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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Blogger Enigma!!!

Dear companion bloggers,
This evening I was prompted to accept some changes in posting procedure by Google Blogger --little boxes with arrows that said things like this:
"Blogger Buzz

A first few tweaks toward a better Blogger

A Googler at Blogger Buzz - 36 minutes ago
From New York to Jakarta, Blogger is one of the most popular ways to publish the things you’re passionate about. Still, we’ve heard that there’s more we can do to make the platform a better place to have your unique voice be heard. So we’ll be making some adjustments over time to bring you a faster, easier to use and more beautiful Blogger. To kick things off, we’ve taken a crack at simplifying Blogger’s dashboard so that it’s easier for you to get right to the tools you need. Now, whenever you open Blogger, you’ll be taken right to your blog with the most recent post, putting you o... more »"   

I clicked a couple to get them clear and things went fine for a while.  Later, I found I had no administrative access to my 2 poetry blogs: Gardening With Geo,and Invalid's Workshop I don't know what Google is trying to do here but I resent it, and urge you not to click on prompts as hastily as I did --that's five hundred pages of my poems that seem to have been written in disappearing ink --like much of this strange century's written record. I still have some control over this blog, Trainride Of The Enigmas, but have no idea how long that will last or if my poetry blogs will be restored.  Yes, I have run a virus/malware etc. scan on my computer and it's clean. This is Google-doings.

If anyone has a suggestion as to what I might do to correct the problem, I'd be most appreciative. Until then, I'll ask your patience.

33 comments:

  1. I do not like "improvements" when they aren't. Thank you for the warning.

    I don't really know how the dashboard works for multiple blogs, as I have only one, but is it possible that your access has just been hidden? The blurb above says "...Now, whenever you open Blogger, you’ll be taken right to your blog with the most recent post..." so if your Enigma blog has the most recent post, your other blogs are somehow hidden? It's the only suggestion I can think of.

    We really should be backing up our blogs somehow.

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    1. O Jenny, I never get your limits. You are quite correct! Following your suggestion, I found my other blogs in a little misleadingly titled area --upon which I clicked, got their titles, clicked again and gained access. Couple extra steps but doable. Thank you so much!

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    2. Wow - that was just a guess - I'm so glad it worked! I've been copy/pasting my posts to our hard drive for the past half hour ... just in case we get more "improvements" :)

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    3. Well, your guess was more productive than my hour of research. Should I ever demonstrate overconfidence in the future, simply whisper "hidden blogs" in my ear.

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    4. Ha! The times I've had to ask Blogger for help, I haven't found it useful at all. A shame.

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  2. Geo. Thanks for the warning. I wish we had some say about operating system "upgrades" and the like. Change for the sake of change is annoying.

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    1. Tom, there have been so many changes lately that don't get us any forrader, I had hoped Google would keep its gremlins hibernating at least until springtime.

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  3. Yes - I don't like change without seeing others adopt that aspect first ... I am very carefully - usually and I'd be really upset to lose my blog ... I do hope you can get your work back ... good luck -

    Oh looks like Jenny's been a fantastic help .. cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks, Hilary. Google's "improvement" doesn't really speed things up or make them smoother --especially if one maintains more than one blog site. More changes are promised --or threatened-- and I hope they are less awkward than this 1st step. And yes, Jenny got me pointed in the right direction.

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  4. I am not happy with the upgrade either. Can you tell us what you clicked to get your other blogs back? I am still looking for mine.

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    1. I'll try, Emma.

      1st, I find it easier to sign into blogger from gmail, then use the bookmark list (top right margin by the little star) to go to blogger.

      This takes me to the last site I posted on --"Trainride of The...", which is listed near the top left of the screen. I click on that and a little square appears with the tiny names of my other blogs (sometimes I have to click twice to get them). I click on the one I want.

      This takes me to the page where all posts are stacked in a pile. Familiar at least, where under each title "edit/view/share/delete" selection appears under the cursor --in my case, cursing seems to help. Good luck and have patience. I find it an exercise in self-compassion.

