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Friday, July 3, 2020

Blogger Stuff and Pretty Pictures / Beauties Pageant 88


I have had multiple conversations with other bloggers lately about various issues we’ve encountered posting in the new Blogger interface and commenting on other people’s blogs. If you’re not a blogger, this post may not contain any helpful information for you. In that case, I’ve added a bunch of pretty pictures of my latest finish. It’s a baby-size Ship’s Ladder quilt in New Bedford fabric. Both the pattern and fabric are from Denyse Schmidt, and I’ll go into more detail about this quilt when I post its companion, a lap-size version of Ship’s Ladder, in the next few weeks.
 

Disclaimer

 
I hate dealing with the technical part of writing and maintaining a blog. Whenever I try to research an issue, I rarely get the cut-and-dry answer I’m hoping for (if I get any answer at all). That’s why I’m writing this post. And honestly, I am not in a position to advise anyone on such technical issues. In a past life I handled the production of the website of a national magazine—so I consider myself smarter than the average bear on this topic—but truly, I’m no expert. Consider yourself warned.



Problems Commenting

 
I’ve heard from friends that they’ve had problems commenting on my blog or others’ blogs. I recently had issues commenting from my iPhone using Safari. Even though I had signed on to Google, the comment form didn’t recognize that. I wrote my comment and submitted it anyway, without the browser acknowledging that I am Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty, and nothing happened. The comment wasn’t published, and there was no indication it went to a moderator.

I did not research this issue. I simply downloaded the Chrome app to my phone and started using that instead of Safari. It worked like a charm. That fix has worked for friends who have had comparable issues—sometimes from their desktop, sometimes from their phone, sometimes using Safari, and sometimes not.

Paragraph Spacing in Bloglovin’

 
I started using the new Blogger interface a few weeks ago. I haven’t had any problems with it. I find it pretty intuitive, and I like how it allows me to search my past posts.

But I realized that, since transitioning to the new Blogger, my text was appearing differently in Bloglovin’ than it was on my blog . (By the way, I have a love-hate relationship with Bloglovin’. I love that I can read posts from my favorite blogs in one app. I hate that I can’t block followers who hawk inappropriate content.) I always return twice at the end of paragraphs to create a blank line between them, but those breaks were not reflected in Bloglovin’, which made for difficult reading. I looked at the code of my recent posts and realized that if I had a blank space after the ending punctuation of a paragraph and then returned twice, the blank line would successfully appear in Bloglovin’. Is that the most stupid workaround or what?  (The answer is yes, yes it is.)


Disappearing Posts

 
The latest issue I encountered was a blog post that simply disappeared. It existed in the list of posts in Blogger and I could find the corresponding comments in Blogger, but there was no content on the published post other than the title. Crud.

I’d like to blame this on the new Blogger interface, but I suspect I somehow caused this mishap. I had no backup of this post, but I was able to cobble the post back together by referring to the version that existed on Bloglovin’ (so there’s another brownie point for that app). Then I did something you Blogger users should do right now: I backed up my entire blog.

To back up a blog in Blogger, go to Settings. If you edit more than one blog as I do, make sure you’ve selected the one you want to back up. Scroll down to Manage Blog and select “Back up content.” Select download, and you’re golden. This action backs up posts, pages, and comments.

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Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of a rather boring blog post! If you have any Blogger words of wisdom to share, please do so in the comments. Kind words about Ship’s Ladder are also appreciated. : )

Follow Me On ...


 
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The pageant rules are simple:
  • Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
  • Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
  • Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tips. I tried the new blogger out a few weeks ago. I didn't like it much. I had difficulty selecting the font and size that I typically use and gave it a go for a week and then switched back to the "legacy" version, figuring I would use it as long as possible. I still have it despite it being July. I'll be forced soon enough I am sure.
    MelvaLovesScraps(at)NolanQualityCustoms(dot)com

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  2. I like that you chose to echo one line throughout Ship's Ladder and that the piecing reflects creating an interesting interplay between the quilting and every other pieced row.

    And I hear you on frustrating technical glitches. I'm glad you were able to cobble the post back together and find work arounds so far.

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  3. The things I do over and over again, are harder with the new blogger so I have reverted back to the "legacy" blogger, maybe when they work the kinks out I will try it again.

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  4. I have not tried the new Blogger...so thanks for the head's up. Your quilt looks great.

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  5. I'm a wordpress user so haven't tried the new blogger. Hopefully it becomes second nature to you soon.

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  6. I did not manage a lot of sewing time and more importantly took no pictures, so sadly no "beauties" for me this week.

    But I wanted to comment on the technical issues you are having. I have long ago decided that if you want to unterstand websites, it is helpful to at least know some basic html and maybe css. And that it is also nice to "know" what it does. And IMHO you don't get the latter with blogger but only with something like wordpress where you yourself control the system.

    The "workaround" you built by whatever "wysiwyg" editer blogger includes, creates div tags instead of paragraph tags for your content. I can't compare to what it did before you put the blank space in, but I guess the currently emty div container wasn't created and thus you had no "after paragraph space".

    My "no blogger experience" tech idea would be to either set the css to style an after div margin (if you can find a css class that only affects the post content div tags) or to figure out how to use propper paragraph tags for your content.

    I use blogloving only on my desktop so I open the real website, but I think it should work even within the app if the didn't totally ignore the basic htms/css standards.

    If you want to talk more, let me know :)
    PS: Sorry for the long "story".
    xo Melanie

    PPS: If anyone actually reads this long comment and has not considered backing up their blog data or computer data in general. Please start thinking about it. No company would ever work withoout backups and as you have not control over you blog, please do at least that. BTW as blogger does not let you access the FTP part of your blog, you also need to keep the pictures in a safe place because as far as I know, they are NOT included in the above described backup (though I might be outdated as I switched to wordpress years ago).

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  7. I completely get the challenges us Bloggers face. My issue relates to being unable to find photos that have been previously uploaded. When I try to search for them, I see only blue question marks. Ergh! Over the past few years, Google/Blogger has made it more difficult to continue blogging. I truly believe they're trying to get us to stop blogging. When you ask a question, have you noticed how many conversations have been locked?! Thankfully - and thanks to you! - I'm able to comment on blogs again by using Google Chrome. As for Bloglovin', I quit that last year. I was completely fed up with skanky followers. After removing myself from their program, and emailing why I was doing so, I learned from another person who uses Bloglovin' that my blog is still connected to her feed. So, once you're in, you're in for life, whether you want to be or not. I enjoyed your pretty quilt pictures too!

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  8. How long does it take to import from China to USA during a differentiation effort and a real desire to tell and educate, I will be able to attempt to not constantly reiterate and rant and rave about equivalent things all the conservative writers are ranting about.

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Thank you for commenting! I almost always respond to comments by email. If my response might interest others or if you're a no-reply blogger, I'll post it here.