Change The Display Name, On Old Posts

We see the occasional query, about name changes, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

I just got married, and now I have a new email address, and a new name. How do I change my Blogger identity?

And the usual advice was

You can change youe email address, and / or change the display name (not the account name) - and you can transfer control of the blog to a new Blogger account, which bears your new name. But old posts will remain, with your old name.

And there, we would have one more disappointed blog owner.

But that does not have to be the final answer.

You can change the name, on old posts, with some effort.

You will have to re publish your old posts, one post at a time. This is not a minor change - but for legal and responsible name changes, maybe this is not a lot of effort.

Make screen prints of the main page, of one or two individual recent post pages, and one or two older posts (from a previous month, if applicable). You will need them, for comparison with the new posts. It's always good to verify a few posts, before starting the bulk of the project.

Start by transferring control of the blog, to your new Blogger account. Then, re publish each post, one by one. Reverting each post to draft, before publishing a new post, prevents duplicated content.

With each post, you

• Open the current post in Post Editor, and revert to draft.
• In a separate tab or window, make a new post.
• You will have to copy all content, one element at a time, from the current post to the new post.
• Title.
• Content.
• Labels.
• Search Description (if used).
• Schedule. You will want the same date and time, to retain post sequence.
• Options. Copy all settings, for consistency.
• Then "Publish".
• And make a custom redirect, from the original URL to the new URL.

Do the recent posts for which you took screen prints, above. Compare the "new" posts with the screen prints. If you like what you see, do the older posts for which you took screen prints, and compare the results.

If you like both the recent and old posts, as re published, then start converting each post, one by one.

This is not an instantaneous project - but neither is a legal name change, for whatever reason you need. Maybe it will take more than one day - so do a bit each day, carefully, and slowly.

What Access Do You Have, To Your Blog?

Occasionally, we have a would be blog owner, becoming confused about blog access, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I can look at the dashboard Posts page - but there are no posts listed.

or

I can't access the Template Designer (edit the template, add users to the blog, ... ).

or maybe

Why is Settings so small?

These are bloggers who are confused over a blog where they are an Author, or have no access - as opposed to a blog where they are an Administrator.

Along with knowing how to identify yourself, knowing what access you have to a given blog can be a key detail, when you are dealing with identity confusion - such as inadvertently created duplicate accounts, or possibly duplicated blogs.

Let's look at my dashboard, and at a pair of blogs which we see there.

Here's my normal dashboard home page.

The dashboard home page. Let's look at two of the blogs, there.

• I am an author, on this blog.
• I am an administrator, on this blog.
• I have no access, to this blog.

See the pull down menu?

I am an author, on this blog.

"Recipes"

See the pull down menu?

I am an administrator, on this blog.

"The Real Blogger Status"



I am an author, on this blog.

I am an author, on this blog. See the Posts menu? See the dashboard menu?

I am an author, on this blog. See the Posts menu / page? See the dashboard menu?

I am an author, on this blog. See the Settings menu? See the dashboard menu?

I am an author, on this blog. See the Settings menu / page? See the dashboard menu?


Author access Settings are very simple.

All of the Settings, for Author access, are Email and Permissions. That's what you see, above.

The Email access gives you the ability to setup your own Mail-to-Blogger entry. The Permissions access lets people who have previously accepted Guest ("Author") membership in a blog to remove themselves, without having to contact the blog administrator.


I am an administrator, on this blog.

I am an administrator, on this blog. See the Posts menu? See the dashboard menu?

I am an administrator, on this blog. See the Posts menu / page? See the dashboard menu?

I am an administrator, on this blog. See the Settings menu?

I am an administrator, on this blog. See the Settings menu / page?


If you're not seeing either of the above - or you're seeing access as an Author, where you should be seeing Administrator - you have either lost access to your account or your blog.

• First, verify that you are the primary administrator / owner of the blog.
• You may have inadvertently created a second Blogger account.
• You may have tried to transfer control of the blog from one account to another, and made a mistake.
• You successfully transferred control to an administrator who should not have been trusted.
• You may have any of several different connectivity or security issues on your computer or network, which prevents you from accessing your account or your blog.

I have no access, to this blog.

This may be what I see, when viewing my blog - if I really have a problem.

I am not an administrator - or even a author - of this, or any, blog.

Here, I'm not even recognised as being logged in to Blogger.

Hopefully, I am simply not logged in, properly. Maybe, I have an aggressive cookie filter?


In this extreme case, I may have a problem with a cookie filter, somewhere on the computer, interfering with my being properly identified. It's also possible that I managed to remove myself, from a team blog.

These problems may be your responsibility to resolve, as you alone have the responsibility for retaining access to your blog - and for your own connectivity to the Internet.

Reformat An Unreadable / Unusable Page Or Post

Sometimes, you have to start over.

If you edit your post too enthusiastically - or if you switch between Compose and HTML modes too much, while editing - you can corrupt the formatting. You can cause a cornucopia of symptoms, from messed up index pages, with dropped sidebars, to unreadable posts (and yes, pages).