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  5. Whatever happened to 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Google needs to get back to basics. I do hope you manage to save all your hard work.

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    1. Agreed, Delores. I can only conclude Google is trying to drive away less adaptable bloggers like me. I read some comments at the Blogger Buzz site --clickable in the post text-- and there's some creditable mention of jeunism. My brains have been growing back lately and I'm happy to announce my poems have been recovered.

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  6. Ok, just checked on what passes for a blog on my account. Noticed nothing different. I didn't go into the mechanics, modifications, I guess the 'toolbox', but I never do, don't care.
    Now I figure the NSA is on to me, and I better start looking for black Suburbans and the odd helicopter.
    Do you think it's wrong to write prescriptions for one's self, Geo?
    Just considering options.
    Yours in Solidarity

    Mike

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    1. Dear Mike, I'm pleased and encouraged by report that this technical passover has occurred. Was beginning to fear Google was effecting a general metaphysical distress and wanted to install a pope, like Catholicism and Facebook. As to prescriptions, you are a physician and expert, but I would still consider this issue the province of a competent consulting bartender. And, of course, the supernaturally accurate guesses of Jenny_O.

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  7. For the past five or so years, I hate change and new and improved. Since I will never be new again and my mind, at this point in life, will not improve, I only want to do what I am used to without the threat that it will be upgraded to something "easier" and wonderful that will give me pause and anxiety. I was so happy to read that Jenny_o could help you and I will remember to ask her for help if Google screws with my little blog.

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    1. I too am suspicious of superfluous complications inflicted in the name of improvement, but young technicians need jobs --and are answerable to bosses unimpressed by the joys of a well-used minimum. We may not be new any more, Arleen, but as students of life and the universe, solvers of enigmas, we are forever young.

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  8. Well, that stinks! I hope your stuff gets restored soon. How does that Shel Silverstein poem go?

    "And some kind of help is the kind of help
    We all can do without."

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    1. Thanks, Squid. And happy holiday. Happily also, bloggers are finding their ways through these latest impediment-improvements and carrying on quite well. Well-done everyone!

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    2. Happy holiday to you, too! On to the next one...

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  9. OMG - thank you Geo., that you warned us. And I feel with your shock and anger to see other blogs of yours not being able to be opened! I haven't blogged for many days, so I wasn't on my board - now I am warned, and think once again that I am very careless not to have made any copies of anything...
    I hope that you will be able soon to enter your phantastic garden poems blog once again - and the other - which I didn't know of - will be looked up by me as soon as I can.
    Something amusing/consoling:
    when I write a comment, a writing-editor (or whatsoever it is called) tries to "correct" my words. Today it corrected: "your panthasmic (!) garden poem block (!)" and "will beloved (!) as soon as I can" ---

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    1. Dear Brigitta, happily I find everything retrievable now and, barring further improvements to Blogger, will adjust to the new format. Not sure how long changes will take to make their way around the world, but hope everybody's panthasmic poem blocks will be secure.

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  10. Oh, I've been a way for a while and didn't know there is a "new and better" version of blogger. I hope you are able to find everything.

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  11. I know...frustrating in the extreme, isn't it?!
    "Upgrades" like this would be better described as "Downgrades" in my opinion...they make things so much more complicated.:/
    I am only grateful that I only have the one blog!

    Do so hope you can find everything again...oh it is such a pain!:/

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    1. Dear Ygraine, I agree entirely. I find it most efficacious to reprogram my brain a bit to accommodate these suddenly new routines --but it gets harder as I age --alas!

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  12. Have you been able to recover agency over your other two blogs at this point?

    --The Countess.

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    1. Happily, yes! Will get busy and back to the fun of them when I've cleared up a few unrelated challenges here.

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    2. Happy to read this.

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  13. Oh wow! I was relieved to hear you found your poetry, Geo! I am in the process of printing off those of my posts that are really important to me (just as text)! Upgrades on Blogger always stress me, because I never know what might happen,
    and it's often NOT good!

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    1. Oh Louise, there were some worries until other bloggers set me straight --but even so, even they, started duplicating their posts. It was all so sudden!

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