TheRealBlogger: December 2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Disable The "Mention people in your posts with Google+" Popup In Post Editor

We're seeing a new sense of frustration, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

How do I prevent the constant offer to
Mention people in your posts with Google+?
in Post Editor?

This is a new Blogger / Google+ feature. Like many Google+ features, this one can be refused. Many blog owners, seeing this offer, refuse it - and are never bothered by it, again. Their refusal is retained, by Blogger, in a Blogger cookie.

If you refuse the offer properly, Blogger Post Editor will remember your refusal, and not bother you again - if your browser / computer does not unwisely block cookies and scripts.

This unwanted offer, repeated, is another example of what we should expect, when we do not setup our cookie and script filtering properly.

The mention feature appears to be one more option being offered to people who are updating blogs published under Blogger accounts which use Google+ profiles. The unwanted persistence is apparently irritating some blog owners.

This feature, like many in Blogger, is sensitive to both filtering of cookies and scripts. You may need to enable (stop filtering) "third party cookies", in your browser and on your computer. That's the most common solution, for this problem - but you may have to search for other filter(s) that affect your use of Blogger / Google.

You can have a cookie or script filter

In a native browser feature.
In a browser add-on.
In a security feature, on the computer.
In a network device.

Remember that that any and all filters must be set properly. If you have more than one cookie or script filter, that's affecting your access to Blogger, all filters must be set properly, before this offer will stop popping up, in your Post Editor sessions.

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Monday, December 30, 2013

Adding Author Identification, To Post On FaceBook

Similar to the Google Authorship feature, FaceBook provides an author identification feature.

FaceBook uses "Open Graph" code to accomplish what Google provides, with simple back and forward links. The required FaceBook OG code is added to the blog template, as metadata.

To add open graph FaceBook authorship identification to this blog, I added the necessary code to the blog template. You can do the same, with your blog.

Adding FaceBook author identification to a Blogger blog is simply a matter of adding the right meta code to the template header.

(Update 3/14): Blogger Engineering recently added OG code to the standard template header - and some of this tweak may be unnecessary for many blog owners.

Use the Template Editor. Start by locating the "<HTML ... >" tag, at the top of the template header.

<html b:version='2' class='v2' expr:dir='data:blog.languageDirection' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' xmlns:b='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/b' xmlns:data='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/data' xmlns:expr='http://www.google.com/2005/gml/expr' xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#'>

Then add a code block, immediately after the "<HTML ... >" tag.

<meta expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' name='description' property='og:description'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageTitle' name='keywords'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<meta content='article' property='og:type'/>
<meta content='https://plus.google.com/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn/about' property='article:author'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.canonicalUrl' property='og:url'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageName' property='og:title'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.postImageUrl'>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.postImageUrl' property='og:image'/>
<b:else/>
<meta content='http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/S1600-R/yyyyyyyyyyyyy.gif' property='og:image'/>
</b:if>
<b:else/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.title' property='og:title'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.canonicalHomepageUrl' property='og:url'/>
<meta content='blog' property='og:type'/>
<meta content='http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/S1600-R/yyyyyyyyyyyyy.gif' property='og:image'/>
</b:if>
<meta expr:content='"en_US"' property='og:locale'/>

You will provide similar code, in your blog's template, when you do this. You'll add the code, as above.

One small snippet, added to the HTML tag.
xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#'
The main code block, following the HTML tag.

You'll need to change two details, in the main code block, just added.

The URL of your Blogger / Google profile (above).
https://plus.google.com/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn/about
The URL of your FaceBook profile photo (2 locations, above).
http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxx/S1600-R/yyyyyyyyyyyyy.gif

This is the basic code which is required, for FaceBook Authorship.

The end result - for this blog, home page.

The end result - for this post.

Having added the code to your template, you can verify the code, using the FaceBook Debugger. If necessary, you may need advice from FaceBook Support.

And please, backup the template, before and after you make this change!

This feature should make it easier to publish Blogger links and posts to FaceBook - and to allow us to publish posts containing photos, more reliably. For a version that's slightly easier to understand, one can add simpler Open Graph code to enable proper sharing of posts with photos.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Improvements To The Blogger Spam Classification And Review Processes

Too many Blogger blog owners ask what is allowed, when they publish a Blogger blog.

