This week, we have a number of reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, from blog owners who like to monitor the Google+ +1 counts, for their posts, using the dashboard Posts list.
The ability to observe, at a glance, the +1 count for any given group of posts is useful - and popular with some folks. I use it, myself, with newer posts in this blog.
Unfortunately, my Posts list shows no +1 counts for recent posts, for some Posts lists.
It appears that pagination of the Posts list affects ability for any Posts list to have the +1 counts displayed.
In some cases, +1 counts will not display, for a paginated Posts list, on the first display page of the list. Subsequent display pages, seen by hitting the ">" button at the top, will show +1 counts for the posts.
In other cases, +1 counts will display, for a paginated Posts list, on the first display page of the list. Subsequent display pages, seen by hitting the ">" button at the top, will not show +1 counts for the posts.
Posts lists which are not paginated (have only one display page) do not seem to be affected by the problem.
Blogs with smaller "All posts" lists, and blogs with smaller Posts Label lists, may not show the problem - so not all blog owners will observe the problem. Also, owners of blogs which receive few +1s - and who do not use Google+ for posts distribution - will probably not observe the problem, either.
You may be able to examine this effect on your blog, by choosing Labels which have more, or less, than the number of posts compared to the Posts display page size (100, 50, 25, or 10) - and by changing the Posts display page size, to a different number.
We have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are attempting to diagnose the spread of the problem. If you find your blog affected by this oddity, and are able to answer a few questions, your input could be useful.
As always, I will respectfully request that you keep your replies, in the rollup topic, brief and relevant. And please read the first post in the topic, for instructions how you may participate in the diagnosis of the problem.
(Update 2015/03/09): This problem appears to be resolved.
Showing posts with label Blogger Problems Fixed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogger Problems Fixed. Show all posts
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Dashboard "Deleted blogs" Buttons Are Broken
We have numerous problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about a problem with the "Deleted blogs" section of the dashboard.
Right now, we are starting immediate manual spam review, for blogs deleted as suspected spam hosts, when properly requested by the owner.
People who have "intentionally" deleted their own blogs, and who want to restore, may not be able to easily do that. There is no manual "restore my blog" process, that is appropriately part of Blogger Support Forum.
There are an array of cases, which can result in deleted or locked blogs. Only one case requires spam review.
Any other case leaves the owner waiting, needlessly, for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a normally long queue - and with the currently broken buttons, it's an even longer queue.
Without use of the buttons, ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for both the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is necessary. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.
We now have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting demographic and technical details from each blog owner reporting inability to use the "Deleted blogs" buttons.
This malfunction has been reported to Blogger Engineering, for their resolution. Since we are at end of year, and the holiday season, it's unlikely that the problem will be resolved this year.
While we wait for their action by Blogger Engineering, everybody experiencing this problem is strongly urged to contribute their details to the Rollup Discussion. Problem diagnosis being as it is, any one person, contributing their details, might contribute the one essential detail that leads to successful diagnosis of the problem.
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I can't restore my deleted blog!and
I can't request spam review!These owners are concerned, because the "Restore" and "Review" buttons appear to be broken. Nothing happens, when clicked.
Right now, we are starting immediate manual spam review, for blogs deleted as suspected spam hosts, when properly requested by the owner.
People who have "intentionally" deleted their own blogs, and who want to restore, may not be able to easily do that. There is no manual "restore my blog" process, that is appropriately part of Blogger Support Forum.
There are an array of cases, which can result in deleted or locked blogs. Only one case requires spam review.
Any other case leaves the owner waiting, needlessly, for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a normally long queue - and with the currently broken buttons, it's an even longer queue.
Without use of the buttons, ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for both the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is necessary. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.
We now have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting demographic and technical details from each blog owner reporting inability to use the "Deleted blogs" buttons.
This malfunction has been reported to Blogger Engineering, for their resolution. Since we are at end of year, and the holiday season, it's unlikely that the problem will be resolved this year.
While we wait for their action by Blogger Engineering, everybody experiencing this problem is strongly urged to contribute their details to the Rollup Discussion. Problem diagnosis being as it is, any one person, contributing their details, might contribute the one essential detail that leads to successful diagnosis of the problem.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Confusion From Non Operable Dashboard "Restore" / "Review" Buttons
This week, we're seeing a few reports from anguished blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.
