Open Letter to Google And Blogger,

Reference: Blogger Buzz: Updates and Bug Fixes for August 14th

Blogger Update

12/06/08 Just want to let the Google Guys and Gals know that as of this date I still had a bug with my According to Jim blog not displayed in my Blogger dashboard no matter what I did, (though it showed up in my Jim’s Blogger Profile). I’ll let everyone know when it gets there or I hear from the Google Crew. It’s not hidden, it’s just “gone missing” from the dash, but still accessible backwards through the post quick edits when I’m logged in to my Blogger account.

12/14/08 The Blogger Dashboard missing blog DIY fix and repair is quite involved, but cool if I do say so my self. More to follow in new a post with details of how I did it. Read addendum below and My Blogger Update Posting.

Please Email me.

According to this posting from Blogger the new feature was to provide more functionality. “There’s a new look for the Blogger Dashboard, which we think you’ll find more attractive and functional. If you have a ton of blogs (as we do) try out the “hide” and “show all” links to help manage the list.”

Well I tried it, and here is the hidden scoop.

Missing Blogs in The Blogger Dashboard

I am having a problem of the missing blogs in the Blogger Dashboard area ever since the Blogger dashboard update. Some readers have suggested that it is a case of not clearing the cache and cookies in the browser. I can assure everyone out in Internet land that it is not the clearing the cache and cookies problem in my browser(s) and computer(s) that is causing the problem.

What happens is that when “Show all” is clicked, it shows all and then when I click the “Always show” button next to the blog itself, it toggles to “Hide” except I still have one blog that is hidden permanently from the dashboard. However, the number count of the blogs shown is never updated. When I do a refresh again, the blogs are hidden again no matter what I do.

When Blogger added the “Show all” and “Hide” blogs Javascript from the dashboard, this is when my blogs started disappearing from the dashboard.

To check out some other blogs in my account, I tried hiding other blogs from the dashboard. This did indeed hide them, but now they stay hidden permanently. “Show All” works temporarily but does not latch to “always” when clicking the “Always show.” Now, only a few of the blogs “Always show.”

I tried several other computers (both Mac and PC) to verify that the problem is not the cache.

I tried four different browsers. (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome)

Nothing I have tried makes any difference what so ever.

Note: I have blogs that are both FTP setup with blogs hosted on other servers, plus blogspot.com

Also note that this “According to Jim” blog that you are actually reading which completely disappeared from the dashboard, (except I can still get to it with the edit tool from a posting, at the actual url address) was setup with ftp publishing to begin with, and did not assign a blogspot address when originally created. I tried changing it to a blogspot url address but it still would not show up in the dashboard area. I subsequently switched back to my own custom domain name. I also added the blog to another Blogger account (see link below), but it will not show up at that dashboard either.

However, this blog does show up in the Blogger profiles pages of both though. This is really strange that it will show in the profile but will not display in the dashboard.

It really seems that the new javascript is the main problem.

I’m at my wits end.

Blogger used to have a contact form for problems, however they have discontinued that service. It’s frustrating not being able to contact Blogger anymore. Note: I have posted this on the Blogger Help Groups too, with no response.

Blogger please help.

Thank you

Jim

PS To post this posting I had to do the end-around link (through the quick edit link on a blog post, when logged into my Blogger account) to the Posting, Settings, and Template area of this blog, and then create a new posting.


Addendum

12/14/08 I took matters into my own hands. The hidden blog in the Blogger Dashboard fix is quite involved and there are some precautions that must be taken into account before tackling the problem.

12/16/08 For those in Internet land, I have now documented the procedure online of how to do it, with the complete details. This detailed how-to procedure for Blogger is posted at My Blogger Update. Hint, importing and exporting blogs are the keys to technical success.

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