Asking what is allowed is a waste of time. We have explained, repeatedly, that whitelisting of blogs is not possible.

It would be better to ask what is required, when requesting advice or assistance, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Since the purpose of publishing a Blogger blog is to have content for people to read, what is required is unique content, that is composed to satisfy the targeted reader population.

Blogger TOS forbids hosting of spam content.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

If your blog uses content that's shared with other blogs and websites, it will be classified - righteously or spuriously - as a spam blog. If the blog is reviewed, judged to be spuriously classified, and restored to your control - and if you continue publishing shared content - you will be seen, righteously or spuriously, as a repeat offender.

Long ago, spam classification was a fuzzy process. The fuzzy techniques used made both false negative classifications, and false negative classifications, unavoidable. Recent tunings to the spam classification process appear to make classification much more reliable.

Blogger will continue to provide a forum based classification appeal and review process. Since the initial classification processes now appear to be more reliable, we may see less spurious classifications, reported in the forums. This may offer us opportunity to provide more in depth analysis of blog content, during some review requests.

It's possible that in depth content analysis, conducted during the review request, may provide useful examples to other blog owners, what is allowed - and what techniques should be avoided. Maybe this will help some blog owners to avoid making the same mistakes - and reduce later spurious spam classifications, and avoid damage to reputation.

This may be a win - win - win (blog owners - forum helpers - Blogger Support) situation. The only losers will be the intentional spammers, who will become more obvious.

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Saturday, December 21, 2013

Some GoDaddy Hosted Custom Domains Are Showing Connectivity Errors

This weekend, a few owners of blogs published to custom domains are reporting problems viewing their blogs.

We are seeing various reports, such as unhappily reporting

CANNOT VIEW MY BLOG!

If we view the blog ourselves - or maybe if the blog owner uses one or more proxy servers to view the blog, the blog will be seen with no problem. Apparently the blog is actually online, regardless of the original observation.

Now what?

In many cases, the blog in question uses GoDaddy hosted DNS, and a specific set of GoDaddy servers, to provide domain addresses to the blog readers.

If we use a WhoIs Log extract, we can see the defining factor in this problem.


artprojectsforkids.org@ns25.domaincontrol.com.:

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

artprojectsforkids.org@ns26.domaincontrol.com.:

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached




www.artprojectsforkids.org@ns25.domaincontrol.com.:

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

www.artprojectsforkids.org@ns26.domaincontrol.com.:

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

Right now, GoDaddy name servers "ns25" and "ns26" are currently not responding, to domain address queries.

The domain itself is live. We can verify online status, and see that some readers in various portions of the Internet are able to access it.

We're still researching the support options, for this problem. I've identified a link to GoDaddy Live Support, which you may try if you are affected by this problem.

Use this Live BHF Search, to identify individual reports of the problems, and to follow the diagnostic process.

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Internet Explorer Updates, And Use Of "Compatibility View" Settings

In 2011, Blogger announced their new browser support policy.

Starting next month Blogger.com will only support modern browsers.

This change, while seemingly dismissive and terse, appears to be necessary. With some browsers, however, a two version (the newest version, plus the version in use right now) support policy will cause problems.

Support for Internet Explorer updates will provide a challenge, for several reasons.

Each new version of Internet Explorer includes many changes, which makes the new version extremely incompatible with previous versions.
With the scope of the version changes being so broad, it takes Blogger Engineering longer to update Blogger code, to support the new versions.
The longer it takes Blogger Engineering to update Blogger to support each new IE version, the more blog owners are likely to accept the new version onto their computers - and to find that they now can’t use Blogger, because it’s not supported.

This month, Blogger Engineering, in addition to preparing for the new year, is trying to upgrade Blogger to support Internet Explorer V11. While they wait for IE V11 to be supported, many blog owners are using the current workaround.

Use "Compatibility View" Settings, and add "blogger.com".

This workaround, used in the past, is responsible for more problems, being seen this week.

Thanks to the aggressive installation of Internet Explorer Version 11, by Microsoft Windows Update, many blog owners are finding problems using Blogger.

Adding to the aggressive installation of IE V11, the Blogger two version support policy creates more problems.

Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

This month, as Blogger Engineering upgrades Blogger code to support IE V11, they are apparently dropping support for IE V9. During the previous IE - Blogger upgrade cycle, when IE V10 was pushed onto peoples computers, many blog owners used the same workaround to deal with IE V10 being unsupported by Blogger.

