The Family (Or most of them)

The Family (Or most of them)
The Family

February 5, 2007

Uploads, downloads, off-loads

Feb. 4, 2007

Mr. or Mrs. Google Guy/Girl
c/o Blogspot.com
World Wide Web

Dear Sir/Madam:

I am writing to inquire about what has happened to Blogger since Google assumed control of the entire planet and all its computer users as part of its corporate takeover and in the wake of its massive profits for the most recent quarter announced last week.

CONGRATULATIONS! You deserve your success! But bloggers don't deserve what they're getting from you now.

I am little more than a www.waif in the grand scheme of things, having failed Grade 10 French and buying my first computer long after Windows 95 came out, and only recently purchasing my second, a Dell with Windows XP within the past eight months.

Egged on by a friend last year, I started blogging on my new computer. It being the World Wide Web and all, I suddenly found myself getting to know and communicating with people all over the world, for free. It was quite amazing.

There were technical issues, of course. But these were eventually overcome. Blogspot had its problems, but then don't we all? Pictures taking forever to load, lost comments, etc. But it was manageable and predictable...and after all, it was free.

No burdens were being placed on any of the users. We weren't being "used," it was just a well-intentioned system that we had to live with, lovingly, with all its warts. And we did.

Then we started to get a constant message on our blogs about switching over to Beta. Some did, to their horror, and have never been heard from since. Those of us who didn't survived. But then another message started appearing -- switch to Google, the new version.

And no offence, but many of us ignored that too. If nothing's really broke, why fix it? But then I received an eery and ominous message one day, saying I would never again get the chance to refuse to join the new Blogger, where all my problems would be solved.

I wondered if I'd lose all blogging priveleges altogether. Fearing that and the chance I would lose all my friends and contacts and connections, and having seen some others do it, I complied.

I joined the new Google Blogger. I figured Google is all about the two guys who came out of nowhere with a search engine that couldn't be beaten. It was a story about the little guys who did good, just like Thomas the Train Engine or Tank or whatever he was.

It was about us -- bloggers. Just average people looking to expand their horizons.

And I understand something about corporate takeovers and all that, and how the bottom line is really the only line, but I trusted that this would be better, that there was, even on a corporate level, some understanding of what the Web was really all about.

But now, in the midst of all the chaos and billion-dollar bottom lines, I'm perplexed.

As nothing but your humble user servant, I am continually encountering problems relating to access, to security measures that are beyond ridiculous, that impede me from the entire joy and splendour of what the Web and blogging used to be.

Blogging isn't blogging without the free access to other peoples' ideas in their posts and the comments sections those posts create that give us all a voice and the ability to easily react to what someone halfway around the world is saying.

Access that allows us to be friends. And to say how full of bullshit people are for thinking that bloggers are lonely or somehow not intelligent. We're the most intelligent people on the planet, and we're the ones who spend all the money.

If every little attempt to create a post or post a picture or post a comment to someone else's blog requires a sign-on with a word verification system that only works intermittently, even though you know it's right, it becomes a chore.

If I have to comment on someone else's blog as anonymous, because Google won't allow the new Blogger and old Blogger to continue to intermingle, then the whole experience becomes less personal, like a business transaction.

And if this is going to turn into a business, then I'm going to point out why I would never buy what you're offering, which is more on your terms than on mine. If you were a salesman trying to sell me this piece of crap, I'd walk out your door...

Here I am, simply trying to submit a comment on MY OWN blog...for which I, in addition to anyone else, have to submit to this word verification thing...which used to work under the old blogger but which rarely does now...

Note I've taken a pic above of the box first prompting me to do the word verification. The pic below should illustrate that I've properly entered the word verification on my own blog...


But it doesn't work. So I have to do it again. And sometimes again. Isn't this a lot like buying a car and then, trying to drive it off the lot, having it not start? Or buying a house and using the bathroom for the first time...and it won't flush, or it overflows?



I DID enter the words as shown on the image. And it didn't work! And now you want me to do it again! This might seem so minor-league and inconsequential. It's not. If you're hitting 20-25 blogs a night or even your own blog 10 times, it becomes tedious.