It's possible that this problem is just the latest symptom of intrusive security on the personal computers, used by the owners of blogs falsely accused of hosting spam content.
Like every other feature in Blogger, that requires authentication of owner status, the dashboard "Restore" / "Review" button can only be used by the owner of a given blog.
Knowing that almost every computer on the Internet is subject to unnotified security updates, it's not un imaginable to see a recent security update having caused this problem.
This problem has been forwarded to Blogger Support, for their consideration. While we wait for a response from Blogger, it's up for the owners of the blogs falsely accused, to provide some details about their computers.
We noe have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue. If you are affected by this problem, please provide details there.
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My blog was deleted for spam, and I can't request review because the dashboard button doesn't work!This blog owner is being hit by a double whammy - first, a spurious spam classification; and second, inability to request review of the blog, falsely accused, using the dashboard.
It's possible that this problem is just the latest symptom of intrusive security on the personal computers, used by the owners of blogs falsely accused of hosting spam content.
Like every other feature in Blogger, that requires authentication of owner status, the dashboard "Restore" / "Review" button can only be used by the owner of a given blog.
Knowing that almost every computer on the Internet is subject to unnotified security updates, it's not un imaginable to see a recent security update having caused this problem.
This problem has been forwarded to Blogger Support, for their consideration. While we wait for a response from Blogger, it's up for the owners of the blogs falsely accused, to provide some details about their computers.
We noe have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue. If you are affected by this problem, please provide details there.
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Friday, April 27, 2012
Continued Inability To Update The Labels Gadget, With A Large Partial List
In February, we observed that various blog owners were reporting problems with updating label and link lists. We setup a problem rollup in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we observed a small but significant number of reports from unhappy blog owners, unable to update the gadgets on their blogs.
Last month, Blogger Support supposedly resolved the reported problem, and the volume of problem reports dropped significantly. The problem, however, has not been eliminated.
The problem with updating various accessory gadgets, initially reported several months ago, is still present in various Blogger blogs - though significantly reduced - following an improvement last month.
This blog has a total of 626 labels defined, in the various posts. If I want to spare my readers (slightly) from an excessively long list of labels, I can edit the list and selectively display only significant ones. I cannot display all significant ones, unfortunately. I currently have 501 of 626 labels selected for display.
If I edit my label list, in "Select labels to show", I can select any one of the remaining 125 labels. Having hit the tiny "Done" caption at the bottom left of the window, I am left with "Configure Labels". If I hit "Save", the earlier reported problem continues - the yellow "Saving ..." flag pops up, and the gadget hangs while saving.
If I hit Cancel, and edit the list again, I can de select any one label, and save the list, successfully - again with exactly 501 labels selected. Then adding any one label, and attempting to Save once more, the gadget will again hang. The bottom line is that I can selectively display 501 labels - and no more.
I have observed this problem in both Chrome and Firefox (V11 and V12) - and using both the Classic and New GUIs. With up to 501 labels selected, no problem. With any more than 501 labels selected - big problem. During the past month, after I first observed this problem, I added half a dozen new labels, to reach the current total of 626. The problem has limited me to 501 selected labels, consistently, regardless of the total number.
Various reports, in both this blog, and in [Problem Rollup] Updating Label List Gadget Hangs, indicate that other blog owners are still observing this problem. It's becoming increasingly obvious that this problem still exists in
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Last month, Blogger Support supposedly resolved the reported problem, and the volume of problem reports dropped significantly. The problem, however, has not been eliminated.
The problem with updating various accessory gadgets, initially reported several months ago, is still present in various Blogger blogs - though significantly reduced - following an improvement last month.
This blog has a total of 626 labels defined, in the various posts. If I want to spare my readers (slightly) from an excessively long list of labels, I can edit the list and selectively display only significant ones. I cannot display all significant ones, unfortunately. I currently have 501 of 626 labels selected for display.
If I edit my label list, in "Select labels to show", I can select any one of the remaining 125 labels. Having hit the tiny "Done" caption at the bottom left of the window, I am left with "Configure Labels". If I hit "Save", the earlier reported problem continues - the yellow "Saving ..." flag pops up, and the gadget hangs while saving.
If I hit Cancel, and edit the list again, I can de select any one label, and save the list, successfully - again with exactly 501 labels selected. Then adding any one label, and attempting to Save once more, the gadget will again hang. The bottom line is that I can selectively display 501 labels - and no more.