Use "Compatibility View" Setttings, and add "blogger.com".

Right now, many blog owners are still using IE V10 with "Compatibility View" enabled for "blogger.com". Use of IE V10, with "Compatibility View" enabled, appears to leave those blog owners with IE V9 - which is now unsupported.

The compile time user.agent value (ie9) does not match the runtime user.agent value (ie10).

Blog owners still using IE V10, with "Compatibility View" enabled for "blogger.com", need to remove the entry for "blogger.com" - since IE V10 is fully supported by Blogger. This should resolve some problems with using IE V10.

Unfortunately, having removed "blogger.com" from "Compatibility View", some folks have found that IE V10 continues to display as being incompatible.

For the blog owners who cannot use IE V10, even with "Compatibility View" disabled for "blogger.com", they may have to take a step into the deep water, and upgrade to IE V11. If IE V11 is still not supported, use IE V11 with "Compatibility View" enabled for "blogger.com" - which should give you a properly updated V10.

To enable or disable Compatibility View, see Microsoft Windows: Compatibility View.

Alternatively, use Chrome or Firefox, until Blogger can resolve their problems with IE V11, and with IE V10.

(Update April 2014): Blogger is now compatible with Internet Explorer V11 - and now faces a problem with IE V11 using Compatibility View.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Use Two Browsers, With Multiple Accounts Involved

Google has been providing single login access, to (almost all) Google services, for many years.

Properly maintained, we can have one Google account, which lets us access all services, using one login. The single login approach is a convenience, when all of the services, which we use, are part of the same Google account.

The single login approach becomes a challenge, when some of the services, which we use, are part of different Google accounts. As owners of Blogger blogs, there are some scenarios, where we have to deal with two different Google accounts simultaneously.

When we have to deal with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the single login approach becomes a problem.

Frequently, when you request assistance with a problem which involves your Google account, we'll start by advising you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

This advice is neither ceremonial, nor pedantic - it's practical. And, it solves more problems than you would believe. An alternate, developed somewhat later, is to

Logout from all Google products - then login to Blogger, using the administrator Blogger account, for the blog.

This advice is simpler, and less risky than clearing cache, cookies, and sessions.

Simple advice works, in many problem situations.

The former solution works - because many problems are caused by the Google account login cookie, which is used to retain login status from application to application, within the various Google services which we may use. This is how Google provides single login to their various services.

The latter works, because many problems involve the Google multi-account login, which is not a supported Blogger feature.

That simple advice works best when we care only about the Google service immediately visible - and it requires careful maintenance of cookies filters.

Alternately, logout then login, repeatedly - exhausting, and risky.

In cases where two services - or two Google accounts - are involved, you'd need to switch between account / service, rapidly and repeatedly. Rapidly logging out of one account, to login to another account, is both exhausting and technically unsafe.

Rapidly logging out then back in, to various Google accounts, creates odd symptoms, like the well known monolithic error

You have logged out from another location. Do you want to log in again?

Who among us has been able to correctly answer this simple query properly, without undue rise in blood pressure?

Clearing private data affects more than Google services.

Another problem with clearing cookies, routinely, is that not all browsers allow selective clearing of cookies. Many have observed problems with non Google websites, after solving a Google problem which involves

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

Yes, there are websites outside the Googlesphere!

Use of two browser sessions is the most consistently effective and safe solution.

If we need to work with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the only safe technique is to use two browsers, simultaneously. Since the Google login cookie is created separately, in each different browser, use of two browsers lets us maintain two Google sessions, simultaneously, without interaction between the two.

Since no two browsers are alike, we know realistically, that using two different browsers should not be done routinely. Many blog owners have a most favourite, and a least favourite, browser - and won't willingly use a different browser except when absolutely necessary.

Some browsers provide two sessions internally.

Fortunately, some modern browsers, to retain their own customer base, allow for multiple sessions - where cookies and other preferences and settings can be maintained separately. Chrome has the "Incognito Window", and Firefox has "Private Browsing" - both of which let you, temporarily, setup a second browser session, with separate cookies, preferences, and settings.

In most cases, then - and if you are using Chrome or Firefox - when we advise you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

you should be able to, alternately,

Activate a second browser session, when you are not currently using a second session.