After a while, you don't want to do it. And after a while, you won't do it at all. Or at least I won't.

I was going to talk about other things about Blogger/Google or, as my best buddy has called it, Gloogler. Right now, this is work. It shouldn't be work, it should be pleasure.
Instead, this is the screen that comes up even as I try something as simple as adding a new contact to my blog Roll...someone I care about, someone whose opinions I respect, someone I'd like to stay in touch with.


Blogger is buggered. Mr. and Mrs. Google Guy, is there anything you can do to change that?







27 comments:

  1. I hate those word verification thingies. Like you, I usually have to do it 2-3 times when I leave a comment. That's why I turned mine off. You can disable it so people don't have to go through that when leaving comments.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I turned my word verification off for awhile, then I started getting "odd" comments so I turned it back on again.

    It's comforting to know I'm not the only one having trouble getting the w.v. right. I was starting to think it was (just) me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:19 p.m.

    ok, read this, enjoyed it immensely, then tried to comment. Now I'm shaking sticks at Mr and Ms Blogger-bugger. Are they going to threaten to send us to a Syrian prison next if we try to be p.e.o.p.l.e. on these blogspots?

    And, yes-- It was REALly nice to meet you!!
    Joyce

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am going to apologize for not actually reading all of your post..I nodded off at about page 475 but I think that some drool escaped from the corner of my mouth causing my arm to slide off of the desk and inadvertently moved the mouse down to the reply section and so here I go..

    gblooggler has obviously been totally redesigned by a group of cyber proctologists who have managed to ignore the KISS rule and now it is more frustrating than funstrating.

    If you start a petition I will gladly sign it..as long as it isn't too long because I probably won't read the whole thing..

    now let's see if I can actually get this to work...

    ReplyDelete
  5. ww, i read every word you wrote and i think you did an awesome job of it. thank you for taking the lead. and btw, i miss your avatar on my own little blog..

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Menchie:

    Yeah, I've turned my WV thing off. Of course, that will invite all kinds of spam, but I can just delete that...if Google will allow.

    Laurie:

    See above. No, it's not just you. I feel like they're scanning me for any bombs I might be bringing into my own house to blow it up.

    Joyce:

    Syrian prison, cyber prison...all the same, I figure.

    Homely Erascible:

    OK, I just about cried with laughter and am still laughing. I can imagine that drool...

    I'm not sure what the KISS rule is, although probably everyone else does, so it doesn't matter.

    I'll expect your signature to be the first on the list.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:24 p.m.

    yeah, yeah, yeah, but wasn't that a party?

    i just had the same problem elsewhere, but i persevered. and i will do the same here.

    wish me luck.
    waitaminute, there's no word verification box!!

    this is attempt number one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:26 p.m.

    what the heck, it posted without the verification?!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous11:27 p.m.

    do you have it turned off?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:27 p.m.

    aren't you a sly boots, you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. KJ:

    I believe my avatar -- when I comment on your blog -- can and will return if you're on new blogger.

    You may very well be having second thoughts about that, however...

    Rey:

    Yeah, I turned off the word verification, it was too much a pain in the are you online now?

    What's the website for your art? We gotta get people in tune with that, in addition to your incredible intelligence.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Another problem with word verification is that it doesn't always show up when you need it. You just get the box with a little red X where the WV ought to be.

    That was a very well-written letter! You should send it on to the proper officials...if you haven't already. You're only preaching to the choir if you just leave it on your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  13. ms. val is absolutely right..send it off and if they don't cancel your priviledges then I will send one too.
    I just ixnayed my word verifrustration because I am going out of my mind with this crapola...why oh why oh why?

    If they can send and return human beings into outer space and get caramel into a caramilk bar why can't they fix Gblooggler?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Bugger blogger! It just ate my comment!
    If it eats this...I mighht say something very unladylike.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous6:50 p.m.

    Here are a few tips I've found helpful:

    For those who losing comments, I have found that if you highlight and COPY (Ctrl+C) the text. Try to publish your comment. If it works the first time, great. If it's lost, go back to the comment field and PASTE (Ctrl+V). This should regenerate your comment. Repeat until you have success.

