Tuesday, December 2, 2014

And That's What Happened to the Comments

I'm very grateful to Google for giving me a free Blogger account. In general it's been easy to use. Occasionally I've added some html and some buttons.

I don't have many followers; I'm not trying to make money; I simply wanted a new way to connect with people who share my interests rather than being limited to a guild. Blogging gives me a small platform, flexibility in the length, frequency and amount of my writings with time to think before I publish. There's a way for me to quickly link to sites I like to read as well as a way for people to respond to my posts. I think of it as a modern combination of a diary and letters to friends. Reading comments and recent posts on blogs I follow has become part of my routine.

But I remain grateful to Google for this opportunity. So I've tried to repay them by trying out new features they publish. Just after I started my blog they came out with new templates and I switched to one. Not that I cared that much but it seemed a good way to give them more test subjects. About a year ago they suggested linking Blogger to Google+ and I went along with that. I lost some comments when I linked them. It didn't make me happy but I thought I was doing the right thing to help the company that helped me. But with that link I became a No Reply Blogger when commenting on other sites. Not what I wanted.

So I unlinked the accounts and thought that was done. Wrongo. BEFORE unlinking the accounts, I should have to gone into Google+ setting and unchecked the box to use Google+ comments. (It turns on automatically when you link the two but must be manually turned off.) Only after that is done will returning to the old Blogger profile have a real effect. See the post by PeggyK in Google's product forum here for a better explanation.

The downside is all previous comments on my blog have disappeared. Again. Somehow they were linked to Google+ and not to my blog. How sad. Some of the discussions we had in the comments section were better than the original post. It was like losing letters in a fire - there is no recovery.

I think things are set so you can now comment without being on Google+. I refuse to sign in on other platforms to leave comments and didn't realize I had this relic on my site. I'm so sorry all the old connections were lost but hopefully this will work equitably for us all in the future.

Enjoy the day, Ann

12 comments:

Mystic Quilter said...

You seem to have had quite a mission on your hands with Google/Google+, but I do see your reasoning that we do have a free service with Google Blogger and it is good to try new direction sometimes. Having said that I am so sorry that you have lost your previous comments but I am sure that when bloggers see that they are able to comment they will do so.
I do love reading your posts and I for one am very pleased that I will now be able to leave a comment for you.

audrey said...

How very frustrating! I just barely joined up with Google Plus yesterday because I was annoyed that I couldn't comment on your blog.:) I've been nervous about Google Plus features for awhile so was reluctant to join. I will be deleting my account immediately after reading through your post. Hopefully I haven't done any damage to my blog already!

Ann said...

Still playing with the template. When I chose pop-up window for the comment section there was no way for me to reply to your post. So I switched back to embedded and presto! Reply is again possible. Go figure. Thanks for the encouragement, Maureen. Let me know if there are new problems. It's fun to have conversations with other quilters.

Ann said...

Hi, Audrey! I wish I'd realized people were having trouble leaving comments sooner. One of the other blogging sites has similar issues (I forget which one.) But they want me to sign up on their site in order to leave a comment. I realize this helps cut down on the spam and pirating but I don't want to do it.
Google+ has some good quilting groups you can join. I think it's worthwhile in itself. I just found that linking the two didn't do the things I wanted. It was frustrating that unlinking had some "secret" steps. Now I hope they are both back to start.

Lara B. said...

Ann, that is so disheartening to have lost your past comments. Especially as you were trying to be a thankful guineapig. This whole Google plus, no reply commenter, lost comments thing is something that Google needs to work on fixing. I doubt any bloggers are happy with the way it is arranged presently. That is a really neat thought: that blogging is a modern combination of keeping a diary and writing letters to friends. It truly does feel like that.

Ann said...

It is disheartening but not the end of the world. I should take some classes on blogger. I think Google explains things more fully on their help forums. Unfortunately I switched so early there weren't many problems noted. And I'm not sure I could find my way through all the posts to potential problems. They've put a lot of work into creating an easy site for non-professionals to use. I just need to remember what a non-technical person I am and stick with my basic working model.
Blogging has certainly helped me rebuild my writing skills. I cleaned out some file cabinets last year and was shocked by the long letters we wrote by hand when I was growing up. Once computers came in, I quit writing in such detail...until now.

Linda said...

Hi Ann, I just found your blog today and I have not switched to Google+ yet and don't want to, as I am happy with Blogger and the way things work now. I am sorry you had those issues, but as you say, it is not the end of the world. I am just hoping that Google doesn't force us to switch to Google+. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada.

Sarah @ Georgia Girl Quilts said...

Hi Ann, I can relate. I have had the same issues with Google+. I was not aware that I had to manually uncheck that box on G+ after unlinking. Thank you for mentioning that! No wonder I'm still having issues. I'm going to change that now.

Kaja said...

You would think that along with all the bells and whistles they could design a seamless interface so that we could just join whatever they want us to without having it come back and bite us! I have learnt always to copy before I paste a comment as the first attempt often disappears (my son says this happens on my site too). But like you I enjoy the writing and connecting with people enough to put up with the glitches. So sorry though that you lost all your comments; there have been some really interesting exchanges on your posts.

Ann said...

I think it was seamless and the they made it more complex. Think how many people are involved in design and maintenance. And they give it away free. Yes, I've had comment attempts disappear. Once, an entire post disappeared just before publication. We all learn backup procedures the hard way. 😮

Stephie said...

I have to say Ann, Google/Blogger is very frustrating for the non Google/Blogger blogger! I only joined Google+ so that I could leave comments on the blogs I love to read so that the wonderful people that share what they're doing know that I really appreciate the time and effort they put into doing it. It was/is so frustrating that we can't just leave a name/url and have to comment via some account or other, grrrr!!! I started off with Blogger close to 10 years ago now, but switched to Wordpress, which is just fantastic. However, a couple of years ago I changed host and they lost years worth of images in the process. I was thankful that my old Blogger blog was still there and I could at least import some of the images back from there! I'm really sorry you lost your comments Ann, it must be like losing old friends, but it's good to see you've still got plenty here! (And as for "not having many followers", I'm the same, but I genuinely think it's quality, not quantity that count :) ) Sorry, that was a long comment, I'll go now!! x

Ann said...

I think lots of us less-techie people feel this way. But I do realize there are more things the developers have to take care of. I've read other sites where someone hacked their links so now they point to porn sites. What a pain. I would like it all to be open and everyone play nice but that is a pipe dream!