In cases where you are currently using a second browser session, the advice would be more correctly phrased

Close the current second browser session, then start a new second browser session.

This advice would flush all current cookies, preferences, and settings which could possibly involve multiple Google accounts, and avoid various problems with Blogger and non Blogger applications.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Use Search Console To Target Your Audience

People who publish blogs which are relevant to a specific country may be able to focus search engine attention, for their blog - and better target readers in the country in question.

Google Webmaster Tools provides the "Geographical target" setting, which lets a blog owner select a single country. The setting increases search engine attention, for their blog, in the country selected.

If you are logged in to Google Webmaster Tools / Search Console, for a given blog, find the "Search Traffic" menu entry.

From "Search Traffic", select "International Targeting", then the "Country" tab. Click on "Target users in:", then select the appropriate country, in the pull down menu.

The list of countries, presented to you, appears to be rather complete. The list appears to be alphabetically sorted in the English language, as most of Webmaster Tools appears to be presented.

It's likely that your potential readers will be located using geolocation, so you should allow for some inaccuracies, in targeting specific readers. Readers who are located in regions close to national borders may appear to be located on either side of the border. Only one country can be targeted.

Note that this setting is not related to any Blogger dashboard settings, such as "Language" or "Time Zone", in "Language and formatting".

Also, note that the usefulness of this setting, like other search engine features, will depend upon your efforts in properly publicising the blog. Publicising the blog is still dependent upon your efforts - this setting, when used, simply focuses your efforts towards a single country.

Previous:
Blogs That Interest Inhabitants Of A Specific Country May Use The Webmaster Tools "Geographical target" Setting Use Search Console To Target Your Audience
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/12/blogs-that-interest-inhabitants-of.html

What Are The Differences Between Pages And Posts?

Occasionally, we see a naive question, which requests a value comparison between pages (static pages), and posts (dynamic pages).

What are the advantages of using a page, instead of a post?

That question, worded in that vague way, cannot be answered. The various differences between pages and posts can provide advantages, or disadvantages. To evaluate a page or a post as an advantage, one must know the specific needs of the blog in question.

Long ago, Blogger blogs consisted simply of posts, displayed using the static Classic template. The "home" page of each blog was merely the most recently published post. Each post was published with an optional index, "Previous Posts", which listed merely the 10 posts previous to the post displayed. There was no

Archives gadget (Date sequenced post index).
Labels gadget (Topic sequenced post index).
Main page display (Date sequenced aggregated post display).

Other posts could be located, only one post at a time, by following the top link in "Previous Posts", from post to post - or directly, from any links in the posts.

With blogs published to Classic templates, important posts were directly accessed using in post links, intentionally added as the posts were composed.

2007: Layout templates were offered.

In 2007, Blogger added the dynamic Layout templates.

Instead of displaying the most recent post as the blog home page, they gave us the main page display, to display a sequential array of recent posts. Instead of the "10 Previous Posts" index, they gave us a true "Previous Posts" index, renamed "Archives", which indexed all posts in the blog.

All posts could be accessed, using either the Archives index - or by following the main page display links ("Newer Posts" / "Older Posts"), located at the bottom of each main page display segment.

2010: Static pages were offered.

Some blog owners, enjoying their blogs with the new Layouts templates and the Archives index, demanded special blog posts that were not indexed in the Archives gadget, and could be "hidden" from their readers. Remember that all posts, using the Classic templates, were "hidden" - excepting important posts, directly accessed using in post links.

To satisfy this new requirement, Blogger added "pages", special posts that are accessed only when linked, intentionally - never in archives, label searches, main page displays, or newsfeeds. During the same time period, they added "Jump Break", which gives us the ability to collapse posts displayed on dynamic index pages, a feature not available on static pages.

Newsfeeds were important, because indexing of blog posts uses a sitemap - and Blogger blogs previously used the blog posts newsfeed as the sitemap.

2010: The Pages index gadget was offered.

Shortly after adding the "pages" feature, Blogger added the "Pages" gadget, to provide an easy to setup index for important pages and posts. The term "pages" became used by many blog owners, to refer to both "ordinary" posts (aka "dynamic" pages), and "special" posts (aka "static" pages) - since both classes of "posts" could be accessed using the Pages gadget.

The Pages and Posts editor have similar layout and options sets.

