitations, and possibilities, of each search technique.

We're seeing some signs of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about the current rewrite of Blogger Followers / Google Friend Connect . When it says that ' non-Google accounts and profiles will be removed ' does that mean my blog will be deleted - since I use a non GMail based Blogger account? There are two bits of confusion here. I've explained a few times that a Blogger account, GMail based or not, is still a Google account . That detail does not change. Next, we should recall how Blogger provided login to the Followers gadget, for those surfing the web without using a Google account.

Some blog owners can't figure out how to add the Blogger Followers gadget, to their blogs. We see occasional confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about installation and use of Followers. After typing https://www.google.com/friendconnect/ into my browser, I am redirected to Blogger Help: Manage blogs you follow How do I install Followers?

We see the frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , almost daily. My blog has disappeared from my dashboard, and my subscribers are getting spam! How do I get my blog returned to me? and I got a new computer, and now I can't access my blog. Who can I call at Google, to get this fixed?? These are two blog owners who have the same problem, but do not understand the connection.

Last month, we observed that SSL, though generally available for blogs published to "blogspot.com", did not work for all such blogs . Owners of blogs who used the "www" alias of "blogspot.com", such as my BlogSpot mirror blog " https://blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com/ ", reported annoying error messages, when trying to access the "www" alias of the blog, using SSL. Your connection is not private For my BlogSpot mirror blog, you'll see the problem, when viewing " https://www.blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com/ ". The problem apparently involves the SSL certificate for "blogspot.com", which does not include the "www" aliase for the subdomains (such as "blogger-status-for-real.blogspot.com").

One useful alternative to the "Archives" gadget , when you want to help your readers index your blog by Title, is a LinkList. You can make a LinkList in 5 minutes - and you can add a new entry, when you publish a post, in 10 seconds - and index your blog by Post Title. Just don't confuse the terms "linklist" and "list", when you add a Title index.

Occasionally, we see signs of confusion, in in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Where are the buttons, in the toolbar? or Why don't I have a Colour / Font / Jump Break / Video Upload / whatever selection, in my post editor? The reason is very subtle - and not easy to spot. Blogger page / post editor is very elegant, with no feature being colourfully different. Most people compose their posts in Compose mode - and don't use HTML Mode, except for specific needs - or maybe by accident. And the people who don't use HTML mode, intentionally, can't always spot the difference, in the mode selector buttons.

Some blog owners keep coming back, requesting review, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . My blog has been deleted and restored, repeatedly. Last time, after Blogger unblocked my blog, I received this email ....Upon further review we have determined that your blog was mistakenly marked as a TOS violator by our automated system and, as such, we have reinstated your blog... That was just last month. This month, the same thing, my blog is gone again. This blog owner is failing to read the handwriting on the wall. Unfortunately, to have any future, a blog requires continual new material.

Spend some time surfing Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - both in detail, for recent periods - and random sampling, over long periods. Read the comments, and questions. You'll see both complaints about spammy (aka "abusive") content - and objectionable (aka "adult") content. And, you'll see review requests, referencing previous abusive and adult content penalties. Given enough surfing, you'll discover that each is simply the other side of the same coin.

Sometimes, a problem with a specific gadget or post, when displayed, can affect the appearance of the entire blog. We've known for years, about the mysterious dropped sidebar . Sometimes, we see similar problems, in other blog performance. Gadgets missing. Gadgets visible, but they don't work. Gadgets visible in the desktop view - but not the mobile view (or, vice versa). Posts that are unreadable - or worse, previously published posts, in that index page, that are unreadable. Both the HTML / JavaScript gadget, and the page or post, can be edited either as code ("HTML"), and as displayed ("Compose" / "Rich Text"). If you spend a lot of time in "Compose" / "Rich Text" mode, when editing gadgets, pages and posts, you may not know about "HTML" mode - or its dangers.