Even the old trick of doing nothing but toggling between Compose and HTML modes may not work, every time.

If the page or post is completely unusable, you reformat, and start over.

In Compose mode, you use the "Remove formatting" tool. This removes everything but the raw text.

It's a mess! (OK, we've all seen worse).

Select everything in the page / post.

And use the editor "Remove formatting" tool ("Tx").

That's cleaner, isn't it?

And now, start over.


With all formatting removed, you start over. It's not what you want to do, most likely - but it's the best solution. And maybe, this is a good solution, if you must compose posts using MS Word.

Large Blog Sitemaps Are Broken, And Lack Content

Several owners of large blogs (500 posts and up) are reporting problems with indexing, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I have over 2500 posts, in my blog. Each sitemap page, which should contain 500 posts, shows only 150 posts. This reduces my indexed posts tremendously!

This blog owner did nothing to cause this problem.

Upon investigation, we have discovered that both blogs using the classic feed based sitemap, and the current automatically generated sitemap, are missing sitemap contents, equally.

Right now, sitemaps for blogs with over 500 posts - and a paged sitemap - are missing significant amounts of content.

The problem affects blogs using the classic sitemap, and the new sitemap.

Large blogs cannot be properly indexed, with the sitemaps containing only 150 entries, instead of 500 entries, per page. Both blogs which use the classic blog feed based sitemap, and blogs which use the new Blogger generated sitemap, appear to be equally affected.

The problem appears to involved both blogs published to BlogSpot, and to custom domains.

The effects of the problem can be easily seen, in Search Console reports.

The problem can be observed in the Search Console - Crawl - Sitemaps displays, where the owner will notice a significantly smaller number of indexed posts. Examine the pages in the sitemap.

Or, you may examine the blog posts newsfeed sitemap, using a text browser. Then, search for "<title·type='text'>".

Load a "500 posts" feed segment, in a text browser.

Search for "<title·type='text'>".

Right now, you'll get 151 hits - 1 for the blog, 150 for 150 posts.

That's 150 posts, out of 500. What is that doing, to the blog reputation?


This blog has just under 2,400 posts published. Right now, Search Console shows 1,157 Submitted, with 1,388 Indexed.

This blog has just under 2,400 published posts. 1,157 submitted is a significant drop.

Blogs with more than 2,500 posts (and a fully populated sitemap) are similarly affected.


This is a significant impact, on traffic to large blogs.

With the sitemap capable of hosting 2,500 posts for submission and indexing, this is a significant drop in indexing - and probably, in search engine reputation.

The problem has been reported to Blogger Support. If your blog is affected, and you wish to state the URL of your blog here, I will pass it on to Blogger.

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(Update 11/28 1:00): Blogger Engineering is now offering a Blogger generated sitemap ("sitemap.xml"), with up to 20 pages of 150 entries / page. People using sitemaps based on blog feeds may have to add sitemaps, if feed segments are limited to 150 posts / segment.

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XML Gadgets Do Not Work In HTML Templates

One of the more intriguing questions, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, is about blog accessories, and template antiquity.

I feel the customization with HTML templates is a lot more unique - but I wanted a certain gadget, on my blog. I upgraded my template in order to add the gadget, and copy its coding. After reverting back to the Classic template, I placed the gadget into my HTML. How do I get the gadget to work?

This blog owner does not understand the differences between HTML and XML.

Many Blogger accessories are written in XML.

XML code won't run, in an HTML only environment.
Blogger XML is a lot more versatile than HTML / JavaScript. Unfortunately, XML won't run, in an HTML only environment.

With an HTML only template, your blog won't have the XML libraries which support XML coded accessories. You can't use an XML coded gadget, in a template that only uses HTML.

The benefits of Layouts / Designer class templates will offset the drawbacks.
It's time to move forward, and try out Layouts / Designer class templates. Unique customisations, or not, what you will get, with the newer templates, will make up for the differences.

The XML gadgets, that will only work with Layouts / Designer class templates, are just a small reason, to move forward.

Multiple environment template support cannot last forever.
Supporting multiple versions of Blogger code requires resources - and all resources are finite. One day, Blogger Management will realise that the cost of supporting HTML only templates exceeds the benefits.

Whether the decision to end HTML only templates comes in an emergency - or simply a long term strategy - support for Classic templates will end, one day.

When the end comes, you will not enjoy the experience.
I helped support the migration from FTP Publishing, in 2010 - 2011. You do not want to be part of a similar scenario, when Classic to Layouts migration becomes a necessity, and has a deadline.

If your blog uses an unconverted Classic template, move forward. It will be easier than you think, right now. Do it this month - or this year. Don't plan on waiting out the decade.

Import Content From A WordPress Blog

Some blog owners - weary of the restrictions, and lack of options and features, decide that WordPress is not part of their future - and are moving to Blogger.

An important part of changing from WordPress to Blogger publishing is the process of moving the existing blog content.

You can import WordPress content into a new Blogger blog - or use an existing Blogger blog. If you are migrating a WordPress domain to Blogger, you'll want to transfer the content, first.