The confusion between "pages" and "posts" is further aided because the edit wizards for each feature have a common overall display layout. Those blog owners not knowledgeable about "pages" design may confuse the "page editor" and the "post editor", and continue to refer to everything as either "pages" or "posts".

This blog article, composed in the Page Editor.

Pages ("Static" Pages)

Are created using the page editor, accessed from the dashboard Pages wizard.
Are edited using the page editor, accessed using the dashboard Pages wizard, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
Are not relevant to the date when published.
Won't display author, author profile, date, or time stamp - even if selected, using "Configure Blog Posts".
Cannot be scheduled, to publish in the future.
Cannot be properly created with a blank title - though malfunctioning Blogger code has occasionally allowed pages with blank titles, a mistake which has caused other problems with pages.
Cannot be created with a custom URL. A Page URL is rigidly based on page title, when published. URL Duplication prevention for pages is not understood.
Are now unlimited, per blog. Each blog can have an unlimited number of static pages. The former limit, of 20 pages / blog, was lifted in 2014.
Can contain one single blog article.
Do not appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
Do not appear in blog newsfeeds, or in BlogSend email.
Appear in the pages sitemap - and are optionally indexed by the search engines, or as intentionally linked by the blog owner.
Cannot use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (archive, label, or main page display).
Do not have labels.

This blog article, composed in the Post Editor.

Posts ("Dynamic" Pages)

Are created using the post editor, accessed from the "New Post" button, located in the Navbar, or in the dashboard Posts List display.
Are edited using the post editor, accessed from the dashboard Posts List display, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
Are relevant to the date when published. The URL of each post will always include the current year and month when published.
Will display author, author profile, date, and / or time stamp - if selected, using "Configure Blog Posts".
Can be scheduled, to publish in the future.
Can be properly created with a blank title - though problems occasionally make the post editor malfunction when publishing posts with blank title.
Can be created with a custom URL, when originally published. URL Duplication prevention for posts, especially considering "custom" URLs and post scheduling, is complicated - and has caused other problems with posts, and with their URLs.
Are unlimited per blog.
Can contain multiple blog articles, using label searches. A label search can also be used as a dynamic page.
Appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
Appear in blog newsfeeds, and in BlogSend email.
Appear in the posts sitemap - and are routinely indexed as blog content, as individual posts.
Can use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (archive, label, or main page display).
Have labels.

In general, use of a page or a post, in any given scenario, is chosen based on the latter 7 details. When incorrectly chosen, we frequently see questions.

How do I publish a page with multiple posts?

How do I publish more than 20 pages in my blog?

or maybe

How do I add labels to a page?

Now, examine the differences in real life.

This blog article has been published as a "dynamic" page. Click here, to see this blog article published as a "static" page - and click here, to see this blog article published as in a special label search "dynamic" page (with "Jump Break").

Having read this post - and hopefully, the complementary page - you are probably wondering what is the purpose for having two identical articles. And that is my real life explanation, to help you understand the confusion, between pages and posts. But the differences, between the two blog components, make the interesting stories.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Blogger Blog Content Needs To Be Unique

I've been studying spam, in Blogger blogs, for over 5 years.

This year, we've seen improvement in the automated spam classification process, implied by a noticeable reduction in spam review requests overall - and in a reduction of false positive classifications. During the past few months, blogs requested for review are 2 or 3 times more likely to be confirmed as legitimate spam blogs (true positives), compared to this time last year.

Of the blogs confirmed to be spam hosts, when I am able to examine cached copies of the content, 3 out of 4 of those appear to contain material scraped or syndicated from other blogs or websites.

Content scraped (stolen), or syndicated (copied, with permission), from other blogs / websites. Content scraped or syndicated to other blogs / websites.

Google describes the problem, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger, quite simply.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

Long ago, many spam blogs were part of large well named spam blog farms.

Long ago, spam blogs were first encountered as startup components in large spam blog farms.

Later, we explored the involvement of various "get rich quick" schemes, and of affiliate marketing.

Content or links which reference referral-based activities such as GPT ("Get Paid To"), MLM ("Multi-Level Marketing"), MMF ("Make Money Fast"), MMH ("Make Money from Home"), PTC ("Pay To Click"), or PTS ("Pay To Surf").
Affiliate marketing (Please, don't confuse this with "affiliate networking"!).

