The Real Blogger Status

Long ago, a renamed blog post would automatically receive a new URL, to match a change in date or title . Blog owners would happily rename posts - and see a new URL, with no problem. Those blog owners who monitored search engine activity, however, later became concerned by the "404"s, shown in the search engine activity logs, in Webmaster Tools - or from various test searches.

If there's one question, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger ?, that confounds me, its a simple one. How do I change the order of my posts? or Why does my blog display the newest post first? Where is the option, to change to oldest post first? It is very difficult to respond both correctly, and helpfully, to both questions, equally well. Blogger does not provide a dashboard setting, to change the post display sequence. Post sequence is only changed, by altering the date and time of the posts .

Since Blogger gave us The New Blogger GUI, in 2012, complaints about the New GUI have been numerous, and impassioned. One complaint, seen occasionally, mentions the date / time setting wizard, in the Post Editor "Post settings" Schedule. In the new blogger interface, it is very hard to backdate content. You have to use the calendar GUI, you can't just type a date it. I have content going back 13 years, do you know how hard it is to click the left-arrow on the calendar 144 times to get to the proper date??? It's a nightmare! This is one person who needs a more flexible date setting wizard, in The New GUI. In criticising the new date setting wizard, we need to understand the reasons for the design. I don't think that Blogger designed the new wizard, and removed the ability to just type the date, simply because they wanted the new wizard to look shiny.

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.

Recently, we've seen a few reports of apparently missing content in some blog posts. At the top of all of my blog posts it says "undefined undefined". Frequently this will be reported after having changed templates, possibly for a third party template . The portion of the blog where the problem is reported will be typically part of the post or comments area. The most likely candidate for the problem, then, is the post template. A good thing to check first would be post template corruption, so refresh or reset the post template . If that's not helpful, then look for a problem with the date setting . >> Top

Recently, we've seen reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about some oddities observed when publishing posts with changed dates . I back dated a post, but it won't publish. or I published a post with a scheduled date, and it has already published. What's going on here? If you're observing this problem, please try and help us diagnose its spread. What date / time format is the blog set to? What time zone is the blog set to? What date / time format is the computer, where you setup the blog, set to? What date / time format is the computer, where you published the post, set to? What time zone is the computer, where you setup the blog, set to? What time zone is the computer, where you published the post, set to? What language is the blog published in? What language is the computer, from where you published the scheduled post, set to? Are the two computers - used for setting up the blog, and used for publishing the post, the same? What browser did y...

Like the language problems which plague bloggers from time to time, we occasionally have problems with the times in our blog posts and in other places. Like the language issue, too, the time settings can be found in various places, and any one of them may affect you . First, each blog has a setting for Time Zone. From Settings - Language and formatting, check "Time Zone". Secondly, each blog owner has a Google account. Your Google account, too, has a Time Zone setting. From your dashboard, select "My Account" on the right. Then, under "Personal info & privacy", select "Edit", and there, too, check "Time Zone". Finally, your computer has a clock, and that too must be maintained, using an applet provided by the Operating System. This will vary by Operating System, and it too will include Time Zone. And check the clock too. If you have a problem with time keeping, anywhere, remember to check all 3 settings.

When you write posts in your blog, generally you'll want them to show the date / time when they were written. A blog is a journal, and sometimes you will want to insert posts with a different date. You may want a post to show a future date, to bring it to the top of the blog . You may want a post to show a past date, to reflect a past experience. Or maybe you want to make a new post, and keep it off the main page, as a separate section of the blog. Maybe you want all of the posts to be in forward chronological order, instead of (normal) reverse chronological order.