When you move a WordPress blog to Blogger, you want to move the comments and posts, in a 3 step process.

1. Export your comments and posts from WordPress, into a WXR file.
2. Convert the WordPress WXR file, into a Blogger XML file.
3. Import the XML file into your blog, and publish the posts.

Export your comments and posts from WordPress, into a WXR file.

Use the WordPress Export wizard, to Export Your Content to Another Blog or Platform. Select "Download Export File", in the WordPress dashboard.

Go to Tools -> Export in your WordPress.com dashboard to download an XML file of your blog’s content. This format, which we call WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, pages, comments, categories, and tags.

Convert the WordPress WXR file, into a Blogger XML file.

Upload the WXR file, from Step #1, into the WordPress2Blogger utility, "wordpress2blogger1.appspot.com". This will give you a XML file, on your computer, which you can upload to Blogger.

Note that the WordPress to Blogger conversion appears to provide 5 aliases. If "wordpress2blogger1" is out of service, you may be able to use one of the other 4 aliases.

1. wordpress2blogger1
2. wordpress2blogger2
3. wordpress2blogger3
4. wordpress2blogger4
5. wordpress2blogger5

Import the XML file into your blog, and publish the posts.

Upload the XML file from Step #2, using the Import wizard, on the Blogger dashboard Settings - Other page. Do not select the option to "Automatically publish".

Once the individual posts are imported, use the Posts menu to select, and Publish as necessary.

Finish the project.

With the content moved from WordPress to Blogger, if a domain is involved, you can now transfer the domain from WordPress. Then, get to work making your new blog more like your blog.

Can I Setup A Blog, And Sell Goods Or Services?

We see cautious blog owners, asking that question periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

Many home based, and small, businesses use Blogger blogs for selling various goods and services. Apparently, you're permitted to sell stuff, using your blog. That said, there are some common sense rules which you should consider, before you setup a blog to sell stuff.

Like any Blogger blog, a blog that's setup to sell stuff has to consider various restrictions in content - starting with Blogger: Content Policy, and Google: Terms Of Service.

Common sense rules should be a good starting point.

Some common sense restrictions apply, specifically, to selling stuff.

• You need to sell a product or service that's genuine - and legal.
• You need to advertise your product or service, politely. Don't use spam to advertise.
• You need to design and publish the blog with educational or entertaining content, to attract readers. Don't depend upon paying for readers, syndication, or affiliate relationships alone, to get people to your blog.

Sell a product or service that's genuine and legal.

There are a few products that are forbidden by law, or by Terms Of Service, that will get your blog cancelled (and maybe land you in court - dohh!). In alphabetic order (as with most of my lists), you should not write about

• Child porn (period).
• Counterfeiting currency or financial instruments.
• Explosives manufacture.
• Planned assassination of a political leader (actual or fictional).
• Terrorism.

If a Blogger blog is about a business, the business should provide a legitimate product. A blog which teaches bloggers how to make money at the expense of legitimate Internet businesses will likely be classified as a spam blog.

And, there are some businesses which are legal in limited areas only - and Blogger, to safeguard your readers, has forbidden these businesses, universally.

Regulated Goods and Services: Do not use Blogger to sell or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services, such as alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.

Advertise politely.

Apparently, some home business and small business owners, having seen the warnings about spam mitigation in various Blogger forums and publications, fear spam classification or TOS violation problems.

Having written your blog, write about your blog, properly.

Design the content, to attract readers.

If you're going to sell a product, don't depend upon the product to both generate content / traffic, and provide revenue. Affiliate marketing is a borderline abuse classification - and is not a legitimate content source.

Write about what you know about, and what you care about. That will provide an endless stream of subjects - and will attract an endless stream, of readers. And there, you will find your customers.

BlogRolls Are Good For Casual New Reader Activity

Blog owners use many techniques for getting new readers - and for keeping existing readers happy.

Some blog owners use techniques which work inconsistently, because they are not designed to work the way they are being used. Some blog owners becomes concerned when their blogs, listed in blogrolls on other peoples blogs, don't seem to be updated as regularly as they would expect.

Blogrolls are good tools for getting new readers, in a casual manner. They may not be as good, for predictable, scheduled visitor activity.

Not all blog owners understand that their content, when displayed on other blogs, is subject to activity on those blogs.

A blogroll displays content, based on activity on the host blog (which someone else controls), added to the combined activity on the blogs that are listed in the blogroll (which various other people control). Recent activity by any one of the other blog owners could over shadow your efforts - and cause a recent change.

BlogRolls showcase a blog owners current interests.

BlogRolls - provided in Blogger blogs using the BlogList gadget - are accessories which show a portion of each blog displayed. They provide each blog owner a way to show to the world, a summary of her / his current interests - and to provide alternate resources for the blogs readers.

BlogRolls are not designed as publicity devices, for the various blogs displayed. Every blog owner has their own personal set of favourite blogs - and every bloglist, on every different Blogger blog, will display a different set of blogs.

The content of any bloglist, at any time, will vary - based on a number of details.