One common characteristic of many spam blogs was lack of uniqueness.

Of these three broad descriptions of confirmed spam blog content - spam blog startups, get rich quick schemes, and affiliate marketing - the one common feature in most of the blogs, confirmed as spam hosts, seems to be the lack of unique content. One of the features of the Panda update to Google Search was described as "content quality" in search results.

The past year tuning to Blogger spam classification appears to be in keeping with Panda, in that it is targeting blogs which rely upon content intentionally replicated from blog to blog - whether "scraped" (stolen, without permission), or "syndicated" (copied, with permission).

If your blog is to avoid spurious classification, it needs unique content.

The end result here is that Blogger blogs, to avoid spurious spam classification, need to contain as much informative, interesting, and unique material as possible. Clever technique is not helpful.

While some amounts of quotation of other blogs and websites is beneficial, the majority of blog content needs to be written by the blog owners and contributors, and properly targeted to the reader population. This helps the blog get better SERP position - and more search engine related traffic.

Account / Blog Recovery, With Team Blogs

We've known for a while, about account recovery for team blogs.

We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://mybloggerblog.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors.

Apparently, team ownership recovery has its limits.

I used "Forgot?", and got the advice
Your blog has too many authors to email them all. Please enter your email address into the form below to look up your account information.
The blog has too many contributors. Since some of these contributors' accounts are no longer active, there's no way for me to easily identify the account which has now has the administrator rights.

Like account recovery for a blog with inactive team members, the "Forgot?" wizard won't work well with large membership lists, which are not well maintained.

In this case, the would be owner (former owner?) now has two possibilities.

If he was the only administrator, the blog now has no administrators - and any author can now claim ownership of the blog, by using “Forgot?” and providing the proper email address.
If the blog still has administrators, the former owner now has to identify an administrator who is active and accessible, and who is willing to restore his account to administrator status.

What to do, now?

Once again, we see the advantage of keeping the membership list well maintained. And if you need to transfer control of the blog, to a different Blogger / Google account, always use two browsers.

It is, unfortunately, the responsibility of the blog members to make the recovery process fit their situation. Blogger can simply provide no more options or suggestions.

A team cannot be managed (non managed) as if it were a committee.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Problems Adding / Editing The HTML And Text Gadgets

We're seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, mentioning problems adding or updating the HTML and Text gadgets.

The most common symptom, when reported, is very simple.

When I try to update the gadget, all that I see is
javascript:void(0);

In this case, we have to first explain that "javascript:void(0);" is not the problem - it's simply a symptom of the problem.

Once we explore the problem itself, we see various possible causes.

The base cause for problems with the HTML / Text gadget is simple - the script which processes gadget updates provides no diagnostics when detecting errors.

If you update a post (using Post Editor), or the template (using Template Editor), with bad code, you generally see some error message, indicating that your changes are bad.

Both Post Editor and Template Editor provide some diagnostics, when errors are detected. With the HTML / Text Gadget, the script issues no error messages, it simply stops.

Instead of "javascript:void(0);" displaying for a fraction of a second, as the update is saved and the window closes, you are left looking at

javascript:void(0);

until you hit "Cancel", in frustration.

The HTML / Text gadget has been observed to have various problems, which prevent changes from being properly saved. If you are looking at "javascript:void(0);" right now, after having repeatedly hit "Save", there are several possible causes for this symptom.

Bad HTML, when accidentally in HTML mode.
HTML / JavaScript code which contains line breaks in the wrong places.
Bad HTML code, when intentionally entering an HTML gadget.
Gadgets with blank titles.
Layered security, which blocks the gadget update scripts from running.
Trying to use a non supported browser version.
Changes to the blog or post template, unwisely applied by the blog owner.
Using the wrong menu selection, in "Add a Gadget".

Blog owners who are not observant, when updating the gadget, may accidentally be in HTML mode. Rich text, containing HTML significant characters, will be a problem.

HTML / JavaScript code is sensitive to line breaks in the wrong places in the code. Blog owners, accidentally or intentionally inserting line breaks, can cause a problem.

HTML / JavaScript code, in general, is syntax sensitive. Bad code will always be a problem.

Gadgets with blank titles will cause a problem, when using some browsers. If a gadget with a blank title is specifically required, it may be possible to use a null title, instead.

