The Real Blogger Status

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 publish a blog, and want your readers to comment, you need to decide whether to moderate comments . Comment moderation, applied properly, help you to keep abusive and spam comments off your blog. If you want to publish a blog, and have real people commenting, you need to keep spam comments off the blog. People won't comment, if they have to compete with spam. If you want to publish a blog, and allow Blogger Hosted comments, you really should moderate . If you don't moderate, prepare to remove spam comments after they are published . Remember that Google+ Hosted comments are moderated by the community .

One of the most visible changes, to the blog display , involves properly setting main page size. You change the posts count using "Show at most" on the dashboard Settings - "Posts, comments and sharing" page - or "Number of posts on main page" in the "Configure Blog Posts" wizard. Both let you set the main page display limit. You can limit main page size by days with posts, or by total post count.

Some blog owners would like their readers to view the entire blog in one page. A small blog, with very limited size, can theoretically fit on one page. If you intend to publish a blog with any future, and page rank , you will have to publish content periodically - and the size of the blog will increase, steadily. And eventually, thanks in part to main page limitation by auto pagination , older posts in your blog will be forced into archive pages.

People ask, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about problems with post formatting. Why don't all of my posts allow comments? or Why are my posts a mess of code, in one huge paragraph? Both of these problems can involve post editor Options settings - and in many cases, Options settings from a previous post.

Just about 2 years ago (give or take a few days), I evaluated Google+ hosted comments, based on moderation / notification options . A few changes have been made to Blogger - and to Google+ - since then. Some changes affect usefulness of Google+ hosted comments, in Blogger blogs. I guess to honestly evaluate Google+ hosted comments, I should decide whether to leave this blog using Blogger hosted comments - or move forward.

One feature of the Blogger home page, enjoyed by some blog owners, is the ability to explicitly set maximum main page size, for the blog when displayed. We see an occasional complaint, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I redirected my home page, using a label search - but the display is now way too long! How do I shorten my custom main page? This blog owner is probably a little disappointed, to discover one tiny limitation, in main page setting. The "Show at most" setting, in Settings - "Posts and comments" - mirrored by "Number of posts on main page", in "Configure Blog Posts" - lets you set an explicit maximum page size. That setting only applies to the native main page URL - and some blog owners like to customise the main page, using a label search redirect.

We see occasional questions from blog owners, and readers, about options for reading posts, from a given blog. The most obvious way to read the posts is to read the blog, as published, online. If the owner of a blog that interests you uses Google+ publicity , reading either online, or in the Google+ stream, may be your choice. For Blogger hosted content, both owners and readers have a few more possibilities.

We see occasional questions from blog owners, and readers, about options for reading comments, and comment updates, from a given blog. The most obvious way to read comments - or replies to comments - is to read the individual posts. If a blog that interests you uses Google+ hosted comments , reading either on the post, or in the Google+ stream, may be your choice. For Blogger hosted comments. both owners and readers have a few more possibilities.

Occasionally, we have a blog owner trying to enable commenting, on a blog - and being unsuccessful diagnosing commenting problems . Checking the per blog comment settings, in the the dashboard menu under Settings - Posts and comments, there's no obvious problem. The problem, in some cases, is in the per post settings, in the Post Editor "Post settings - Options" wizard - but not all posts will have a problem. The "Reader comments" setting, for any new post, is taken from the setting for the previously published post. If you publish a post today, with "Reader comments" selected as "Don't allow", the next post will also be set to "Don't allow" - unless you change the setting, before publishing. Similarly, if it's set to "Allow", the next post published will have it set to "Allow". Allow Don't allow That's the choices, for each new post.

Many problems with post features or layout can be resolved by refreshing or resetting the post template , using the Template Editor . Not all post display problems are caused by unwise use of the Template Editor - some problems may be part of the individual posts. The dashboard Post Template wizard , in Settings - Posts and comments, lets you add a template to the posts - in addition to the "post template". The "Post Template" added content then appears as part of each new post, in the post editor window.

