Because my Uncle Eyeball developed Rocket Butt and jetted up on a protracted intergalactic survey, I have lately been compelled to ask another relative for advice, my dear Acerbic Aunt Acid.
I clicked onto my blog today and noticed something alarming...
Dear "Alarming...",
That's what you get when your ancestors immigrate to The New World instead of a nice settled country like Acerbia, as I did. Yes, I know, we've argued about it before but they wanted a fortune to cross the Atlantic --even more if I was furnished a boat-- so I came to this lovely, vitriolic country and acculturated myself and made a good living with an advice column. Now, "Alarming", who should have a proctologist examine his brain, what is your problem?
Dear Aunt Acid,
You know it is I, Geo. I have a question...
Dear Geo.,
I knew it was you, which is why I'm being nice. Shoot.
Dear Aunt Acid,
The GFC Followers list, at the head of my blog, suddenly shows only one line of 20 subscriber icons (and requires key-prompts to show the rest) where it used to show 4 lines and things were simpler. The count is still at 88, but it takes longer to get through them and the dashboard is rearranged in that area too. It did this by itself. I have visited Google forum to find similar problems and solutions to them but it yields nothing. What's going on?
Dear addled Geo.,
Send a plea out to your subscribers to find out if they see the same thing at your GFC gallery. The rest is up to you. Now, excuse me, I must go sweep teeth off the dance-hall floor.
Dear Readers,
Input?
Blessed blogger does these things, like a cat, because it can. And, much like a cat, if we get upset about it, blogger will purr and find some new 'enhancement' to try.
ReplyDeletePS: For what it is worth, does moving where your GFC gallery sits on the blog change its appearance?
DeleteBest explanation so far! There are two beautiful representatives of Blogger to whom I have granted rodent-hunting rights on my property. They look at me with yellow eyes and go about their business. Tomorrow, I shall ask them what this new format is all about.
DeleteRe: PS. Sadly, no.
DeleteI can't help. I can only tell my story. One day, I clicked onto my block and my blog roll was gone and, come to find out, I had disappeared without trace off the blog rolls of other blogspot bloggers. It was too much. I escaped to Wordpress which, like the New World, isn't perfect, but there are no blogroll eating insects, at least. If any of your followers see my old blogroll while they are wherever blogger sends widgets to die, please ask them to send an owl. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think it's been a couple years since you went to Wordpress. I follow your posts by blogroll and sure hope nothing goes wrong with it.
DeleteYep...same thing's happened to my blog too.
ReplyDeleteWhy they have to keep changing things that are working fine is beyond me...:/
Apart from Blogger...have a great day! ;))
So far as I can determine from sketchy info from Blogger, they no longer support GFC as it was and are updating it out the window. My day's going fine; trust yours is too!
DeleteI am tempted to ask what GFC is, but that puts me at odds with most bloggers I'd think.
ReplyDeleteI've read a couple blogs where the writers seemed concerned regarding the number of their 'followers'......I suppose I would to if they were leaving tithing at my door in the form of apple pies, but as it is it seems unconcerning.
So, dear Geo, I'm just wasting your time here, as usual I have nothing constructive to offer. I noticed this tendency in myself after I retired 6 years ago.
Mike, GFC (Google Friend Connect) is all the 1/4-inch square pictures of blog subscribers --easily clickable for convenience-- that served quite well for navigating and visiting other blogs. Then, yesterday, it went from a gallery to a sort of abbreviated conga line. I remembered old Simon and Garfunkel lyrics --"Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages. And the zoo keeper is very fond of rum"-- and was unnerved!
DeletePs: Mike, wait 'til you've been retired 7 years, like I have, and find much useful ideation is not strictly constructive.
DeleteMy dear Auntie Chamber told me to keep to myself and not enter into another area. I guess she wants me to stay out of this discussion?
ReplyDeleteGFC is the antechamber of many blogs, so I would deem your participation quite relevant.
DeleteDear Geo., I count only 20 pictures above - but, even more disturbing, I see the word "unfollow" underneath. Now I looked up my blog: same. Only 20 photos to see - than you have to click on "next". (And I hope one does not hit on "unfollow" by error).
ReplyDeleteThe good thing - in both cases: everybody is still there. Only veiled...
Dear Brigitta, I'm afraid to get anywhere near the "unfollow" button!
DeleteMe too - and I get sheer panic when I see a "delete" AND a "reply" under a comment I want to answer to.
DeleteA technical issue beyond my competence level, sorry. However that is a fine photo. I hope your Uncle Eyeball makes a return circuit.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom. I suspect the issue is beyond everybody's competence --especially Google's-- and imagine generations of Google employees paid by the bushel for new ideas --sometimes they run out of good ones.
DeleteI have no answers to your concerns. All I can attest to is the fact that Google/Blogger have been acting unusually strange for an annoyingly long time. For example, this most recent post of yours didn't show up on my "dashboard" until nearly a day after you posted it.
ReplyDeleteI recently eliminated the "Followers" thingie on my sidebar, because I only had about 32 followers - and that number kept diminishing every time I posted something controversial. At this dire point, I'd rather not know who's following me.
I still have trouble with my Blogger fonts mysteriously changing sizes by themselves - and suddenly switching to italics when I don't want them to.
It's all too strange, Geo, and I suspect aliens from unknown planets are involved.
I hope you find a solution to your Followers problem
Jon, that reminds me, I participated in a threaded commentary on your blog --with you and Maddie-- on the subject of delays and snafus. I considered it a sign that I should follow a few more sites before Google's improvements get any worse.
DeleteI'm not technically proficient, so my observations are limited to the fact that my follower widget seems fine but it is just the basic, not the Google Friend Connect; also, it is still showing the usual Follow button, not the Unfollow one. I don't have 20 followers yet, so nothing to add on that front!
ReplyDeleteI've heard about problems with Blogger before but still chose to go with it because so many of the blogs I read use it. I also found it more intuitive to set up than Wordpress, which I tried to set up a second blog on recently and gave up.
I hope you find some information on your issue soon.
O Jenny, information does not seem to be immediately forthcoming. However, the difference between encountering a follow vs. unfollow button seems to turn on whether one is signed in as a follower or not in the first place. Beyond that, I can't rely on reason or experience to guide me, and must depend on imagination --much like the current presidential election.
DeleteIf my Auntie Diluvian is correct, one of the latest trends in blogging platforms is to tantalize the reader with a bit of bait. The 20 or so followers you see are just a few of the souls to sign on to your ship. Other mates are located by clicking on the "Previous" or "Next" buttons. My auntie has a theory that seeing so many followers all at once may distract some readers enough that they fall overboard and get washed away before they have a chance to get used to the roll of your ship.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing theory! Maybe Google's next idea will arrange followers in a circle like a flotation device.
DeleteIt's magic, and not necessarily the good kind.
ReplyDeleteI believe you've nailed it, Susan!
DeleteI think there are minions who must do these things to justify their paychecks. I see what you see.
ReplyDeletex
Well, maybe something will come of the space they're freeing up. I notice a conspicuous, colorful info & advert page comes up before the sign-in page now. Blogger could use some promotion.
DeleteI do not know why these things are happening on Blogger. I have been noticing something happening with the follow buttons as well. Why can't things just stay the way we like them :)
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered the same thing, Keith. We are very adaptable creatures and generally adjust to unexplained changes --but the older I get, the more they give me the jumps!
Delete