Blogger seems to keep misbehaving and I'm finding it complicated to access comments made on my blog post and also to make comments on other blogs (for instance, I've tried hard, John, to make a comment on your Pretty Sinister blog post about Helen Eustis.) I'm quite prepared to believe this is partly due to my incompetence, but I also think it's not just that.
I'd prefer to remain with Blogger until my current workload eases and gives me more time to make a change. Any suggestions in the meantime as to how to improve things would be gratefully received!
Lots of people are having no end of trouble with their Blogger blogs- people have been locked out of their own blogs, have been unable to comment on other people's, etc. It seems as if Google is losing interest in supporting the service. I recommend Wordpress.com if you want to move - it's simple to export your blog and comments though you'll have to re-do your blogroll, etc. Other platforms you can pay for, eg Typepad (but I moved from there as the service has gone down since they were taken over by an ad company). Or you can go for one of the newer platforms like Tumblr (see Sarah Weinman) though I have heard poor things about it - geared up more to mobile posting/pix/reposting, I think. Various people I know and who are part of the Friend Feed discussion group have moved their blogs to Wordpress and are pleased with their moves. Others are reporting continued problems with Blogger.
ReplyDeleteMartin - My sympathies - it's so frustrating when the system just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. I am glad you are considering a change, and I heartily encourage you to consider doing so. I'm very glad I switched to Wordpress, and actually, it only took about 20 minutes or so to import my Blogger blog to Wordpress. Admittedly that doesn't include the few minutes it took to choose the theme I wanted for my background, and I've done a bit of other "tweaking" as well that took just a bit of time. But really, it was a streamlined switch.
ReplyDeleteOddly, what seems to work for me is to not check off the 'stay signed in' button. Somehow this seems to mean you stay signed in for however long you're on the internet, but have to log in again for the next session. Counterintuitive, I know. It's not ideal, but at least it makes commenting doable.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know what to do too, as Blogger is causing problems with my blog also!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm considering moving my blog to a different blog service, but I worry that I will lose followers, if that happens. I hope that Blogger sorts itself out soon, otherwise I think that they will lose a lot of bloggers.
You aren't alone. I don't use Blogger for my journal but lately I have found it impossible to comment on a couple of blogs by others who use Blogger. It looks like your blog is going to let me comment. What the differences between the various blogs are, I have no idea!
ReplyDeleteHi Martin!
ReplyDeleteThis is a known issue right now at Blogger (one they don't seem to be in any hurry to correct.)
What seems to work best (until Blogger fixes the underlying cause) is to sign out of Blogger, sign back in, and *don't* check the box that says "stay signed in."
Good luck!
Blogger does have it's issues, Martin. Some days one person seems to have incredible problems while everyone else is trouble free. I had no problems yesterday at all and I seem to be doing fine today. So far. (He said knocking on wood.) For future reference: when all else fails, send me an email by clicking on the link on my Profile page. Then I'll just cut and paste the message into a comment on my blog when I get the email.
ReplyDeleteSuch a variety of feelings about Eustis' book. I would never have guessed my article would've turned off so many people from reading the book.
No, I have no idea how to make your life with Blogger easier. Despite lots of exam preparations, I chose to move to Wordpress in May, and I have not regretted it for one moment. But thanks for telling us.
ReplyDeleteBlogger certainly seems capricious at present Martin. Like you, I really want to leave my blog where it is, but the day may come when I have to move. (Writing this in the hope that you can at least read the comments). In my mind my problems are related to the fact that I run my blog from a non-gmail address. Blogger tries very hard to get me to use one.
ReplyDeleteBlogger has been strange lately, hasn't it? My stats went up drastically earlier this week for no apparent reason but seem to have settled back to my usual numbers now. I changed my Comments page so it now looks like yours (which is meant to make it easier for readers to leave comments). Maybe the blogs you're visiting have the embedded or pop-up comments form?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not incompetence on your part, it's Blogger. They've been having problems for several weeks now. There was a period where I couldn't post comments on any Blogger-hosted blog; then people who have Blogger blogs lost their scheduled posts or all of the comments made on a post, etc. The worst part is, Blogger never acknowledged the problem or let users know when it was (supposedly) fixed. If this is cloud-computing, I'll stick to my hard-drive, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteAfter all that, I still don't know if you'll see this comment or if it will post. Fingers crossed!
Well, I did receive all these illuminating comments, and I'm really appreciative.
ReplyDeleteMargot - 20 minutes is impressive.
Question - if one moves to Wordpress, does one lose followers, as Spangle fears?? Is there an easy solution to this?
Re your question about "followers". Yes you will lose traffic at first as the URL changes. If you go this route, make a final post on this blog providing the new URL and asking people to switch from the old to the new in their RSS feeds, blogrolls etc. Traffic will pick up quickly - I switched from Typepad to WP earlier this year and now have as much traffic as I got previously (after being 5 years on the previous blog).
ReplyDeleteWhat you will lose is a lot of "junk" traffic- automatic "bots" that scan the web. This may build up again but in any event it is traffic that nobody will mind losing.
Basically, anyone who likes reading your blog will sign up to the new URL; anyone among the "followers" who only ever signed up once and never returned isn't someone you'd be sad to drop, I presume.
In short, it should not take long to build up traffic to what it was before, but some of the lost traffic will be "fake" traffic that isn't of any current use to you.