Inappropriate use of layered security may block cookies or scripts, and prevent the gadget from updating. This can include browser add-ons, as well as security applications. The owner may intentionally cause this problem - or this can be entirely without owner involvement.

The gadget, like every other Blogger feature, must be updated to support newer browser versions. It will likewise be updated periodically, to remove support for older browser versions. Non supported browser versions will frequently cause problems.

Blog owners can make unwise changes to the blog or post template, which can interfere with gadget code, elsewhere in the template.

Finally, some blog owners can be using the wrong menu selection in "Add a Gadget" - and adding "XML", instead of "HTML/JavaScript".

Some of these error scenarios should be more clearly identified, by the script - but not all can be identified. Attempting to save a gadget with a blank title, for instance, should produce a stern warning

Blank titles are not accepted.

Unfortunately, HTML syntax errors generally can't be consistently diagnosed, with any detail.

The best solution here is for the blog owners to be aware that the gadget operates this way, when being updated. Some cautious effort must be made, when updating the gadget.

It's possible that problems updating the gadget, like many Blogger problems in general, can be best diagnosed using affinity testing, and / or differential testing.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Blogs Publishing Large NewsFeeds Can Cause Problems

We're seeing a few reports, which involve blogs with published newsfeeds with large volume, producing intriguing varieties of symptoms, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My Followers are not getting email updates!

and

My blog does not update, on my Followers blogs!

and

My blog can't be viewed! All that I see is the gears turning!!!

All of these blog owners are publishing blogs which produce feeds, which are too large.

In general, a newsfeed can be any size necessary. There are two secondary details, however, which can make a Blogger blog, publishing a large newsfeed, problematic.

There is nothing basically wrong with large newsfeeds - but blogs which use dynamic templates, and blogs which produce feeds redirected through FeedBurner, can have problems when publishing large feeds.

Dynamic templates have problems with large feeds.

We're currently seeing problems with dynamic templates, caused by blogs with large feeds. This produces one more case where we end up prescribing a large Timeout setting, for dynamic views.

A blog, which provides the Blogger "Follow by Email" gadget (or the native FeedBurner Email Distribution gadget), uses FeedBurner to distribute email, from the blog posts feed. Large newsfeeds, when redirected through FeedBurner, can cause problems.

There are two ways to reduce feed size.

There are two approaches to making a feed smaller.

Publish a blog posts feed with less posts.
Format posts using Blogger post editor, instead of using Microsoft Office.

FeedBurner Help provides reference guides discussing large feed size.

See FeedBurner Help: Is there a feed file size limit? and How can I reduce Blogger's feed size below FeedBurner's 512K limit?, for details.

To diagnose a large feed problem, one can use any text browser, such as Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, or Web-Sniffer View HTTP Request and Response Header. Either product will provide a size display.

Feeds over 512K in size will be problematic, with either dynamic view, or FeedBurner redirection.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Various Problems With Blog Owners Using Internet Explorer V11

We're seeing a few browser related problems, possibly related to a recent update of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I can't see my dashboard!

and

I can't upload pictures - all that I get is a blank box!

and

I am receiving messages, when I log in, that my Internet Explorer is not compatible with Blogger.

Too many blog owners use Internet Explorer for using Blogger - and automatically accept updates, applied by Windows Update.

Right now, Blogger Engineering is in the process of updating Blogger to work with Internet Explorer V11. This is not a minor task - with all of the many Blogger features required by the various blog owners and readers, all of which must be checked for compatibility with each new browser version.

The recent updates of Microsoft Windows, to use Internet Explorer V11, is causing various problems to blog owners and readers.

Blogger Engineering cannot update Blogger, immediately, to work with the new version. While we wait for Blogger to be updated, it's possible that the Microsoft "Compatibility View" setting can help us bypass some of the problems.

From the Internet Explorer menu, select "Tools" - "Compatibility View Settings".
From the Internet Explorer address bar, click on the "broken page" icon.
Type "blogger.com" into "Add this website". Hit "Add", then "Close".

If we can't use "Compatibility Views" to work around the current problem, we have to wait, patiently, until Internet Explorer V11 can be properly supported, by Blogger Engineering. When Blogger does support IE V11, you will do best to remove "blogger.com" from "Compatibility Views".

If we can't wait patiently, we may need to try using another browser with Blogger - at least to diagnose the problem at hand.

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