• The total number of blogs listed, in the bloglist.
• The number of blogs displayed, in the bloglist.
• When the blog owner adds or removes blogs on the bloglist.
• When the blog owner updates the host blog.
• When the owners of the other blogs, in the bloglist, update their blogs.
• When you update your blog.
• Expiration of cached content.

This is the "Peer Resources" blogroll, on this blog. Look in the sidebar, near the bottom.

It represents my own personal interests, relevant to this blog.


"Peer Resources" is similar to my Google+ stream - as focused on Blogger issues.

It is not designed as a publicity tool for any of the individual blogs listed - although being listed in a blogroll may be beneficial, for some blogs.

The owners of other blogs, which use blogrolls, may have differing policies. I don't control their blogs content - or publishing policies.

The number of blogs displayed vs the number of blogs in the bloglist may differ.

If the owner sets a bloglist to display a fixed number of blogs, and adds more blogs to the bloglist to exceed the display setting, only the most recently updated blogs will display. The oldest blogs may not be displayed.

If you look in the sidebar of this blog, you will see the "Peer Resources" bloglist gadget. The gadget will display 5 blogs - but the list of blogs, in the gadget, actually contains 8 entries. The 3 least updated blogs, at any time, will not be displayed - unless you click on "Show All".

When the blog owner adds or removes blogs on the bloglist.

The owner of the other blog may, whenever convenient, add a blog to - or remove a blog from - the bloglist on the other blog. Any other blog added to or removed from a bloglist is going to affect the chances for your blog to be displayed.

When the blog owner updates the host blog.

If your blog has been recently updated, and the host blog was last updated before your blog was updated, your update may not be displayed in the bloglist, on the host blog. Your updates made before the host blog was updated are more likely to be displayed in the bloglist, on the host blog.

When the owners of the other blogs, in the blog roll, update their blogs.

The other blogs in the bloglist, if updated after the host blog was last updated, may not display their latest updates. Their updates, made before the host blog was last updated, are more likely to be displayed.

When you update your blog.

If you updated your blog before the host blog was updated, and before the other blogs were updated, your blog may be displayed, at the bottom of the list.

If you updated your blog after the host blog was updated, and after the other blogs were updated, your blog may be displayed at the top - but the last update made, before the host blog was updated, is more likely to be displayed.

Expiration of cached content.

Cached content is locally stored copies of web pages - such as posts from your blog, stored on your computer.

If a web page (such as a post, from your blog) is in cache - and if the cached entry is not old - the browser gets that page from cache, instead of asking the web server (such as Blogger). This reduces network traffic, and lets you view your post, faster.

Cached content expires by timing - and by activity. When cache is full, the oldest item in cache is flushed - and must be retrieved from the source (such as Blogger) the next time it is needed.

If your blog post content is the oldest item in cache, and it is flushed, its latest update may be displayed - even if the update was made after the host blog was updated. If your blog post content is not the oldest in cache, it may not be flushed - and it may not be displayed as updated, if it's published after the host blog is updated.

Please note that cache is individual, by computer. What you see, when using your computer, may not be the same as what your potential reader sees, at the same time - even when simultaneously viewing the same identical bloglist (on somebody else's blog).

Blogrolls are not controllable - or even predictable.

You may not be able to control how promptly your updates, to your personal blog, are displayed on every blogroll, on every other blog. You may have to settle for having your blog displayed sometimes, sometime after it is updated.

Like the need to have your blog displayed in SERP Page 1 Position 1 in your chosen search terms, you may not get what you want. Everybody cannot be at the top of the list, all of the time.

You can provide various subscription options, for your regular readers. And you can provide high quality, original posts, for your casual and new readers to read. That is how to make existing readers happy, and to get new readers.

The HTML Mode Syntax Checker Was Out Of Control

Most of us who compose pages and posts in HTML mode are accustomed to the annoyance of the (Page / Post) Editor HTML syntax checker.

Proper HTML syntax depends upon correctly paired HTML tags. You enter an opening tag, without a closing tag - and within seconds, the syntax checker pops up and alerts you to your mistake. You then enter a closing tag, and all is well. This might be a normal event, when formatting the page / post title.

Until this week, the syntax checker gave us a brief one or two line advice, at the top of the page. Now, we see a full screen page of random text - and in some cases, no way to continue. The error message fills the screen, and we can't see the editor window - so we can't finish what we were doing.

If the HTML mode syntax checker prevents you from continuing with your editing, and if you don't panic (and good eyesight will help, too), you can recover from this problem fairly easily.

Here, I am in the process of formatting a list. I have to copy and paste the opening tags, then the closing tags, to surround a text list. If you use a magnifying glass, you can see my problem.

Until this week, we would see a brief and relevant advice. Short and sweet (sort of sweet).


Now, a syntax checker error is rather rude. I paste the opening tags - and the syntax checker immediately pops up, and fills the screen. This gives me no way to paste the closing tags.

OMG, what do I do now?

Don't panic! Just zoom out until you can see the post editor window!!

Here is where good eyesight is a big help. Find the spot where you have text to paste, paste it, and wait, patiently.


