Monday, January 25, 2010

Blogger Sucks!



How's that for an articulate and witty title? Well, I'm sorry, but right now I have neither the motivation nor the inclination to be "witty" and my frustration is such that I'm motivated to resort to idioms which articulate it best. So yes... this site sucks the big one! Sucks like a salacious, toothless whore, in fact!

Ok. I feel better for having said that. Now let me expand on the reasons why I'm not a happy little unit when it comes to this site.

1. Leaving comments. (Mmmkay. Wanted to underscore this and can't do it from where I am... I'd have to go to "edit html"..... grrrrrrr. Well, no fucking underscore! Deal with it.)
Why can't the comment feature be universal? I mean... sure... I understand people like to be "creative" and "express" their "individuality" an'all... but does it have to extend to how I leave my comments?

In an effort to familiarise myself with the site and the members who are now my "followers" and many who aren't, I've tried to do the neighbourly thing... ya know... go around with a bottle of "plonk" (aussie slang for cheap vino), knocked on the door and issue a hearty.... I'm HERE! Let's party!! Only to find that the lights are on but no-body's home. Or the doorbell is so well hidden I have to cut my way with a rusty machete through your scrubby garden to find an opening. It's tiring. It's getting to the point where I just sit on the front lawn and drink the "plonk" myself... ALONE!

Why does every goddamn person have to have some different feature for commenting? Just the simple act of leaving a comment requires me to affiliate to some source or other and enter my personal details each and every time. Now, you can call me paranoid (which would probably be kind in my case) but I resent having to spread my name, email address and password around the net like some mad woman's shit! (No apologies for the graphic description there... I'm pissed. OK?)

2. Page Layout
For a technical moron like myself this site gives me stress-related hives! Ok... so I'm familiar with basic html. VERY BASIC. And in my line of work I just don't get to use it that often... not at all, in fact! We have techies who do that... people who have studied web-design and know this shit in their sleep. I'm happy with that. I can leave that to the "professionals"... just like I do when I call up an electrician to re-wire my house. I don't go out and get some manual on circuit design and try the fucking thing myself. Apart from the fact that it's illegal... the result would be disastrous... not just for myself, but my entire neighbourhood. But I digress...

I think you get the idea. For a Luddite like myself, having to learn HMTL get my page and blog to do even the most simple things is causing a headache. Well... you're stuck with it the way it is FOREVER! I refuse to risk my eyesight, my precious time and my sanity (or what's left of it) to "tweak" this page. Not worth it folks... not even for you.

3. Negotiating Posts.
Ok... here's another fucking time-waster! Either I'm a complete moron (which I'm starting to believe I just might be) or this Blogger shit has knobs on it (another aussie colloquialism for "majorly sucks").

If I click on your avatar, for example, I'm lead to your profile page. Whoooopie!! Great!! Now what the fuck do I do? Not that I want to deliberately insult anyone... because I've done the same thing... but profile pages are boring, especially when I'm trying to access your posts. Why can't your avatar link me directly to your blog page? After all, isn't that the whole point of fucking blogging? If I'm interested in your profile... I'll LOOK. Promise.

So... when I get to this scant and empty "profile page" and find nothing, I have to backtrack... find some post of yours in my "dashboard" (that's if you've actually posted one) and go from there. Then I have to bookmark your page so I don't lose it again... which I believe I shouldn't have to do if we're all part of the same goddamn site!

OK. There are many more irritating things about this which are making me regret I ever contemplated leaving Multiply. For all the problems over TOS... for all the drama and juvenile backstabbing... Multiply actually worked much better for me. Truly.

Deep breaths and chanting of soothing mantra.

In all seriousness... give me your honest feedback here. Am I being unreasonable? Have I not given this Blogger thing a chance? Because I'm about to call it quits... and I HATE doing that. I don't consider myself a quitter. I force myself to sit though 3 hours of boring, self-absorbed, intellectual cinematic wank because I don't like to feel like I'm quitting.

So, please. Talk me down from this ire and tell me I'm wrong. Tell me why I should stay. Tell me how to make this experience ENJOYABLE and not some exercise in acquiring Repetitive Strain Injury... my mouse and my fingers cannot take much more of this "clicking" back and forth. Besides, I just don't have the time.

Cheers.

Malice.

34 comments:

  1. OK, OK, calm down and find a solution!
    Try signing up for wordpress and test it out by yourself if it has the same annoying problems. Many people say that wordpress has plenty of features which Blogger doesn't. And though it's totally unfair, you will probably encounter some HTML stuff there too. When I had to deal with it on Multiply, I used this site to help me. http://www.pageresource.com/html/hclist.htm
    Besides, there are plenty of other blogging hosts too. Here's a long list. http://mashable.com/2007/08/06/free-blog-hosts/

    And if not, just come back to good old Multiply. The thing I hate about it is that it owns your work!