I have observed this problem in both Chrome and Firefox (V11 and V12) - and using both the Classic and New GUIs. With up to 501 labels selected, no problem. With any more than 501 labels selected - big problem. During the past month, after I first observed this problem, I added half a dozen new labels, to reach the current total of 626. The problem has limited me to 501 selected labels, consistently, regardless of the total number.
Various reports, in both this blog, and in [Problem Rollup] Updating Label List Gadget Hangs, indicate that other blog owners are still observing this problem. It's becoming increasingly obvious that this problem still exists in
- BlogLists.
- Label Lists.
- LinkLists.
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
The Problem, With Publishing Our Blog Posts To FaceBook, Does Not Apparently Have A Simple Cause
The problem of publishing our blog posts to FaceBook, initially observed several days ago, has generated some controversy - and much confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Suggestions about its base cause are numerous - and variant.
The problem has been reported to Blogger Support - though no response, to my report, has yet been seen. My asking, a few times, whether anybody has successfully reported the problem to FaceBook Support, has either been ignored or vigourously rejected, by all involved in the arguments.
The one sure thing, that I've observed so far about this problem, is that there is not apparently one sure thing causing this problem. I've done several tests, and published a few posts into my FaceBook Wall, successfully - using both the Share button, and "Update Status". Perversely, I was able to reproduce the problem reported by one blog owner.
My immediately previous post - Choose Your Registrar, When Buying A Domain - was composed using the New GUI Post Editor, contains pictures, and was published to my Wall using "Share to Facebook", with no problem. I just published this post, using The New Blogger GUI Post Editor and "Update Status", onto my Wall. If you examine my Wall, you'll see earlier posts, composed using the Classic GUI Post Editor, also.
I will continue to keep my rollup discussion open, for reporting diagnostic details - and respectfully request that only diagnostic details be posted there. Until either Blogger Support and / or FaceBook Support take ownership of the problem, and promise a resolution, no objectively provided diagnostic detail is unnecessary. Your observations, whenever provided, could provide the final, necessary clues, and lead to the diagnosis of the problem.
If anybody would like to discuss my diagnostic efforts to date - and especially if there are any FaceBook Support personnel reading this, I have a second discussion in progress, with one helpful blog owner.
Please, be objective. Observe both the etiology of Blogger problems, and the epidemiology of forum discussions.
(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance
(Update 2012/01/02): Blogger Support was aware of the problem last week, tried to contact FaceBook then, and has heard nothing in return. Their analysis of the problem, made last week, is that the problem is outside their control.
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- Initially and at first glance, it appeared to involved posts containing lots of pictures.
- Some folks have suggested that it involves use of the New GUI Post Editor.
- Other folks insist that it's the result of a FaceBook decision, that may have targeted Blogger as a spam host.
- Still others insist that it results from use of the Share button in the blog, vs the "Update Status" wizard in FaceBook itself.
- One blog owner gave a very interesting explanation involving FaceBook, and Open Graph.
The problem has been reported to Blogger Support - though no response, to my report, has yet been seen. My asking, a few times, whether anybody has successfully reported the problem to FaceBook Support, has either been ignored or vigourously rejected, by all involved in the arguments.
The one sure thing, that I've observed so far about this problem, is that there is not apparently one sure thing causing this problem. I've done several tests, and published a few posts into my FaceBook Wall, successfully - using both the Share button, and "Update Status". Perversely, I was able to reproduce the problem reported by one blog owner.
My immediately previous post - Choose Your Registrar, When Buying A Domain - was composed using the New GUI Post Editor, contains pictures, and was published to my Wall using "Share to Facebook", with no problem. I just published this post, using The New Blogger GUI Post Editor and "Update Status", onto my Wall. If you examine my Wall, you'll see earlier posts, composed using the Classic GUI Post Editor, also.
I will continue to keep my rollup discussion open, for reporting diagnostic details - and respectfully request that only diagnostic details be posted there. Until either Blogger Support and / or FaceBook Support take ownership of the problem, and promise a resolution, no objectively provided diagnostic detail is unnecessary. Your observations, whenever provided, could provide the final, necessary clues, and lead to the diagnosis of the problem.
If anybody would like to discuss my diagnostic efforts to date - and especially if there are any FaceBook Support personnel reading this, I have a second discussion in progress, with one helpful blog owner.