If you paste the required closing tags, in the right spot, the syntax checker will clear the error, and you can continue.

If the problem is caused by a dropped "</div>" tag, caused by over active editing, then you use the mode toggling technique, to reset the error. You can do that without changing zoom level.

In either case, you have to remain cool. If you panic, you end up having to close the post editor, without saving - and you cannot ever update the post, as you are trying to do.

Now, it's in the hands of the Blogger Engineers. As noted below, the source of the problem has been found - and the fix for the problem is being rolled out. Rollout for everybody may take over 24 hours.

Also as noted below, if you are repeatedly oppressed by this error, you may use the "Dismiss" link at the lower right of the error message, to prevent it from repeating - while you have this post editor session open. Examine the screen prints, above, to see what "Dismiss" looks like.

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(Update 11/21 8:00): After a very prompt response by Blogger Engineering, this problem has been resolved.

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Open Source Content Is Not Quality Blog Content

Some blog owners, complaining of unfair spam classification, are still not considering the need for original, quality content.

I have not broken any Blogger rules. Why was my blog deleted, as a spam host?

Copied content, legal or not, is not quality content. Blogger blogs need original content, that's informative and interesting.

The Blogger spam classifier has no way of identifying open source / public domain content, in your blog.

Copied content is not quality content.

If a blog has posts with predominatly copied content, it's not quality content. Copied with permission or not, open source / public domain content still won't generate traffic to your personal blog.

If the spam classifier sees content that is already indexed, under the website of the public domain content owner - and if the posts, in the blog, don't contain substantial amounts of original content - the blog is still subject to spam classification.

A properly produced Blogger blog is based on personal experience.

Blogger wants people to write blogs, based on their own experiences. Not copy other peoples blogs and web sites, by re typing the posts.

Remember, if you can "Google it" to find the content that you need, Google can "you it" just as easily. Easier, actually.

You can use public domain content - and content copied, with permission.

You can use open source / public domain content, as illustrations, or to explain a concept - and if you're polite, you link back to the content source, and follow the wishes of the source owner. But every blog needs its own content - to be indexed by the search engines, and to attract readers.

But copied content won't get traffic to the blog.

The search engines will index the content - and put the original website at the top of the first search hit page. Your blog, and the others that copied the public domain content, will be on the next page (if you're lucky) - and none of you will get any traffic, from the public domain content.

And if your blog is not classified as a spam host

Why was my blog removed? I don't publish spam!

you'll be in the forums, soon enough, asking

Why don't I get any readers?

or

Why did AdSense cancel my account?

because AdSense wants blogs with substantial quality content - so they can justify their services, to the advertising executives who pay them.

Start your blog right - base it on what you care about, and know well.

When you start a blog, choose the subject based upon what you care about, and know well. And write. That is the proper way to produce a Blogger blog.

Duplicate Blogs, Inadvertently Created

Occasionally, someone reports a problem with disappearing blog content, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

My posts disappeared, right after I changed my email address!

This blog owner does not realise the problems caused by changing ones email address (but not the account name), without thinking.

Having changed ones email address, it's fairly easy to create a new Blogger account.

A new Blogger account lets you login to Blogger - but any blogs created under a previously created Blogger account are going to stay with the previously created Blogger account.

A new Blogger account is created - and maybe a new blog, too.

Having created a new Blogger account, the blog owner sees an empty dashboard, with the advice

You are not a member of any blogs. Create one now to start posting!

and below that

Create Your Blog Now!

With no blog on the dashboard, the owner creates a new blog.

Confused, the blog owner clicks on "New Blog" - and starts creating the blog, again. Only this time, he sees

Sorry, this blog address is not available.

But, it is possible to create a new blog, with a similar name - and with no posts.

D'Ohh! OK, it won't let me have "blogger-status-for-real"! How about "blogger-status-for-reall"?


Now, the owner has a blog - with no posts.

When later he views his (new) blog, he will see an empty blog, and think that his posts have vanished. And he now has 2 blogs, owned under two different Blogger accounts.

A similar confusion is sometimes experienced with new blog owners, who are accustomed to creating a new blog, to publish each article. Only in this case, they may end up with multiple blogs, owned under the same Blogger account.

Editing And Showing Your Blogger Profile

Your Blogger profile is the public part of your Blogger identity, that can be seen by others.

You will want your profile to provide the best representation of you - but do not display too many details. Revealing account names and email addresses, for instance, can put your blogs at risk of theft.

As a Blogger blog owner, you need to know:

• How to display your profile.
• How to edit your profile.
• How to identify your profile.

If you prefer to publish a blog, without revealing any details, you are allowed to do so - and you can construct your own, custom profile displays in less than an hour. You can also choose to not share your profile.

If none of the screen prints, below, look familiar, you may need to look for a Google+ profile.


The Profile Editor.

You can edit your own Blogger profile, using the Profile Editor link. You can only edit your own profile - and only the currently active profile.

If you have a Google+ profile, you will use the Google+ desktop.

Here is the Profile Editor.