    Also, NEVER log-in in the comment section. More times than not, you will lose your comment. Instead, use "anonymous" or "other"...like I'm doing right now.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous6:55 p.m.

    I read it all (good for practising my English) and I think you should send it. Blogger must have so many users, it would be wise for them to listen to feedback and take it into account.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ms. Val:

    Yes, you're right, I encountered that problem repeatedly last night where the WV "word" wouldn't even be in the box.

    And the only way I found to deal with that was just to enter your password and your ID and all that crap and then click submit, knowing it wouldn't work. Then, after two or three times doing that, finally a WV "word" would come on.

    And then, of course, the WV process wouldn't work.

    And I think most people do know about the ability to copy their comments so they can paste them back in if their original comment gets lost in the Google ether.

    But sometimes I'm just trying to steamroll and get to as many blogs as I can and comment and I can forget.

    Finally, on your second comment, how do you get your avatar to come up if you sign on as anonymous?

    Any time I have to do that, I'm JUST that...totally anonymous, with no avatar, so I have to sign my comment so people know who it's from.

    Thanks for the suggestions...and like your new avatar, by the way...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Homely Contraptions:

    Send it off to WHO? Don't the blog administrators read the stuff that's on Blogger?

    On top of what I said in this post, I think the more important part for Gloogler should be the comments showing that this isn't all just some little fly in the ointment in Canada who doesn't know what the F*#k he's doing.

    Aidan:

    Yes, stick with old Blogger for as long as you can, but I think at some point they're just going to blow your computer up into smithereens and every other non-compliant soul like you.

    I turned my own word verification thing off but now of course I'm getting spam from companies trying to sell me drugs to help me get pregnant...

    The problem with that is I'm already into menopause.

    Dinahmow:

    Oh, DO say something very unladylike!!!

    Hildegarde:

    Would you sign a petition then and recruit all the 3.5 bloggers in Belgium (maybe you could get some Netherlanders to join too?)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous7:48 p.m.

    Hey,and you told me Blogger was good! lol!
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  20. So articulate and well-written. I agree that you should send it off to the powers that be.

    By the way, that's my favourite Chris Isaak song. I love it so much that I've got it on my mp3 player and use it as part of my workout.

    ReplyDelete
  21. There is nothing betta about the new blogspot. I HATE it.

    I put off switching, but they wouldn't let me access my blog until I tattooed those damned 6s on my forehead.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Laura:

    I think I said that when I was old Blogger. Nonetheless, don't let any of this crap deter you.

    While Google is royally screwing up Blogger at the moment, I still hold out hope it will get better.

    But there are other blogging options out there like Wordpress. The point is deciding you want to blog and, as corny as it sounds, becoming a member of a community that you WILL definitely find.

    :-)

    Anna:

    Thanks. I don't know that it will do any good. But we'll see how things go...

    Personally, Wicked Game is still my fave Chris song (Chris and Chris I.), but this one's great.

    Not having an MP3 player and not, at the moment, working out, I can only admire your music taste and your discipline.

    You don't find it a bit steamy for a workout song? Just askin. Nice to see you, hope all's OK.

    Catnapping:

    Welcome!

    So you've joined the dark side, then. At least we can see your avatar, and that's a good thing...

    ReplyDelete
  23. Steamy? Yes, but steamy is good when I'm working out... and at other times too. Just be grateful you aren't within earshot cause I love singing along.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anna:

    I guess steamy IS good, especially when battling these kinds of temps. Although my glasses would fog up.

    So you'd do this song at a Karaoke bar, I guess you're saying...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous8:59 p.m.

    how do you get your avatar to come up if you sign on as anonymous?

    It didn't. It only showed up on my first, logged in comment. That's the drawback to using "anonymous" or "other".

    ReplyDelete
  26. Ummm, no. I don't do karaoke. I'm much too timid for that.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Ms. Val:

    Oh right...duh. So the problem is as pervasive and impersonal as I suggested.

    Anna:

    Timid? I don't think so. Scorpio.

    ReplyDelete

If you choose to use anonymous to comment, it is only fair that I reserve the right to obliterate your comment from my blog.