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The Problem Here Is Not The Problems, It's The Silence.

I was actually quoted, externally, for saying that in my earlier post I Don't Get It.

And as Blogger Beta rolls out, the silence just does not let up . It's depressing, actually.

I noted last week of a major design deficiency in Blogger Beta - the fact that the title in Beta blogs wasn't linking back to the home page. I even developed a (ugly) workaround. So today, I was surfing away at Googolians, and I clicked on the title. And imagine my surprise when I found myself back in main page view. Then I went to page layout view on RBS Beta, and removed my ugly workaround. And noted that, indeed, the title is now clickable in article view, and will take you back to main page view.

And thinking back a few days, I don't remember seeing any official announcement about raw HTML template editing capability being provided either. Just a question or two in Google Blogger Help.

I've actually noted several avenues that Blogger appears to have use of, in communicating what's going on. How many are being regularly, and effectively, used?
  1. Blogger Buzz.
  2. Blogger Status.
  3. Google Blogger Help - pinned posts in
    1. Customizing Templates
    2. Publishing Trouble
    3. How Do I?
    4. Something Is Broken
  4. Google Blogger Help - ongoing discussions in
    1. Customizing Templates
    2. Publishing Trouble
    3. How Do I?
    4. Something Is Broken

Far and away, the majority of any useful information about what's going on comes from Blogger Employee, who has recently taken to signing also as "Jordan". Most of those posts are buried deeply in ongoing threads, started by unhappy Bloggers. Anybody learning about the items communicated must be spending a lot of time reading the discussions there.

The pinned posts, started by Blogger Employee (pre "Jordan") to announce various Blogger Beta features, were quickly barraged with complaints, and nothing useful to be seen there.

Blogger Status is technical information, about a few network events, posted mainly 1/2 hour before any resolution is provided, and following 95 1/2 hours of waiting for resolution. What's acknowleged in Blogger Status, affectionately (right!) referred by some of us as BS (what a serendipitous name), is maybe 25% of the observed problems.

And Blogger Buzz is mostly advertising. What else is "Buzz" going to be? Well, there's one exception, it comes very late in the game, and the appropriate words are buried deeply after more advertising.

Did I miss anything?

And, as usual
Welcome To K-Mart. How may I ignore you today?


Come on, Blogger. Admit the errors. You've got a lot more besides the combined login box to resolve. How about you admit some, before you develop the fixes. Don't make us just wait, and one day see things improved.

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Comments

fifipoo07 said…
Chuck- i was wondering if it is possible or has ever happened that blogger can retrieve deleted posts for you? Pippa
Nitecruzr said…
Hi Pippa,

I have personally never had to have a deleted post restored by Blogger Support, as I back everything up myself, in a couple ways. I have read folks who post here, and have been satisfied. What the actual track record (success / less than success) has been, I cannot say.

If you're not currently backing up your blog, why not start?
Backup Your Blog

If you're past that, give BS a go. Maybe they can help.
Mary said…
I've been fretting about blogger's lack of support, communication, updates, etc. lately, and was wishing that they'd hire folks who were a little older and more experienced than the 23-year-old, just-out-of-college kids they've obviously got running the show. But then I had a better idea. Why not make Blogger open source? Allow the entire planet of programmers to develop hacks that would no doubt improve the ho-hum quality of the current state of blogger. After all -- look at what that's done for Palm, Linux and Mozilla Firefox. [Okay, so Palm is on its way out, but in its heyday, there were (and are) a bazillion hacks for it.]

Then maybe we wouldn't have to craft our own clunky work-arounds to blogger's bugs and just plain lack of good design. And blogger could lay off some of the folks who are obviously not accomplishing much in their current jobs.

A girl can dream, can't she...?
Harper said…
...Mary, I came here with another purpose, but I read your comment, and immendiately felt the *almost* irresistable urge to blast you for your agist comments about people my age. I wont here. Maybe I'll visit you and let you know. If I'm feeling spiteful.

But Chuck, you are the real reason I came. Goodsir, they apparently read your blog, over there at Blogger HQ. See, just the day after I read this very post about their silence, I found this - http://knownissues.blogspot.com/ ...A known issues page, made up by the staff. Available through the beta logon/dashboard page.

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