The Real Blogger Status

Ad blockers are popular Chrome add-ons, which let us manage various websites abilities to serve ads in our browsers. Many ad blockers include a script blocker. Like NoScript in Firefox, ad blockers may interfere with various Blogger features - such as the "Don't track" script, in the dashboard.

Viewing comments, on some popular blogs, one may get the idea that not as many comments are being published, as are immediately visible. With a large comment complement, comments are paginated - with some comments hidden behind a link, captioned "Load more". The "Load more" link is JavaScript based - and there is a problem. The "Load more" link does not always work, on all blogs.

If you use a computer that runs Microsoft Windows, you may have been affected by Microsoft supplied updates , distributed 3 weeks ago. May 10 was the day termed "Patch Tuesday" - the day when Microsoft releases important security related patches , to its various Internet updated products. During the 3 weeks after May 10, we've seen a significant number of security related discussions, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . It appears that Microsoft updates, for May 2016, affect use of Blogger.

Some blog owners and readers prefer to ignore recommendations in Chrome - and block cookies and / or scripts. Blocking cookies can cause problems with many Blogger features - and blocking scripts will cause problems with both Blogger and with Google , and with various other websites. If you want to use Blogger and Google effectively, you need to allow cookies to be installed , and to allow scripts to be run , on your computer.

Some blog owners create a post, with content that should be visible, only when required. The post contains a question - accompanied by the answer to the question. The question should be viewed, without the answer being visible, to make the reader think about the answer. This is called, by many, a "spoiler". Not everybody knows how to construct a spoiler. Some blogs use JavaScript - painful to construct, and maybe not effective for every reader. Security conscious blog readers may block scripts from Blogger blogs - and either your spoiler is visible, immediately - or never becomes visible. Neither of the latter scenarios make the post a lot of fun to read.

Similar to the need to properly filter cookies in the browser, we have the need to properly filter scripts. Cookies and scripts are completely different elements - but proper filtering of each is essential, to making many Blogger features operate properly . If you have a problem with Blogger - either accessing / using the dashboard, or using / viewing a blog - one of the simplest things to check, complementing cookie filter settings , is the browser script filter settings.

Blogger recently redesigned the Stats "Don't track ..." option - and removed third party cookies from the picture. The "Don't track ..." wizard is now accessed from the blog URL. The wizard still produces cookies - but they are ordinary first party cookies , which are much less feared than third party cookies. But, every silver lining has a cloud.

The new Stats "Don't track" option is an improvement, to many blog owners. "Manage tracking your own pageviews", as before, starts from the Stats dashboard page. The wizard now runs from a sub directory of the blog managed by the dashboard - and uses a normal (first party) cookie. Now, blog owners no longer must enable third party cookies , to make Stats ignore their page views. This is an improvement - but it can still present a challenge, for some blog owners.

We have several blog owners, trying to use Blogger - and seeing warnings from McAfee WebAdvisor. When I try to log out, I am getting a risky connection warning. Whoa! Are you sure you want to go there? I cannot log out of blogger.

It's important to use a supported browser, when using Blogger. Every different browser - and every different browser version - requires different code, to make heavily scripted products like Blogger operate properly on your computer. When you report a problem with using Blogger, one of the most essential questions that you can answer is What browser - and what browser version - are you using? This is not a formality - nor is it pedantic or snarky - it is a serious question , intended to help you to help us.

We're lately seeing a few problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , from owners of blogs now locked as malware / spam hosts. My blog was deleted because it is marked as spam. I never spammed so why my blog has been confirmed as a Spam Host? This blog owner appears to have simply accepted advice from the wrong person . Using The Internet Archive (aka "Wayback Machine") we can sometimes find cached copies of blogs, even after deleted as suspected malware / spam hosts. In one case, though, viewing the blog was not possible - even having found a copy of the blog, in cache.

We've been seeing suggestions, for years, that the Reading List is unreliable . Many Blogger account owners have reported the mysterious disappearing Reading List . A few have reported a second problem - inability to remove blogs from the Reading List . Few account owners connect the two problems. The two problems may each affect different account owners. Of the few affected by both problems, not many are likely to see them as having a common cause.

Everybody who has owned or read a Blogger blog, for more than a week, surely knows about the infamous bX codes - and has probably asked how to fix one. Some people have fixed one - but immediately, seen another. Others have seen theirs go away, then later discovered that the blog is broken. Some folks see the errors as major problems, others minor annoyances . it's disheartening to see that the bx error code problems are still existing. Not everybody realises that the codes are not the problems - they are simply a method to identify the problems. Many Blogger problems cannot be identified easily in language.

We see the signs of naivete, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I require my readers to enter a password, to keep my blog safe from public view? This blog owner does not understand the realities of setting up a private blog. Long ago (very long ago), a computer system might have "private" files, and a shared password, known by everybody, for each file. Nowadays, a private Blogger blog uses team blog access - or team blog ownership - and each team member gets to choose her / his own Blogger account , with a password that he / she decides to use (and hopefully, remember).

We're seeing an occasional report from blog owners, trying to access the Blogger dashboard, using Firefox. I am trying to update my blog, and I get an error WARNING UNRESPONSIVE SCRIPT A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue. I'm using Firefox, and I need help here! This has been a problem, for a few years - just a very low volume has been reported.

The option provided some time ago, to the embedded comment form, to allow "threaded" comments , is becoming quite popular. Unfortunately, the "Reply" link does not always work. Blog owners and readers alike complain. I click on "Reply", and nothing happens! This problem appears to have accelerated recently, possibly resulting from the hasty rollout of the new anonymous comments CAPTCHA - but there are other less obvious possibilities , too.

One long known mystery, reported from time to time in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , involves the dashboard Reading List, and panic from disappearing entries. Where are the blogs, in my Reading List? Some Blogger blog owners and readers can spend days setting up their Reading List complement - and see their work vanish, in seconds. One of the reasons why this problem has not been solved is that it is not reported in consistently high volume, and has no obvious pattern. Another is that many people who use the Reading List - as opposed to a third party NewsFeed Reader - are not of the highest in technological skill level, and do not have the patience to provide coherent and relevant details about the problem.

The official Blogger browser compatibility reference, Compatible browser and operating systems states Blogger requirements, very succinctly. To use Blogger, your browser must allow cookies and have JavaScript turned on. This is a very brief hint of Blogger browser support policy . Use of Blogger includes various activities. Moderate Blogger hosted comments. Post comments, as a blog reader. Edit, preview, and publish posts. View Stats. Use the Template Designer. Each of these activities, and more, require cookies and scripts - and each are vulnerable to improperly setup filters . As Blogger implies, both cookies and scripts are vulnerable to being disabled (turned off) - although the term "turned on" suggests that there is one single setting, possibly affecting each individual cookie or script. Considering the effects of layered security , we know this won't always be true.

One of the most common complaints, seen regularly in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , involves publication and visibility of comments. Why can't I publish comments, on some blogs? or Why can't I see my comments, after I publish them? or even Why do my blog posts show no comments? These are questions asked by blog readers and owners, alike. The answers all start with security filters and settings.

Some Blogger features are so subtle, and so simple, that everybody takes them for granted - and nobody thinks about them, until they stop working. One example of this is the Quick Edit option that lets us edit a post, or tweak a template feature, without having to access the Blogger dashboard. Sometimes, the icon is just not there - or maybe it's there, but when clicked on, nothing happens. Quick Edit, like many Blogger features, is affected by both cookie and script filters - and many filters are domain based. Any domain based filter needs to allow cookies and scripts - both from "blogspot.com", and from any non BlogSpot domain that may be relevant.