I have been having some issues with blogger.Last month I lost a draft post that I had been working on for a year (yes, I nearly cried!)
Ever since last year's AusReading Month I had been wanting to do something that catalogued Australian books by the State or region they were set in (much like what Melissa had done with her US Reading the States).
I couldn't work out the design or format that suited me, so I kept adding notes on each state, until inspiration struck.
Instead of inspiration - disaster!
The entire state of Victoria - gone!
Blogger help forum sadly informed me that lost draft posts are irretrievable - forever.
The only solution - write all future draft posts in a word document. Then copy & paste only when ready to publish.
Fine!
If that's what I have to do; I'll do it!
But then...on Monday morning...
I wanted to update some info on my 'Nobel' page when suddenly - pooof!
Everything gone & replaced by an exact replica copy of the post I had just published.
Autosave kicked in straight away (which has been a godsend the couple of times my computer crashed mid-post!) but this time....well, Nancy heard my scream in the Netherlands!
Blogger help forum indicated that there is a way to find a lost published post or page...but so far no-one has responded to my plea for help.
However, while I was there, I decided to check out some of the other forums.
Maybe everything really does happen for a reason, because I discovered the answer to the page problem that has been annoying me ever since I started blogging.
Blogger pages are static, one page entities that can only be changed by update editing (like what I tried to do with my Nobel page).....or so I thought!
One comment, a bit more research and suddenly I had the knowledge to make my pages dynamic 'blogs within a blog'!
The Nobel page is now it's own little blog (I'll wait while you check it out.)
The change has meant losing all the comments on the old Nobel page - sorry Nancy, most of them were yours :-(
Whether I change all the pages above is another matter.
For instance the CBCA page is such a big list with multiple links it would require a lot of tweeking to change to dynamic. And the genre pages are designed to just be lists.But State by State will definitely be one of the new & improved dynamic blogs within a blog. It was the design formatting idea I was waiting to have!
(Although Victoria will have to wait to make an appearance, since I still have to rewrite it from scratch!)
The other thing I learnt on the forum, was how to add your google+ comments onto my blog posts, so now all my comments appear in one place!
Yes, I am a blogging genius!
Hmmm - genius status now in doubt.
ReplyDeleteGoogle+ commenting means that I loose my ability to check comments manually & to set a moderation option to my older posts.
So I'm back to the older style commenting with apologies to the half dozen folks who left google+ comments on the previous post - I have no idea where they have disappeared to, but disappear they have!
Ugh, there are days that computers seem more trouble than they are worth! Glad you are figuring things out though.
ReplyDeleteOh no. I can imagine the anguish at losing Victoria. At least it was just Victoria I suppose and not all of them I guess. I love your state by state idea though- that is pure genius. I have absolutely no idea how google + works, or how I'm even there in the first place. I just ignore it at this stage. I don't know that I'd checked your Nobel page before, but will check it out now.
ReplyDeleteTrue Louise.
DeleteExcept that Victoria was my second largest post. So many writers live in and/or write about Victoria!
I have to check up on the 'blog in a blog' page. That would be great for some of my pages.
ReplyDeleteJust go into blogger help forum and type in blog within a blog & the info should come up.
DeleteWhen I first read it I though, oh I can't possibly do that!
But I left it for an hour, came back with a fresh attitude and had a go...& it worked like a charm. The only thing is it cannot incorporate the info you already have on a page. So I simply copied and saved that info & turned it into a published post with the approriate label so it would appear on the blog within the blog!
I hope that makes sense.
You're smarter than I am. I still have to learn what you've discovered.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel your pain! I lost a post that I had been working on for months ..... blogger somehow saved another post over it so it was gone and then I had duplicate posts of the other. I have no idea how that happened. You'd think I'd learn from the disaster but I have about 20 posts in "draft" without having copied them to Word. I should get on it, but this was a one-time occurrence for me, so I assumed that I'm reasonably safe. However, your post is making me wonder .....
That's exactly what happened to my Victoria draft post. I ended up with a duplicate of Queensland...and like you I have not yet saved my other drafts into a word document.
DeleteEven though it has now happened for second time!!
Todays #1 job on the to-do list :-)
part of the reason I left blogger for wordpress a long time ago
ReplyDeleteHi Brona, Many thanks for stopping by Pen and Paper.
ReplyDeleteA cautionary tale indeed. I've recently had some issues with Blogger though unlike yours mine were promptly dealt with. I've also often thought of looking at alternatives but I'm afraid for me it always comes down to better the devil I know.
Nice to have met you, I've enjoyed my visit.
Thanks.
DeleteI have a friend who uses wordpress, so I know issues happen with it too.
Like you better the devil I know.
Over the years I've found so many forum's & helpful webpages to fix most of the issues. I now have so much knowledge about blogger and how it works, that I'm reluctant to let it go!
Oh dear! So sorry for all your Blogger trouble.... I've been fortunate not to have had problems with it, "knock on wood"
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Along Magnolia Lane -- I had to google roast chook to find out it was chicken!! Hope you and your family have a nice "Thanksgiving Day," compliments of us Americans!