To fellow bloggers -- an appeal for suggestions
I logged on to Blogger this morning to do some work on next Sunday's link round-up (they're written a bit at a time over the course of the whole preceding week), only to find that they've taken away my option of reverting to the old interface and I'm stuck with the godawful new one. They seem to have fixed a few things -- some of the control buttons now have words on them instead of just being pictographic icons, for example -- but basically it's still a mess. The HTML view is still an un-editable jumble, not broken up at the paragraph breaks. Right-clicking a link and opening in a new tab to test it still doesn't work. When I enter a new line or highlight text to insert a link (which of course is frequent for the link round-ups), the entire post jumps unpredictably up or down in the editing window. I have to close the post and then re-open it to stop this from happening. Then after adding one or two links it starts doing it again.
I used the "send feedback" button to ask them to give me the old interface back, but I doubt that will work. Continuing with Blogger and accepting the new interface doesn't seem to be a viable option. It's tolerable for short posts like this with few paragraph breaks or links, but doing the link round-ups with it would be a nightmare. I'm not interested in waiting for them to make the new interface usable. They've had three months of complaints and suggestions from users, and if they still haven't made the damn thing functional, they never will.
So after 14 years on Blogger, it may be time to move on. WordPress doesn't seem to be an option, having just recently implemented a "block editor" which everybody seems to hate. I tried Tumblr a few years ago and it's not geared to the kind of blogging I do -- there's no real comment system, for example.
There are some lesser-known options like Typepad, but I know very little about them. To anyone who has experience using another platform, I would be interested in recommendations. I am OK with something I would need to pay for, if it's reasonable -- I'd rather pay five bucks a month for a blogging platform which treats its bloggers like customers and tries to keep them than use a free service that arbitrarily wrecks the user experience like this.
If you are on Blogger and have managed to make the new interface work tolerably, I'd be interested in hearing about how, but I doubt I'll adopt any fixes that are too onerous. I'm not going to switch to a different browser, for example. Firefox is one of the commonest ones and a viable platform should be able to work with it. Doing weird stuff with the keyboard that would be a distraction while writing also doesn't seem reasonable. I'm open to ideas, but if my experience trying to edit the link round-up just now was typical of what this is going to be like, I'm not going to stay with it.
Update: Has anyone else been having that problem of the post jumping up and down in the editing window when you highlight text? The link round-up does that when I try to edit it, but this post doesn't. I'm wondering if it's something to do with the post being originally created with the old interface but being edited in the new one.
posted by Infidel753 at 4:11 AM
29 Comments:
I hated the new interface when it was first made available. They've since added some formatting things and now I'm getting used to it. I would suggest giving it more of a go until you get used to it.
Incidentally, to add the breaks use Shift+Enter because for some unknown reason, a simple 'Enter' is no longer interpreted as
. I haven't found a problem with adding a link, btw, and I like the ability to add "target=_blank" automatically, but if you have the url on your clipboard, you could always add the link manually.
The one thing I hate is the loss of a spell-checker - which I have raised in feedback and in the user forum.
I loathe the new interface.
I have sent them a few snarky suggestions and I have also asked them to please bring back the old interface. And I hope they fix it! I despise Tumblr. After years here I went there and couldn’t take it. They tried to scrub it clean and they fucked it up.
WordPress? Never tried it. I comment in some blogs that use it, but have never really thought about it.
One thing, though: blogger seems less horrible when I log on through Chrome. Firefox seems sluggish and Safari a little static (especially after this last update).
Maybe a change of browser?
XoXo
I just a follower, not a blogger, but I see two more bloggers that are having your problem too on this format.
Whatever you do just please send me an email, so I can still follow you. Thanks
Here are two comments from the other blog...don’t know if it’ll help any. Good luck.
I just did a bit of Googling around and right now the whole Blogger thing is one effed up mess! You can't, or at least I can't, even access Blogger help. And there ain't no other free blogging platforms around that I know of, and just stay away from Wordpress, they've changed their editor to the block editor aka Guttenberg which has WP users up in arms as well as stripping the free accounts of any and every nicety. It's all about the money now. I expect Google will get it straightened out eventually but for now - deep breaths.
September 16, 2020 at 1:19 PM
Blogger Mike said...
I'm having minimal problems that I'm working around. When posting the paragraph option wants to keep coming on. I have to click it back to normal to get single line spacing. The font size will say normal but sometimes it's not. I have to click on normal. The font type will be who knows shat. I click on default. Insert link is a pain to deal with. Sometimes I have to go to the HTML view to fix things. Sometimes the pictures go off to the right and don't show. (fix with HTML.)