As more people choose Google+ Comments for their blogs, we're seeing concern from confused blog owners, mentioning lack of control. There is no option for comment moderation in my blog's settings. My Comments Settings only includes the option to change Location. and I don't get notified about any comments published against my blog. There is no Setting for Comment Notification Email, either. These owners are discovering one of the design simplicities in Google+ Comments . With Google+ Comments, anybody can post - and share - a reference to any content, on the Internet, that they can view. If your blog is public, any post from your blog can be shared in Google+. If someone shares a post from your blog, and you are in a Circle where the post is shared, you may see the shared post in your Google+ stream. You have no control over content in your stream - even if the content references your blog - which you do not share.

A few blog owners, eagerly opting to use the latest Blogger enhancement , Google+ Comments, are seeing some changes which they did not anticipate. Even after checking all of the settings, some blogs, with Google+ Comments enabled, may not show the comment form - or may show the form, but comments may not be visible. Besides the visibility of the form, there are other changes which some blog owners don't appreciate.

Not all Blogger blog owners, using CAPTCHA screening to reduce abusive comments on their blogs, know first hand what the typical CAPTCHA puzzle can be like. We're seeing a few concerned blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , asking why they're seeing fewer comments on their blogs . I'm hearing from people that they can't post comments on my blog. I tested, and comments are working just fine. What is the problem, here? Not all blog owners bother to test the CAPTCHA, on their blogs - or even know why they don't see one, when commenting.

Some blog owners don't always think about the various email settings, which are part of their Blogger blogs, and the possible effects to their email - or somebody else's email. There are several settings, where a blog owner may enter an email address. Email posts to Comment Moderation. Comment Notification Email. These settings don't require acceptance by the recipient, making for some interesting possibilities for causing problems in other people's email , as well as one's own email.

Not all Blogger blog owners know that the ability to comment is a privilege which they control. Like the ability to publish and read posts , it is also a responsibility which they need to control, carefully. Any blog owner who wishes to publish a blog, and not be subject to frequent deletion of the blog, as a suspected malware or spam host, needs to understand the responsibilities, and the risks.

Almost daily, we see a problem report in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , where someone publishes a blog that has readers with a problem My readers can't leave me comments! and when I diagnose the problem The blog uses an inline ("Embedded below post") comment form, with CAPTCHA ("word puzzle") verification. Your readers need to check their cookie and script filters, starting with "third party cookies". the response will frequently be No way! My readers can't handle that!

Every few days, we see confusion in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about the archive / label retrieval display limit, vs the main page size setting. How do I get my label retrieval to show more than 20 posts?

Occasionally, we see a confused query in Blogger Help Group On my blog when I choose I want to see 8 days in the main page, it shows posts from today (January 29, 2009) to December 22, 2008. Is this "8" days for you? or Why can't I ever predict how many posts I'll see in 5 days? and what we have here are bloggers who don't understand what "Show 7 Days" really means. If we select " Show 7 Posts on the main page ", we get a maximum of 7 posts displayed in main page view. Many bloggers figure that "Show 7 Days on the main page", similarly, means show all of the posts in the most recent 7 days span of time. Blogger, however, doesn't see it that way. If you set "Show" to "7 days", you could get anywhere from 7, to any number, of posts. If you posted once / day for 6 days, and 5 times on the 7th day, you'll end up with 11 posts. If that 7 days is from 6 days in a consecutive stretch, plus one day a month ago ...

Patience has its limits. Waiting 5 - 10 minutes, for the main page of your blog to load, is too long. You simply cannot load the entire blog every time somebody surfs to it. Generally, loading half a dozen posts of average size is sufficient, though with smaller posts, you can load more. Putting a picture or two in the blog is not a bad idea at all, but a picture in each post will slow down its loading significantly. Be aware of the possible problems - and various solutions.