Please, be objective. Observe both the etiology of Blogger problems, and the epidemiology of forum discussions.
(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance
You are attempting to post a link that has been marked as abusive and/or spammy.
(Update 2012/01/02): Blogger Support was aware of the problem last week, tried to contact FaceBook then, and has heard nothing in return. Their analysis of the problem, made last week, is that the problem is outside their control.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Publishing Your Blogger Blog Post To FaceBook Fails
During the past weekend, we started seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who participate in FaceBook, and who can't publish their blog posts to their FaceBook Wall. The problem appears to be common to both publishing using the "Share to FaceBook" button in the blog post (within Blogger), as well as the Wall posting wizard (within FaceBook).
We have a problem rollup in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we are collecting details from the blog owners reporting.
(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance
(Update 2012/01/01): After having examined the many diagnostic reports provided in the rollup discussion, and having done some testing, I am suspecting that the problem does not have a simple cause, that's solely the responsibility of Blogger. Blogger Support appears to support this conclusion.
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We have a problem rollup in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we are collecting details from the blog owners reporting.
- What's the URL of your Blogger blog?
- What's the URL of your FaceBook Wall?
- Were you posting from your blog post (using the "Share to Facebook" button), or directly to your Wall (within FaceBook)?
- Is the email address associated with your Blogger account GMail, or non GMail?
- Is the email address associated with your FaceBook account GMail, or non GMail?
- Is the email address associated with your Blogger account the same as the email address associated with your FaceBook account?
- Were you logged in, as the blog owner, to Blogger?
- Were you logged in, as the Wall owner, to FaceBook?
- What post did you try posting, to FaceBook?
- How recently were you able to, successfully, post to FaceBook?
- Does your Blogger account use a Blogger profile, a Google profile, or a Google+ profile?
- If you were posting to your Wall, did you solve the CAPTCHA successfully?
- What browser (name, and version) are you using?
(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance
You are attempting to post a link that has been marked as abusive and/or spammy.
(Update 2012/01/01): After having examined the many diagnostic reports provided in the rollup discussion, and having done some testing, I am suspecting that the problem does not have a simple cause, that's solely the responsibility of Blogger. Blogger Support appears to support this conclusion.
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
External Links On Pages Gadget Point To Blog Home Page
Today, we're getting a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who setup blog clusters, with the cluster members linked using tabs in the Pages gadget - who suddenly found their clusters unlinked.
You can see the problem, in my demonstration blog. The tab marked "Indra" should redirect to "officialcommunities.blogspot.com" - instead, it redirects to the home page of that same blog "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".
When I look at the Pages editor, I see New Page › Web Address.When you look at my blog, you see
We have almost a dozen forum discussions, all reporting this same problem. We now have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where details are requested.
I was able to contact Blogger Support, so they are aware of the problem, and are working on it.
(Update 2011/12/04): We are receiving reports that the problem has been resolved. Thanks to the Blogger Engineers who worked long hours to fix this one.
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The different page tabs on my blog redirect to my same blog!
You can see the problem, in my demonstration blog. The tab marked "Indra" should redirect to "officialcommunities.blogspot.com" - instead, it redirects to the home page of that same blog "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".
When I look at the Pages editor, I see New Page › Web Address.When you look at my blog, you see
- Indra
- Linking to nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com
We have almost a dozen forum discussions, all reporting this same problem. We now have a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where details are requested.
- What is the URL of the blog?
- Taking any non working link in your Pages gadget as an example, what is the label, and the correct link target?
- Using Pages editor, what target do you see, for that link?
- Are you using Classic GUI Pages editor, or New GUI Pages editor?
- When did you first observe this problem?
- When did you, previously, not notice this problem?
- What did you change, between #4 and #5?
- What browser do you use, when using Pages editor?
I was able to contact Blogger Support, so they are aware of the problem, and are working on it.
(Update 2011/12/04): We are receiving reports that the problem has been resolved. Thanks to the Blogger Engineers who worked long hours to fix this one.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Stats Not Displaying Individual Posts, In Detail Lists
For several days now, we've seen various reports from anxious Blogger blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, lamenting the lack of detail information in their Stats logs.
If you look at the Stats Overview or Posts display, for any blog with any popularity, in the "Now" or "Day" time range, you'll likely see the well known advice
This problem is apparent, for most blogs, in the "Posts" tab.