Hola. Just saw this posting.
I use Blogger as well, and am not a fan of the "upgrades". They did tweak the Tags functionality back to some semblance of working (for a few weeks there it took forever to let you type it in and choose an existing Tag: I was about to rage-quit like you), but the rest of it seems clunkier than before.
I don't work often in HTML format - I've gotten used to the edit screens and do a decent plug-n-play with it - so I don't know how to fix the problems with that. I'm just powering my way through this mess and hoping someone hires better coding engineers to fix the glitches these current coders threw into Blogger (people always gotta think they can invent a better wheel /headdesk). I don't want to go through the hassles of rebooting my blogs elsewhere. Sigh.
hi! Same issues here and even more. I am thinking of making a free website if I can. I am so frustrated that I can't post, comment or read others. I am getting a lot of "redirect" b.s. or oops something is broken, clear your cache. I have done that on 3 browsers no less. Same issue. Frustrated is an understatement!! Good Luck. I am either quitting all together or getting a website.
Hey Infidel ... I was just dropping by to catch some posts, etc ... and this posting kind of surprised me ... because I'm far more semi- illiterate than you or some of these folks here when it comes to computer knowledge, I hardly do a damn thing online besides my blog, emails, comments. I simply took a break because of burn- out from blogging over a last couple weeks or so, which is common for me from time to time. But I wanted to do my annual Halloween posting. For quite some time I been clicking to revert back to old school interface, never tried the new one, and been blogging that way, even though they kept telling me that they'll eventually make us go to the new one. I am f*cken lost, guy, fiddling around with this ... I don't know weather to laugh, cry, take a shit or wind my watch just going around on stuff this morning on my blog. I would like to continue to blog ... but I'm not very sharp when it comes to this stuff. I would hope that if enough people bitch, that they may put it back to the old way ... or at least give people and "option" ... after all, they're not a health insurance company. I understand things like improvements, change, etc ... but the thing for me is ... I never had any problems with they old way, it worked fine, never had problems, so never seen no need to try another way or whatever ... bottom line, it worked fine for years. Maybe I can learn from y'all, because I'm lost, frankly. I don't even know any folks in Dallas, that blog, and I know quite a few folks ... they all Tweet, Facebook, or whatever ... but I like blogging instead, because I can write more and be more detailed. I would hope maybe Blooger will reconsider.
BTW, guy ... hope that smoke is clearing out from the fires, I been following them ... that is awful, the entire west coast at that ... rain can break that shit down though
Sadly no comments pointing to other free or low cost services that better manage the job.
Your Sunday work so often makes my week and I hope it can continue.
Not to gainsay helpful hints, but please commenters, let us know if there really is any other direction than basically, get over it. Perhaps someone has tried them all and might share unvarnished opinions.
I have to use the HTML format to change the size of the Youtube videos that I often put on my blog. It's the pencil icon on the far left top area when you are writing in your blog. I don't know if you know that so I thought I'd tell you if you didn't. There are still so many bugs with this thing and they really didn't need to push a new one on us. They could have made a separate Blogger for bloggers who like to use their phone and are too cheap to buy a laptop.
I echo most of the sentiments expressed above. We're trying to slog through the new, not improved format with varying degrees of success.
I use no tool. Just hand - write my own HTML.
If you find another platform that works, please let me know. I currently can't find whether I have comments that need moderating or posting. I can't correct typos. I can complain to Blogger which I have done. Crickets.
Maybe it's time for a one-month blogger strike, during which none of us post anything, and we all let our local news outlets know about it.
Yours with maximum crankiness,
The New York Crank
Peggy was saying she couldn't 'reply'(button under a comment) on Olgas blog. I went there. When I moused over the reply button a cursor showed up instead of the white glove hand. Then the screen jumped up one page. I went back to where I was and the white glove hand showed up.
I cut and pasted your last link round up into a test post. Everything was there. I highlight links and cut and paste them to other spots, no problem. (I'm using Chrome) I added links. I deleted links. Everything seems to be working.
I had some odd problems and was switching back to the original blogger. But that doesn't work anymore. So I'm trying to learn all the new ways of doing things. Most of the problems seem to be fixed for me anyway.