Note the 3 "Identity" settings - Username, Email address, and Display name - under Identity. Also, "Share my profile" - under Privacy. This part, only you see.


There are many sections in the Blogger Profile. Some information you may wish to be displayed, in the "About Me" / "About Us" / "Profile" gadget - if you have added one to the blog layout. Other content, you may not wish displayed.

If you need specific information displayed / not displayed, you may make your own custom "Profile" gadget, with little effort.

This is what you see, after you make changes to your profile. Note the handy link, to display the profile, as edited.


The Profile Display.

You can display your own profile, using the various dashboard links. You can display any Blogger profile - as long as you know the ProfileID. If you (or another person) has a Google+ profile, you will use the Google+ desktop.

Here is the Profile Display. The public sees a version of this - without the orange button.

The orange button, leading to the Profile Editor. Only you see this - and only you can use the profile editor, for your account.

This is what the public sees - and what you may see, if you are logged in to the wrong account, or if you are affected by overly aggressive cookie filters.

The URL, in the browser address window, will be what you should provide - when the Profile ID is requested.

And, in the browser address window, there is my profile URL.

And I know that's "me", because I also see - - - the orange button to "Edit Profile".

That's me!

https://www.blogger.com/profile/06257081384482527026

So, any time you ask for help recovering access to your blog, and somebody asks

Please, tell us your Profile ID!

or

What's the Profile URL?

You can answer, with confidence, your version of

https://www.blogger.com/profile/06257081384482527026

If the profile URL includes "plus.google.com", you'll be looking at your Google+ profile.

Learn - and understand - what you should expect to change, and to see.

There are many sections in the Blogger Profile. Some information you may wish to be displayed, in the "About Me" / "About Us" / "Profile" gadget - if you have added one to the blog layout. Other content, you may not wish displayed.

If you need specific information displayed / not displayed, you may make your own custom "Profile" gadget, with little effort.

Knowing what you should see - when properly logged in to Blogger, using the right account - can go a long way to identifying many reported problems, when the dashboard lacks key content.

Knowing what you can see - as compared to what other people can see - can help identify problems with multiple accounts. And identifying what access you have, to each blog, can be a useful diagnostic technique too.

So know how to use the Profile Display and Editor, and the dashboard - and help yourself as a blog owner. Be aware of what you can, and what you cannot, change. And understand how to identify the owner of a blog, how to find your Blogger profile, and maybe your Google+ profile, to help others to help you.

Anonymous Comments, And The Mobile Template

Not all blog owners appreciate the effort by Blogger, to make anonymous comments a usable feature, in our blogs.

Anonymous comments have a complicated form - and people don't want to comment. They have to select certain pictures, related to a subject. When using a mobile template, they don't see all the buttons needed - and there are many steps until you finally publish a comment.

Could is be simpler? With no checking pictures, with just typing few numbers, or without any security question at all?

This blog owner would prefer Blogger commenting, before 2015, when anonymous comments meant unending waves of spam.

Blogger made the anonymous commenting sequence intentionally complicated, to cut down on the volume of spam published using anonymous commenting.

The non optional CAPTCHA reduces spam volume, so blog owners can moderate.
By cutting down on the spam volume, they made it possible for many blog owners to actually moderate Blogger hosted anonymous comments. This allows everybody to work together, and make the spam filters more accurate - and makes Blogger hosted comments more useful for genuine blog guests, and blog owners.

Before they added the non optional CAPTCHA, many blog owners simply could not use anonymous commenting. Moderating all of the spam, to find a few actual comments, took too much of everybody's time.

The mobile template, on mobile computers, complicates CAPTCHA use.
Using mobile computers, and the special "mobile template", will be painful for some people. Mobile computer displays involve a series of compromises - and the non optional CAPTCHA form shows the weaknesses of the compromises.

Removing the non optional CAPTCHA would make life easier - for spammers.
Removing the anonymous comments CAPTCHA would make it possible for spammers to enjoy use of mobile computer templates. Spammers would not be limited by mobile computer displays - and they would, once again, abuse anonymous commenting mercilessly.

Life would be so much simpler, without the spammers. Unfortunately, spam cannot be eliminated - it can only be suppressed.

But you may suggest improvements, to Blogger, if you wish.
All that said, if you think that the anonymous commenting process can be made easier, let Blogger know.

Sharing To Google+, And The "Gray Screen Of Death"

If you like to multi task when using Blogger, you probably keep a few windows and tabs open, in the browser.

If you have lots of tasks running simultaneously, and you try to Share to Google+ from the dashboard Posts page, you may click on the "Share" link, the "Share on Google+" window pops up, you watch the window load - and just as the window is almost complete, it vanishes.

With "Share on Google+" having closed, the Posts menu - and all of the links in the page - become gray. Nothing works.

When you see the gray screen, you may have to restart the browser tab or window.

Even clicking on "Refresh" or hitting a "Refresh" button does nothing. The only option is to close the tab or window, or reload from a bookmark - and start over.

The "Gray screen of death".


Blogger Engineering are aware of the problem.

This problem has been noted, and reported, by Blogger Support.