Most blogs with consistent traffic will show this affecting only the detail Posts lists. The "Now" and "Day" Posts lists, as noted, show "No stats yet, check back later.". The "Week", Month", and "All time" Posts displays show the Posts lists from before the problem first occurred. Both the Posts names in the lists, and the pageview counts for each post listed, are frozen.
This blog shows no effect in pageview counts, outside the Posts detail lists. I've carefully examined the graphs for "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", and "All time", in both the Classic and New GUI, for this blog - and I don't see any count discrepancies. Your observations may agree or disagree - and I await your comments.
We have a Rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum.
We have an ongoing rollup discussion, in Blogger Help, where the scope of the problem is being discussed. My original perception of the problem began as we explored the latest wave of referer spam; I am today trying to determine if the two events are related.
An earlier outage may be related to this problem.
We also had an interesting 2 hour outage, a week ago, where no Stats data (counts, or details) was available for the previous week - and some blog owners are wondering if that issue is related. We have no references for the latter episode, as we escalated that problem in real time, and Blogger Support was able to fix it, immediately.
That problem was complete (as noted, both counts and details were available), it was immediate (it showed on all Stats displays for the previous week, retroactively), and it was total (the immediate nature and effect on the forums made it an obvious BloggerFire). This problem, according to my observations, is neither.
(Update 18:00): Blogger Support has fixed this problem.
My Stats logs does not show the page views for particular posts.This is just one example, of the many ways that blog owners perceive, and report, the ongoing problem.
If you look at the Stats Overview or Posts display, for any blog with any popularity, in the "Now" or "Day" time range, you'll likely see the well known advice
No stats yet, check back later.When initially reported, this was only visible in the "Now" time range. Now, the effect is seen in "Day", and for some, less consistently trafficked blogs, in "Week" also. The effect is visible, consistently, in both the Classic GUI (brown / dark blue display), and the New GUI (2011) (brown / orange on white display).
This problem is apparent, for most blogs, in the "Posts" tab.
Most blogs with consistent traffic will show this affecting only the detail Posts lists. The "Now" and "Day" Posts lists, as noted, show "No stats yet, check back later.". The "Week", Month", and "All time" Posts displays show the Posts lists from before the problem first occurred. Both the Posts names in the lists, and the pageview counts for each post listed, are frozen.
This blog shows no effect in pageview counts, outside the Posts detail lists. I've carefully examined the graphs for "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", and "All time", in both the Classic and New GUI, for this blog - and I don't see any count discrepancies. Your observations may agree or disagree - and I await your comments.
We have a Rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum.
We have an ongoing rollup discussion, in Blogger Help, where the scope of the problem is being discussed. My original perception of the problem began as we explored the latest wave of referer spam; I am today trying to determine if the two events are related.
An earlier outage may be related to this problem.
We also had an interesting 2 hour outage, a week ago, where no Stats data (counts, or details) was available for the previous week - and some blog owners are wondering if that issue is related. We have no references for the latter episode, as we escalated that problem in real time, and Blogger Support was able to fix it, immediately.
That problem was complete (as noted, both counts and details were available), it was immediate (it showed on all Stats displays for the previous week, retroactively), and it was total (the immediate nature and effect on the forums made it an obvious BloggerFire). This problem, according to my observations, is neither.
(Update 18:00): Blogger Support has fixed this problem.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Blog Owners Find Static Pages Don't Allow Comments
Last week, blog owners discovered a new problem with commenting on their blogs.
From having observed the reports of the problem, it appears to affect all blogs - both varying template type, and use of the different GUIs (Classic and New 2011), appear to be referenced.
Blogger Support has acknowledged the problem.
(Update 10/19): This has been corrected.
(Update 11/09): Today, we see a new problem with static pages and comments - this one involving dynamic views.
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I keep enabling comments on my pages, but Blogger keeps disabling them!
From having observed the reports of the problem, it appears to affect all blogs - both varying template type, and use of the different GUIs (Classic and New 2011), appear to be referenced.
Blogger Support has acknowledged the problem.
Thanks everyone for your patience, we're hoping to have a fix rolled out shortly.
(Update 10/19): This has been corrected.
(Update 11/09): Today, we see a new problem with static pages and comments - this one involving dynamic views.
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