When I right click a link in the draft post, then click on open link in new tab, it opens another draft page. If I go to the box that just opened under the link (with another copy of the link) and right click again, then click on open link in new tab, it works.
I haven't had the highlighted text jumping problem I've been trying to make it do it but can't.
I told Peggy to sign in with the incognito mode and see if that works. If it does, it's probably cookies that are screwing things up. Have you run ccleaner?
I'll be back if I think of anything else.
Sadly, All I can say is . . . Here We Go Again . . . another GOOD thing coming to an end (for me anyway). I have no idea how to navigate this NEW interface and get all discombobulated trying to figure it out.
When it gets to the point I can't hang around any longer, I will certainly miss your insightful posts, especially the link round-up.
Ok, enough rambling already! I just wanted to let you know I was here and I understand what you mean. Wishing you a wonderful weekend, my friend! Stay Safe!
I had a feeling this one would provoke quite a bit of response.
Rosa: I've been using shift-enter for paragraph breaks. It's a nuisance needing to remember to do that, though a minor one. It may be that it's not so bad for more conventional posts, but my link round-ups involve so many links and paragraph breaks, any extra hassles with those things become greatly magnified.
Sixpence: It's weird that they had to go and mess it up when it was working perfectly fine. I'd really hate to change browsers. I'm used to Firefox and it works well with everything I do.
Mary: Don't worry, if I start a new blog elsewhere I'll leave a link at the top of this one so everybody can find it. I hope it won't come to that.
Goggle and Blooger have handled things pretty well up to now, and I know for a fact they've been getting a lot of complaints. Maybe they'll eventually fix these problems. I haven't noticed the specific issues Mike mentioned -- yet, anyway.
Paul: Unfortunately I've gotten used to using HTML mode quite a bit. It's handy for fine-tuning certain things when you can see exactly what's going on below the surface. The new wall-of-text version is so unparseable I don't know how they imagine anybody could use it.
Peggy: I saw your own post about this mess a couple of days ago. What a huge hassle. The new interface seems to be causing different problems for different people, which is bizarre. If you do find a better platform, please let me know.
Ranch: I don't know weather to laugh, cry, take a shit or wind my watch
Frankly I feel like I'm trying to do all four at the same time, dealing with this. That would be the ideal thing, if they just let the old interface be used again. It would mean admitting a mistake, though, which people tend to not like doing.
Anon: I've noticed nobody has suggested a viable alternative platform. Maybe there aren't any. But platforms other than the big three tend to have fewer users. Maybe I'll go to some blogs on other platforms and ask.
Leanna: I adjust video size the same way. It hadn't occurred to me that they were trying to change the system so people could blog from phones. Yet another manifestation of the smartphone blight on society, if true.
Hackwhacker: Your blog is still looking good. Of course, I know the finished product doesn't show the suffering happening behind the scenes.
Stu: I'm starting to think it would be easier to hand-write my posts on parchment and mail them to everybody. Hell of a cost in stamps, though.
Crank: I'll let you know if I find something better. Unfortunately I don't think me going on strike would impress Goggle/Blooger at all. Since my blog is ad-free, I'm sure they're not making any money off of me.
Mike: Thanks for the tips. I'll try that way of opening links. Kind of onerous when you're testing 70 or 80 of them, though.
I suppose it's possible that the "jumping" problems I'm having editing the link round-up are caused by the fact that it was created in the old interface and I'm editing it in the new one. If so, the next one shouldn't pose the same problem. We'll see. I can't imagine any reason why the system would do that, but I'm no expert.
Dellgirl: Dang! I'd hate to see you abandon blogging, but I was afraid this would happen -- that we'd lose some bloggers due to the change. I don't blame you -- for pretty much everybody this change is a big hassle -- but I'd hate to see you disappear.
I’ve been using Wordpress for years. I don’t have a problem with the Gutenberg block editor. Took me time to learn how to use blocks, but the new block editor adds a lot of new functionality to Wordpress. If you want to use the classic editor, there’s a plugin that restores the old editor. You can also use what’s called a classic block in the editor.
After a bit of time I've become more comfortable with bloggers new interface and I suspect they work to make it more user friendly.
I also have used WordPress but found it a bit onerous and I hate the block editor.
Have you considered signing on with a hosting company and moving your site to a www.com site? It's probably a couple hundred dollars a year to do this but it might be an option for you.
I just left this comment on another blog. I've been playing around with the link stuff...