We have a new Problem Rollup, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting details from any blog owner who is experiencing this problem.

If we are to convince Blogger Engineering to fix this, we have to identify an affected population. If you are experiencing this, the solution starts with you.

You may want to close all unnecessary tasks, when Publishing or Sharing.

My personal observation of this problem is that I see it more, when I have lots of browser tabs open - or extra programs or services running. You may have more success when publishing or sharing posts, if you first close all unnecessary tabs and windows.

Diagnose FaceBook Posting Problems

Sometimes, in the progress of integrating a FaceBook Wall with our blog, we may face a problem which involves FaceBook Open Graph code.

FaceBook error displays can be as mysterious as Blogger error displays. But, there is hope - provided by FaceBook Developers.

The FaceBook Developers Debugger tool can be invaluable, in diagnosing a problem with our blogs, and FaceBook Open Graph code.

Diagnose FaceBook problems, before asking for assistance.

When we try to share a blog post with FaceBook, and get a mangled mass of pictures and / or text, it's a good idea to diagnose the problem, before requesting help. Sometimes, the Debugger will provide the right clues, and help us identify our problems, immediately.

Provide the URL of the blog, and hit "Debug".

To use the tool, just provide the URL of the blog, or the post, which has a problem.

Paste a URL into the box, and hit "Debug".


Use "Show existing scrape information" or "Fetch new scrape information".

Start with the immediate errors.

Check the raw Open Graph tags. And the "Open Graph properties", that were the usable part of the code that you provided.


The complete code listing is in "Scraped URL".

View an image of what your share will look like, when it hits the Wall. And click on "Scraped URL", for the complete code listing.


You'll have a choice to "Show existing scrape information" or "Fetch new scrape information" - which can be useful, if you are diagnosing a problem after you shared your blog post. For help on using the tool, you'll see the hint.

See our Webmasters doc for more info on the Facebook crawler and debugging your Open Graph markup.

Run the Debugger - then post in the FaceBook Community, if you wish.

And, if worse comes to worst, and armed with Debugger logs as examples of the problem, we can report the problem to FaceBook Support. Having a copy of the "Scraped URL" page will be useful then.

Life - And Spam Classification / Review - Is Unfair

Repentant spammers are not frequently seen, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

When a truly repentant spammer reports a problem, it is difficult to know how to treat one appropriately. They are so rare, we have little experience.

This is totally unfair.

Actually, life is totally unfair.

You have been abusing Blogger - and a system which millions of blog owners try to use, in spite of your unfairness. You have been unfair, to other Blogger blog owners.

The spam classification and review process has latency - and this will not help you to retain control of your blog.

The spam classification / lock / review cycle takes time.

It takes time to get a spam lock notice to you, for you to request an appeal, and for the policy review staff to consider your appeal. If multiple spam classifications are being reviewed against your blog, because of multiple offenses, some later reviews will not complete, until long after you have appealed past offenses.

The efforts that you made, last month, when you cleaned up your blog, were negated because of the last 6 months of your unfairness to all other Blogger blog owners. Even while you were cleaning up your blog, another pending blog classification was in progress; and even with your blog cleaned up, your blog has been locked, again.

And Blogger cannot whitelist your blog, to block all pending actions against your blog.

Your past record will take time, to be cleaned up - after the blog is clean.

If you have spent the last year unfairly treating other blog owners, even after removing all unfair practices (aka "TOS Violations"), you should plan to spend twice that amount of calendar time appealing all unfair treatment of your blog, after it is completely clean.

I'm sure that it's unfair, to you, having cleaned up your blog - while it was, so briefly, restored to you. But the abuse classification / review process is not instantaneous - and all of the actions, being reviewed against your blog, for the last year, are now taking effect.

If your blog is locked again, you will have to appeal, again.

You will need to appeal, again - every time your blog is locked. That is the only way to get your blog restored. That is how the process works - unfair as that seems.

If Blogger, this time, deletes multiple blogs - including new ones without content, blogs that were inactive, and blogs that have active reader populations - this is a normal reaction, to your past repeated, non repentant abuse.

Blogger will apply harsher penalties, until you choose to listen. Unfortunately, they can't guarantee that penalties will be applied as gently as you would hope.

If you never received notice about your unfair actions, this is normal reality.

Note that Blogger / Google will make an effort to contact you, when necessary - but cannot promise contact, with 100% certainty. If you overlooked a warning in your email - and continued as an abusive publisher - you must still bear the penalties.

And yes, all of this is totally unfair. Even so, it's real.

A Blog Team Administrator, On Vacation, Is Trouble

We see questions of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about blog ownership recovery.

I accidentally deleted my administrative access. How do I get my access back?

There is only one legal answer.

Have another administrator restore your access.

But this story does not end well.

The other administrator is on long term vacation! I really need to have my access back!!

There is no easy answer here.

Blogs with multiple administrators allow any administrator to remove himself - if necessary - and if another administrator exists.