    And no, you have given blogger a good chance. I got sick of it too.

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  2. Just stay where you're comfortable!
    *hugs*

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  3. Hon, WordPress is even worse from a formatting standpoint.

    I'll drop you an email with some goodies which will make your page (and others) a lot easier to negotiate. It's a little more work, but it's worth it.

    All the good people are here.

    -W

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  4. Haha... I'm having some trouble adjusting to the quirks of Blogger, too.

    I am told by people I would trust (if I trusted people) that it's going to get easier and that my page will be looking spiffy in no time.

    People generally hate change. I LOVE change but have a quick temper. Either way, it means I blame my own ineptitude on the web site.

    Good luck!!!!

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  5. I fear change, too. Was sort of forced into it by the demise of 360. Not going to wait too long to pimp-out my lifeboat this time - I'm not going to be part of another 'experiment'.

    It gets better. Truly; it does. A little elbow-grease and some help from your friends, and it'll be home in no time.

    Besides, as I said - all the cool people are here....

    (Change? I really do fear it. That's why it winds up in the tip jar at the coffee-stand down the road....)

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  6. @Maryam...

    I'm glad you got sick of Blogger too... makes me feel a little better to know I'm not alone.

    My problem is I'm not good with deferred gratification. I get impatient when I can't do what I want... and do it NOW! (I blame that entirely on my parents for being selfish idealists and having only one child!)

    However, now that I'm here I do feel I should at least give it a chance... so I'll take advice and suggestions wherever they're offered.

    At this stage I'm not really inclined to try another blogging platform. Either I make this work for me, go back to Multiply, or give up entirely and go back to knitting! *grin*

    Thanks for the suggestions M. I'll check out the pageresource. Cheers.

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  7. @ Will...

    Thanks. Goodies have been well received and I'll look into the suggestions and recommendations you've made over the weekend when I can set aside a block of time.

    I will persevere. As I said, I hate feeling like a quitter. It's just that my level of frustration had reached saturation point and I needed to vent. (I hate feeling so damned incompetent!!) *grin*

    I feel much better now. :)

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  8. @ Nurse Ooopsy

    Change doesn't normally bother me. In fact I tend to crave it more than is good for me.

    What annoyed me more than anything is the feeling that I lacked the skill set to negotiate this site... that, coupled with the fact that, as I said to Will, I hate feeling so incompetent.

    (It would also help if you weren't so damn stingy with the meds!! What good's a sanatorium if a girl can't get medicated... and NO the Aroma Therapy Room does NOT help.)

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  9. I don't think I mind following "mad women." (hmmm, does this mean I might be a metadata?) ~grin~ Especially if they're carrying their espadrilles and some plonk.

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  10. Oh yeah,

    ...and tell that friend of yours in Cambridge that I looked all over Park City for the "Asshat Music Lounge on Main Street," but never found it. With her recommendation I just KNEW I could get in on the list. There was some dancin' to a band named "2am Club" thereabouts, though. No asshat idiots, those.

    ~grin~

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  11. Blogger IS much more difficult to use which takes up time I could be using to do other things. It wasn't that big an issue for me until the blogs quit cross-posting from Multiply. If they could do a few things to accomodate us and make things a little easier, it wouldn't be so bad.

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  12. Yes, yes and yes. I agree with everything you said, and as far as uploading photos is concerned, it;s a hundred times worse because the photo upload from the computer doesn't work. if you upload from the net you get a mass of code which you have to copy-paste in the requisite area.

    will, I too need the email details. Urgently.

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  13. Interesting profile quote - as you know Ii also have a blogspot site.. or two. I'll be reading you stuff :)
    Phil from Multiply

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  14. I'm not thrilled with the commenting options, either. Although clicking on someone's avatar in Multiply does sort of the same thing -- it takes you to their home page, and you have to hop to the blog page from there. When I'm ready to read blogs I follow, I go to the dashboard first, so I can see the most recent entries. I hope the frustration level subsides!

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  15. @ ...m...

    Great!! 'Cause I've been sprawled out on your front lawn (bare feet and machete by my side)drinking plonk and howling at the moon. Not sure what the neighbours think! *grin*

    ~

    I'll inform my little friend in Cambridge about your quandary. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to tell you exactly were to go! *huge grin*

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  16. @ Cal-el

    I'm not fussed about cross-posting. I'd just like to be able to negotiate this site with relative ease and comfort without needing an atlas, a compass and a cut lunch to do it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. @ Bill...

    I know what you mean about embedding photographs. Usually I end up placing the code in the wrong place and the whole thing goes haywire.