I was reading your comment on Peggy's post. And maybe you know this but... On the new blogger, the word 'normal' comes up when you first open the post-draft page. When you click in the body it switches to 'paragraph'. You have to switch it back to 'normal' to get single space.
When you highlight the text you want to be a link, A box comes up with the link on the line text to display. You have to put the link on the 'paste or search for link' line also. Then you can hit apply and it will become a link.
If you right click on the highlighted link and click on open in new tab, it will bring up an edit page. To see if your link will work, there will be a box below the highlighted link. Right click on that link and click on open in new tab. That will get you a test for your link.
I also found out that once I set up one link like that. Highlighting a second link worked the old way. Clicking the link button just turned it into a link. But I still had to click the link in the box under the link to test it.
I haven't had any of the problems you describe with Blogger using the new interface. I write my posts in the HTML view and do not use the Compose view at all, so that could be the difference. There are some other things I don't like about the new interface, but I've figured out how to work around most of them.
The new interface blows. I've sent feedback comments on different features since it debuted. it seems a little less hateful than the "legacy blogger", but I want the old one back immediately.
This smacks of something somebody did to justify their six-figure salary.
I haven't had any of the problems you seem to be having. I just keep trying new things and pressing all the buttons to see what they do. it is taking a long time to figure out how to do the simplest of things though. My biggest problem at the moment at the big spaces between the title and the picture in my post.
Bruce: Thanks for the insight. If the new interface proves too intolerable, I'll keep Wordpress in mind.
Rational: I hope they do improve it. Signing up with a hosting company would require some research -- are they free of content-based censorship, for example? Blogger has been pretty good about that. And I wouldn't mind having to pay something, but "a couple hundred dollars a year" would be pretty expensive.
Mike: Thanks -- I've been making use of your tips.
Jack: I don't think writing everything in HTML mode would work for me -- typing all the HTML tags manually would be a distraction and I'd probably mess them up.
Comrade: That wouldn't surprise me. A lot of the pointless changes and reorganizations in the corporate world probably happen for the same reason. They blew it this time, though.
Mary K: It seems to be working very differently for different people. Weird. I'd be too nervous to just press all these buttons when some of them are just icons with no words on them to tell me what they do. I'd probably end up deleting my entire blog by accident.
This is just for info on the Blogger problem...may or may not help😳
https://krydderuglen.blogspot.com/2020/09/experimenting-with-blogger.html?showComment=1600542357095#c4472184058764366741
I used Typepad when I was blogging at long gone and much-lamented Dependable Renegade. It was very similar to WordPress and so very easy to adapt to.
The new WordPress interface is not impossible, but it does slow me down. One work-around trick that no one else seems to notice is to:
1. Write the title of the post.
2. Save it as “Draft”
3. Navigate to the All Posts feature on the side bar
4. Select your “Draft” and underneath it is an option to open it in the Classic Editor.
The only way to install any plug-in on Wordpress is to buy the very expensive professional plan, much to the consternation of the Scissorheads.
Rgds,
Tengrain
I don't get it, why use Blogger's editor in the first place? For composition you should be able to use whatever local software you want and already have.* Blogger's purported value is publication and ad admin, not in providing for the creative process itself (may as well use Google Docs, for that matter). And if the publisher's proprietary ratfucking of the format only serves to make this more difficult, well, you are already shopping elsewhere...
Like your work, hope you make peace with it.
*I like Zim's personal wiki for WYSIWYG editing, that is, if I'm not wholesale cooking in Pluma (or Notepad - ugh!). If ya gotta be hardcore there are a million LaTeX and HTML editors, at least for Linux, including LibreOffice, and chances are one of 'em will find your sweet spot.
Mary: Thanks! I've been spreading that news around, and so have others. It seems to work for most people.
Tengrain: Thanks for the tip. I only know of (I think) one blogger who uses typepad, but it's something I'll look into if I have to.
Sleeve98: That sounds like it would require a little more technical proficiency than I have. I'm not sure how adding hyperlinks would work when writing a post in a different editor and then moving it to Blogger, for example. Also, a lot of the problems with the new interface have to do with issues other than writing posts. Still, if using the new interface becomes too onerous, it's an option to look at.
Infidel:
At Angry Bear, we are on WordPress also and getting ready to make some upgrades to it to make it more friendly to IPhone usage and also give more capability to commenters. As a moderator and poster, I like my ability to post without having to do the link breakdowns. "Yuge timesaver." Not the exppert and just an abuser.
Regards,
Bill At Angry Bear
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