With Google Domains registered custom domains becoming more normal, we are seeing one odd attention to detail, expressed as confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . My website uses "ghs.google.com" - am I supposed to use "ghs.googlehosted.com", instead? It's good to be attentive to detail, particularly with custom domain publishing . This is one detail that may not require immediate attention, however.

One of the more intriguing questions, that we see in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , involves the Blogger / WordPress dichotomy . Should I migrate my blog to WordPress, where they provide SEO optimized themes, and various plugins? My answer to that question starts with the suggestion, that the blog owner should ask himself Why do I publish a blog? This question has many possible answers - but I will focus on two possibilities.

Sometimes, we see odd confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I deleted my blog - can somebody help me restore it? I worked so many days writing it! or alternately I am trying to write a new blog, but it says my url has already been taken (by me). If the first owner is kind enough to include the URL of the deleted "blog", we may use our favourite online diagnostic tool - and discover that the blog is still online, and not deleted! In the second case, we may find a new blog, with one post. Investigating further, we discover that the problem here involves terminology. This article that I am writing, "Blogger Terminology - Blogs Vs Posts", is a post, which is part of my blog, "The REAL Blogger Status" (which right now is actually The ONLY Blogger Status - but that is another tale ). The terminology here is pedantic, to us - but it's very real, to the blog owner who has just deleted an important post. Or to the owner who has publi...

Occasionally, we see a naive question, which requests a value comparison between pages (static pages), and posts (dynamic pages). What are the advantages of using a page, instead of a post? That question, worded in that vague way, cannot be answered. The various differences between pages and posts can provide advantages, or disadvantages . To evaluate a page or a post as an advantage, one must know the specific needs of the blog in question.

We're seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , mentioning problems adding or updating the HTML and Text gadgets. The most common symptom, when reported, is very simple. When I try to update the gadget, all that I see is javascript:void(0); In this case, we have to first explain that " javascript:void(0); " is not the problem - it's simply a symptom of the problem . Once we explore the problem itself, we see various possible causes. The base cause for problems with the HTML / Text gadget is simple - the script which processes gadget updates provides no diagnostics when detecting errors.

The schizophrenic nature of the HTML / Text gadget continues to confuse some blog owners. Recently, we're seeing claims about broken Text gadgets , in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . I hit the Save button, and nothing happens! Why is my Text gadget not working?? Too many blog owners are causing their own problem, because of confusion about the caption in the gadget update wizard . The header of the HTML / Text wizard is the only visible difference, between the "HTML" and "Text" gadgets. You'll see "Configure HTML/JavaScript" (for an HTML gadget) or "Configure Text" (for a Text gadget), as the gadget header. The rest of the gadget will be the same, for both gadgets - and this is why some gadgets, being updated, appear to be broken.

People in Western nations have been arguing this topic , for years. Should the roll be hung, with the paper falling over the top, or underneath? Both choices have their logical reasoning. When this question is politely debated, the discussion goes on endlessly - and when the question is freely debated, the discussion generally degenerates into ad hominem insults and name calling. It's likely that this question will never be answered, authoritatively. Blogger has a similar question, resembling the toilet roll controversy. Should new list items be added over the top (as the top entry), or underneath (as the bottom entry)? Until this month, the only option, provided by Blogger, was "over the top".

Not all blog owners know what pages are - nor how they differ from posts. We see confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . How do I publish a post, which always appears on the home page? or How do I publish a post, which never appears on the home page? or How do I publish multiple posts on a page? Long ago, we used workarounds, like publishing a post, using a future or past date . The workarounds would create a post which would always, or never, appear on the home page - but there were always side effects, from using either technique.

Earlier this week , we saw numerous reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about problems with Google Friend Connect, on some Blogger blogs. Once we realised the variety of the symptoms being experienced by blog owners and guests, it was not too difficult to report the problem, providing sufficient details, to Blogger Support. In less than 2 hours after the problem was reported, Blogger Engineers identified and resolved the problem. Unfortunately, every problem with Blogger - and with Google Friend Connect - is not always going to have a similarly happy ending.