Friday, March 2, 2007
Talk about muttering
For two entire days, I've been unable to access this blog - and presumably any rare readers were also unable to. I've had a ubiquitous "bx-" error message whenever I tried to open or view or save or . . . anything. Words cannot adequately express how frustrating it's been. I sent in a report at Blogger itself and posted at Google's Blogger Help Group. As did several other people saying similar things, although we each had different suffixes. It's astonishing how hoity-toity some responders are, too. Why offer help if it annoys you, one cannot help wondering!? Anyway, after reading and posting and reading and posting, I learned a couple of things. One is that the "Blogger help group" is not run nor staffed nor necessarily even looked at by anyone from Blogger. Several of us have reported the problem via blogger, internally, as well as on BHG but there has been no response. This happened about two years ago, too, when everything disappeared. I hadn't done much yet, however, so I just started over. Now there are nearly a thousand posts and it would be sad to lose them all. Sure, I have a RSS back-up but it wouldn't be practical to repost each one. I guess one must conclude that Blogger is uninterested in assisting people when semi catastrophes strike.
Bottom line is two-fold. I searched high and wide and found this awesome template that works very nicely but not (at least not yet) with the new layouts, so I'm in so-called classic template mode. Over the weekend I'll see if I can get tweak it enough to widget-ize. Fold two is that I will now investigate other hosts and see what's out there that I might be comfortable with. One person at Blogger Help told me to bite the bullet and look at blogging like shopping at K-Mart insofar as one is one's own customer service. First of all, K-Mart and WalMart and Target stores cater to masses of people but *do* care about their customers and have always been superbly helpful whenever I've been there. And I really do appreciate the service that Blogger offers, enormously, but customer-service callousness is unacceptable, especially on this scale. If you don't want to put energy and money into supporting something, why do it at all?
Bottom line is two-fold. I searched high and wide and found this awesome template that works very nicely but not (at least not yet) with the new layouts, so I'm in so-called classic template mode. Over the weekend I'll see if I can get tweak it enough to widget-ize. Fold two is that I will now investigate other hosts and see what's out there that I might be comfortable with. One person at Blogger Help told me to bite the bullet and look at blogging like shopping at K-Mart insofar as one is one's own customer service. First of all, K-Mart and WalMart and Target stores cater to masses of people but *do* care about their customers and have always been superbly helpful whenever I've been there. And I really do appreciate the service that Blogger offers, enormously, but customer-service callousness is unacceptable, especially on this scale. If you don't want to put energy and money into supporting something, why do it at all?
Labels: blogs (mine), web design
Permalink | 
| posted by jau at 3:22 PM
jau — at 6:01 PM, March 02, 2007:
— at 12:21 AM, March 03, 2007:
Laura — at 1:09 AM, March 03, 2007:
Dick Stanley — at 11:43 AM, March 03, 2007:
| posted by jau at 3:22 PM
6 more:
jau — at 6:01 PM, March 02, 2007:
I'm so glad to know someone noticed! It's a weird sensation to do this every day, even more than once a day, and then be unable to do it at all. Definitely the posts are still here, which is good. The rest remains to be seen.
So, who hosts you and do you like them? Do you like the templates or have you created your own? Etc., etc.....?
So, who hosts you and do you like them? Do you like the templates or have you created your own? Etc., etc.....?
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— at 12:21 AM, March 03, 2007:
And if you were curious, my absurd little box full of words has been hosted for the past sixty-two months by the surfer dudes of New Dream Network, Inc., otherwise known as DreamHost. Templates are my own.
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Laura — at 1:09 AM, March 03, 2007:
Hang in there, you are really missed!! I will be watching anxiously for your complete return -- good luck with Blogger. It's double nerve-wracking as this could happen to any one of us at any time --
Best wishes, Laura
Best wishes, Laura
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Dick Stanley — at 11:43 AM, March 03, 2007:
I use Movable Type at Yahoo hosting and I like the template I chose. But it might be too staid for your tastes. So far the service has been very stable, and help supposedly is available 24/7, though I haven't had to test it.
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