"Blog Authors" is only sensitive to existence of another administrator.
The "Blog Authors" wizard has no way of temporarily disabling the ability to have somebody remove themselves, simply because an alternate administrator is not currently available. If another administrator exists, one administrator can remove himself.

If your blog has multiple administrators, all administrators are jointly blog owners.

If your blog has an second administrator, the active and current administrator has the option to remove her / himself, any time convenient. If you, the current administrator, click on the "X", or change "Admin" to "Author" - you're history.

This blog has three administrators. Any two of the administrators can delete (click on the "X"), or demote (change "Admin" to "Author"), when convenient.


If you remove yourself as an administrator, you must contact another administrator.
If you accidentally delete or demote yourself, you have to have a second (or the only) administrator restore your status. Blogger does not provide this service - nor should they do so.

If the blog has another administrator, even "Forgot?" can't restore your status. Blog authors, when there is an administrator, cannot be allowed to promote themselves, by using "Forgot?". The only remedy is to contact the current administrator.

One administrator, becoming the only administrator, is now the blog owner.
If an administrator, in a team of two, deletes or demotes himself, the remaining administrator becomes the blog owner. If the owner is on vacation, you have a blog with an owner on vacation. No more, no less.

The "Next Blog" Link Is A Series Of Compromises

Periodically, we see complaints about "Next Blog" content, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

When I click on the "Next Blog" link, I get sent to blogs from many, many different languages. Can I set this to send me to primarily blogs published in English?

or

"Next Blog" sends me to blogs about "xxxxxxx". My blog is about "yyyyyyy". Why can't I get more blogs about "yyyyyyy"?

What these blog owners do not understand is that using "Next Blog" involves compromise.

Originally, "Next Blog" was simply a link to the most recently published blog.

"Next Blog" started out as a feature to encourage blog owners to publish.

"Next Blog" was, long ago, a tool that encouraged blog publishing. Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the most recently published blog - based on links in the "Recently Updated Blogs" list.

"Recently Updated Blogs" was a rolling list of the immediately previous 10 minutes of blog updates - which was observed to contain anywhere from 4,000 - 8,000 entries. At an average of 6,000 entries in 10 minutes, this gave each published blog .1 second of fame.

Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the blog at the top of "Recently Updated Blogs" - which would generally be the blog updated in the most recent .1 second of time.

The blogs published more often would get more "Next Blog" traffic.

Blogs that were published more often ended up at the top of the list more - and got more readers, surfing "Next Blog". This became a great motivation factor, for publishing - based on such a simple concept.

Spammers found how to use "Next Blog" to get traffic to their blogs.

Then spammers found out about "Next Blog", by observing the referer link in any visitor log. They started publishing blogs in mass quantity, simply to collect readers, and send them to payload blogs - filled with hacking, porn, and / or spam.

Eventually, Blogger stopped using "Recently Updated Blogs", as the sole referring factor. Based on suggestions from many blog owners, they now analyse blogs based on multiple factors - such as geographical location, language, and subject - and match the blog currently visible in the browser, with blogs targeted by "Next Blog".

All subjects, in all languages and locations, are not uniformly popular.

Unfortunately, the matching concept - popular though it should be - is not uniformly applicable. Consider how many blogs might be published, about recipes, in English, in New York City. Will there be the same number of blogs about nuclear physics, in Greek, in London?

Greek nuclear physicists, in London, would have a minimal number of similar blogs - and would be more likely to see the same group of blogs, over and over. English housewives in New York City, on the other hand, would have a rich neighbourhood of blogs to read.

And that's reality. If you live in New York City, and want recipes in English, you're likely to see a non ending cornucopia of blogs, constantly updated. If you live in London, and want blogs in Greek about nuclear physics, you're going to see a smaller number of different blogs, updated less frequently.

If you surf "Next Blog", and see blogs written in a "foreign" language, about subjects that don't interest you, seldom updated, try to not blame Google, exclusively. There won't ever be the same number of blogs in every language, published as often, from every city worldwide, about every different subject.

Pages And Posts Can Use Rich Text, In The Titles

Recently, in advising a blog owner of a (probably) unrelated problem, I discovered an unknown (to me) option, in both page and post editor.

Pages and posts can apparently use bold and italic characters, in titles. This interesting option does not work transparently, however.

If you would like a page or a post title to contain bold and / or italic characters, you must edit your page or post using HTML mode.

Neither Compose or HTML mode editor toolbars will add rich text formatting, to the page or post title. To add rich text, you have to use HTML mode - and manually type in the "<b>" ... "</b>" or "<i>" ... "</i>" tags, by hand.

Those of you who use HTML mode regularly have experienced the HTML mode syntax checker. The syntax checker is not idle while you type formatting tags, properly paired, into the title.

Type rapidly - and don't make a mistake - or you will see the error.

Type the rich text HTML tags rapidly - or face a syntax checker error.


If you see the error, get the tags just right. Then wait, patiently.

You can make your titles distinctive, with a little work!


Having properly added the desired tags - correctly paired - the error will go away. You can publish when you're ready - and your page or post, like this post, will have a distinctive title.

But be careful! Right now, if you get a syntax error, it may not display so small!