The Real Blogger Status

For a few years, I have been making jokes about some Blogger blog owners, and their (perceived) need to keep a Classic (HTML based) template , on their blogs. Some blog owners continue to ask naive questions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? . How do I let my readers view 'Older Posts'? or How do I add a Pages menu? or How do I use Following, with the "Follow" link recently removed from the navbar? Recently, in musing about some of the recent Blogger policy changes, such as the end to the Blogger FTP Publishing option , a formalised browser support policy, and the end of pre-Google (aka "legacy") Blogger accounts , I realised that one of the next changes, logically, would be a phasing out of support for HTML based templates. I think that this idea is probably long over due.

Many Bloggers, currently publishing by FTP to external servers, need to plan for a somewhat immediate move of their blogs back to Blogger and Google servers. No matter how you look at it, this is a manual process. This week, an FTP Publishing Migration Tool, stated to be available 2/22 , developed to support the immediately required migration , will mitigate some of the tedium and uncertainty that's described below. Start from the Settings - Publishing screen. See the advice for "Blog URL"? "nitecruzrtestftp.blogspot.com will redirect to your FTP blog." That's the current BlogSpot alias, and soon will be the only URL. Just select "Switch to: • blogspot.com". Endure yet another CAPTCHA . You're done. You're publishing on blogspot.com. And see the Blog*Spot Address? Just don't try hitting "Save Settings" again. Home again. Now, if you like, move to a custom domain. Or not. >> Top

Some time ago, in my comprehensive comparison of Custom Domain vs FTP Publishing , I suggested that FTP publishing has a limited life span. From an economic and support viewpoint, it makes more sense for Blogger to concentrate its attention on Custom Domain publishing. This week, we have a new, annoying problem with FTP publishing, which, regardless of what may or may not be stated by Blogger , does not seem to be solved. And we have a possible reliability improvement in custom domain publishing, with the dreaded "404 Not Found" problem, recently, becoming less frequently reported. It's possible that my prior suspicion may become reality sometime in the near future. Some of you, currently publishing your blogs using FTP Publishing, may do well to consider changing to Custom Domain Publishing. And in doing so, you should consider several key issues. If you initially published your blog to the FTP server prior to November 2007, it's possible that the original BlogSpo...

Periodically, we see an anxious query I just got an email from a friend Your blog looks like crap. What do I do now? Help! Oh yes, I think I tweaked the template a couple weeks ago. So if you made the change to the template "a couple weeks ago", why did you wait until today , to find out from your friend that you have a problem? Blogger Blogs are easy to work on. As easy as they are to work on, though, they still demand respect, and responsible practices are still relevant. If you make changes, test your changes using different browsers. Any time that you make a change to the blog, or even when you post a new article, check out the change, preferably using multiple browsers. When you test, you need to see the blog as your readers may see it - so prepare to logout and login a few times, to view changes then make adjustments. If you have a second browser or computer , this would be an excellent way to use one - to stay logged in on one browser, and make changes m...

I've been telling jokes about Virginians , and their need to cling to the past needlessly, for too many years - both here, and in my networking blog . I used to live in Virginia, so I'm entitled to joke a bit. Some blog owners must think that they're still living there. How do i add an 'Older Posts' link? or How do I get a menu of my Labels in the sidebar? or How do I change my fonts and colors without having to edit the template? The answer for those folks is simple. Move to a Layout (or Designer) template. You can stay with a Classic template, if you wish, but you will find less and less support by the month.