    I managed to get the page as it is by sheer luck, I'm sure. But I can't, for the life of me, change the colour of the quote in my header. It just refuses to let me.

    Oh well. It'll just have to stay the way it is.

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  18. @ eet kreef

    Phil!! You found me!! Yours was one of the blogs I went in search of. Thought you'd at least leave little bits of tin foil through the jungle for me to follow. (I know you carry anti-croc tin foil for those drunken swims in African water-holes!! *grin*)

    I'll be round to catch up with your posts in a little while.

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  19. @ Kobico

    Clicking on someone's avatar on Multiply at least took you to their home page which offers some indication of who the person is. I'd be happy for that feature here.

    As it is, there were one or two people who's avatars and id's were unfamiliar to me who appeared as my followers. Clicking on their profile gave me nothing. They hadn't posted a blog yet... hence no link to their page.

    I don't mind being followed... but I'd like some idea of who it is.

    Seeing their site actually provides me with more information about them than the profile page.

    Anyway... the problem was sorted out after I emailed them and asked, but I don't think I should have to do that.

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  20. I gave up customizing mine - just picked a basic them I could work around. This seems much of a blogging site than a social networking site (or i haven't found out how to find my mates on this).
    Partly i like it cuz its anonymous - I can say what i want - grin...

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  21. Malice,
    Small world, short life.
    Why not have it all...
    Keep both sites.

    dhan(smile~~~)

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  22. @ Dhan...

    Why not have it all...
    Keep both sites.


    This has been suggested to me by a number of people.

    As yet I haven't deleted my Multiply account... just made it known that I'm leaving.

    I'll see how it goes. Perhaps you're right, and I should keep both sites.

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  23. @ eet kreef

    Not being a fan of the whole "facespace" concept, I'm not bothered with the lack of social interaction... or what passes for it on the net.

    To be completely honest with you, I find the glitter graphics, Happy Hump Day, and mindless memes a complete waste of time. It's just not something that interests me.

    I'd much rather connect with people like you who post stimulating blogs and don't bore me with trivial info about what they had for breakfast. *grin*

    The privacy is also an added bonus. Which is why I don't sign up to sites where I'm likely to find my students... or where they may find me. *another grin*

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  24. "the problem was sorted out after I emailed them and asked"
    Email addresses are on the profiles? That's something I didn't know!

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  25. @ Kobico

    I'm sure it's an optional feature you can disable.

    No email address on the profile... just a clickable link to Email

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  26. @ Kobico

    I just double checked. Not everyone has it enabled... but if you do, it appears under
    CONTACT on the profile page.

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  27. Ah, now I'll have to troll everyone's profile pages!

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  28. Good to see MaliceInWonderland is a argumentative as ever.

    1. Leaving comments.

    Why can't the comment feature be universal?

    This is one of my pet peeves. But I think it is less an expression of user creativity than of the Blogger software developers inching towards a better commenting solution, whilst leaving all the old options available for people that are accustomed to them. MaliceInWonderland is not the only change-resistant argumentative user.

    Just the simple act of leaving a comment requires me to affiliate to some source or other and enter my personal details each and every time.

    That criticism is a bit unjust. Blogger gives the commenter the greatest number of options I have seen. You can comment anonymously, type in your name every time, or tell Blogger to get the info from an "account" somewhere, with many options as to which account you choose -- not just a Google account. Besides, for most people the default behaviour is the same as on good old Multiply. Once you have logged into your Multiply / Google account, it chooses this identity as the default. After that, no more selecting an identity from a menu, no more logging in.

    2. Page Layout

    I did not realise you need to edit any HTML to create a blog template. At least in the draft version - http://draft.blogger.com, you can set up a basic blog with an “about box”, blog roll and tag cloud, just by dragging and dropping boxes.

    3. Negotiating Posts.

    Why can't your avatar link me directly to your blog page?

    Maybe, because people can, and very often do, have more than one blog. Besides, almost everyone has a link to their blog in their profile. So that is only one extra click.

    In general, I agree with you that the Multiply commenting experience was better than Blogger. But you have to consider the other side of the coin. The Blogger terms of service are not so outrageous, the advantages of Multiply are only evident to Multiply users - a community so small as to be virtually non-existent, and most of the failings you see in Blogger are from an attempt to give the user more freedom and be open - to other sources of identity, not just Google accounts, for example.

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  29. I'm with you this whole place is a bit wonky as some things become clearer other problems pop up and I am still trying to figure how to even meet/network with others...sigh....

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  30. P.S. From my phone that was three tries before it posted! WTF?

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  31. Well I do miss you over on multiply...We'll leave the lights on for you...

    Wes

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  32. Howdy - This place looks interesting!

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