Monday, June 14, 2010

A Rant about Blogger or Why you need to read the fine print.


Update - June 16:   I have come to terms with the new Blogger template issue and have found and modified one of the new templates.  I'm fairly pleased with it but "the jury's still out".  This could go on for quite some time, actually.  I'm not known for my decisiveness.

I'm very frustrated with Blogger.   My new blog template is terrible.  I have serious "new template remorse."

Last week there was a "sticky note" on my blog dashboard heralding new design templates.

Template Designer - New!!   

Being the curious person that I am, I clicked the link to see what this was all about.  Now I know why curiosity killed the cat.

Five templates appear which are just large enough to tweak your curiosity.  I chose the design Simple and Lake Mary Musings's new look instantly appeared below the template dashboard.   Hmmm.  Interesting but I need to see it full size.  Aha...I'll click on Apply to Blog.  Didn't like it at all.   And that's when I realized that there was no way to reverse my decision.  My old template was gone forever.

I made two errors...I neglected to notice that there is a teeny tiny bar (in black) that says in teeny tiny print Expand View.  Also did not notice the option View Blog.   Nope...I just went ahead and chose Apply to Blog.   In my defense, it's the only option in large print and it's RED. 

I spent the next hour or so desperately trying to find at least another template that looked similar to the old template.  Okay...there's nothing that even remotely resembles my old template.  Spent a great deal of time trying to customize the stupid new template. 

Only after becoming so frustrated that I abandoned my efforts did I notice a post on Blogger Buzz (the Blogger blog) about the wonderful new design possibilities.   At the very end of the post....the very end...there is a note that reads:

[1] Note: Selecting a new template will erase all of your customizations on the existing template, so if you have customized your template be sure to first save the current template at Design > Edit HTML.

Arrghhh!!

That note should be the very first thing that you see when you open the new template menu.

I'm not going to expand on the murderous thoughts that I have about Blogger.  I'm just going to alert everyone out there in blogland whose blogs are powered by Blogger.  Proceed with caution.

Me?  I will be switching to WordPress as soon as I have time to learn the WordPress ropes.  In the meantime be prepared...Lake Mary Musings will very likely be playing musical chairs with these design choices.

Photo credit through Ashley Sturgis and Creative Commons
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Posted by CherylK at 7:30 AM
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17 comments:

  1. Blogger deserves all the bad thoughts we can muster. I'm still okay with it, but that's because I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dog and learning Word Press would be a new trick.
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  2. Leah, thank your for validating my bad thoughts. I'll tell you what...I'll teach you WordPress as soon as I figure it out, myself. I was born in the Chinese Year of the Monkey so there may be hope...you know, "monkey see, monkey do"?
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  3. Others are cursing Blogger for the same reason... I took a look and then decided to stay with what is, for now. It seems they made it more difficult. Some techno-heads with nothing else to do, apparently... Grrrr.
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  4. I am really sorry and I feel your frustration and sympathize with it. Just like you, I also tried the new designed and was irritated by the fact that it was so easy to just change my blog design without any warning.

    Fortunately I did not hit apply, but was frustrated with the fact that I could not return to my "view blog" window and thus had to close blogger window all together. Likewise, the "dashboard" option is no longer available to choose when the blog is viewed. Instead it states "New Design", how irritating is that?? I do not care a bit about having tat in my tabs and it should be visible in the layout page instead. The dashboard tab is obviously the stat page and should be available t choose at all times. To reach it now I have to click on* New Post*, that is as illogical as can be.

    As I have designed my own blog template, luckily I have it backed up. I like this design, but am sorry for all the anguish and hope you can soon find one that you like yourself.
    xoxo
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  5. Sorry about all the typos.;)
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  6. Thanks for the warning! It has always been a pet peeve of mine that computer-techie types are sooo bad at giving clear instructions!
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  7. Hi Cheryl
    I very nearly did the same as you but I am always wary of "changing something that is working" so went gingerly through it before realising that I might not be able to get back where I was. i guess it begs the question of whats in it for Blogger? Nothing as far as I can see apart from upsetting their customers.
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  8. Well darn, that's a shame. I changed mine while these new templates were still in beta form, I suppose.. it was a couple of months back. At that time, the very first thing it said was to backup the old blog just in case. How silly that it tells you that at the end now. I hope you'll find a template you like and stick it out. I find Wordpress a clunkier venue to visit and follow up on comments.
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  9. I made the same mistake as you did, but I found out that there were tons of new templates and a huge amount of how to adjust the template to my desire, that I fell immediately in love with the new design.

    Today, I was trying to adjust something when I did the apply thing and lost all my configurations and so I had to start all over again, but as I said, this is much better than the old template, so, one thing I've learn't is to save my old template which I've done already, for the next mistake.

    I don't think this is a reason to quit blogger for WordPress, because every website has its flaws. I like this template of yours more than the last one, but there are also lots of others that are very nice and might suit your desire. Work your way out, configure your new template to your desire and backup it for the future..
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  10. Hi everyone...thank you for all the good feedback. I have calmed down.

    I believe that I will just mess around (so to speak) with this new template stuff.

    My new blog (hang in there...I know I've been saying that for a year or more) will be in Word Press but I'll probably leave Lake Mary Musings with Blogger.

    You are all super duper friends and I appreciate you all more than you could ever know!
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  11. Thanks Cheryl for this heads up, good thing I was too busy to pay much attention to that pop up, knowing me I would have done the exact same thing.

    I've never even heard of World Press, so far I'm good with blogger although we've had out moments as well but such is life. I just roll with the flow when it comes to this computer stuff. I sure hope that you do stay here, it's nice to "know" people here and such a wonderful community... I'd miss you if you were no longer here.
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  12. lol the code I had to type in was enditt but that means absolutely nothing, just thought it was funny!
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  13. darlin, I would never desert you. WordPress (yes, that's how it's spelled) is a really good format but maybe a little more difficult to navigate at first. There are logs of blogs that are powered by WordPress...bet you even follow some of them!

    That's so funny about the security code! That's what I really wanted to do this morning...enditt!!
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  14. I find WordPress annoying when it comes to leaving comments.
    Blogger has it's faults, but I'll probably stick with it because I was born in the Chinese year of the Rooster and I'm chicken to try something new! :)
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  15. Once I leave Yellowstone, I want to start a new blog and hope to get some advertising or sponsors. I have nightmares about trying a new template or WordPress. I do have a stepson who is a web designer. I hope he has a little time to help me. Don't worry, we won't abandon you during your time of need.
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  16. So many people are having trouble with that new template designer. I haven't gotten into it yet. I hope things go better for you now.
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  17. I like the look of your blog, Cheryl. I am constantly messing around with mine, changing colors, fonts, etc. I also checked from time to time whether any new templates were being offered, and would look at my blog through other templates, even though I knew I couldn't post as large of photos, and wouldn't want to change.

    When I saw the new template designer dealy, I found one, and went for it. I already knew to back my blog up, from the time I'd spent messing around with it before. From that, I already knew what "apply to blog" meant, too.

    I think it's a pain subscribing to follow-up comments in Wordpress. You get an email, and have to click on something to confirm the subscription.


    Oh, and you never know when I may change something on my blog yet, either.
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I just love reading your comments. It's part of what makes blogging so much fun, don't you think?

Unfortunately, because of a recent spat of spam, for awhile I'll be reviewing comments before publishing them.

Thanks for understanding.

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