Saturday, September 02, 2006

Boo Blogger Beta

The new look for the blog came about when I switched to the new beta version of Blogger. My transition went smoothly. I flicked the switch, so to speak, and everything moved over to the new version. Everyone hasn't had such a smooth transition. The Blogger help groups are overwhelmed with people complaining about issues with their blogs up to and including their blog just disappearing. My issue is that I can't upload photographs to billieblog for more than a week.

On August 24th "Blogger Employee" wrote on the help board that they were aware of the issue and suggested that everyone try FireFox browser but many people have written to say that doesn't work either. Since then, silence, total silence. No information on their own Blogger status site. Nada. Not a word and no way to actually send a message to Blogger.

I had been thinking about moving the blog to WordPress before the new Blogger Beta but I have a pretty large blog, approaching 500 entries with lots of images. I dread trying a move and all the issues that can pop up. On the other hand I really like the look of the photograph banner across the top in Wordpress and I like their categories.

Do I have any WordPress readers? What are the problems over in WordPress? How is support?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Senora Billie:

I am a WORDPRESS writer. I find it muy bueno. I honestly can't give you a comparison because I started with it and Julian set it up at that - but I am happy with it.

I load my photos on my own server where I have total control over size etc. I am a loaner - tend to stay off the group things.

Wordpress support - I have never used their support for inquiry of "how to..." but they seem to continue to update - I like WordPress bottom line.

your humble scribe,
Juan Calyso

Jon of SMA said...

Billie,

I am dual (well actually quatro) posting as I am maintaining my current blog on blogger and blogger beta, Vox, Live Spaces and Word Press. I am able to do this as I am using the Microrsoft Live Writer tool which allows me to post to three of these with one post and I have to cut and paste to Vox. I also have to cut and paste from the original blogger to the blogger beta but all of this is for testing purposes until I determine which is the one that I am going to stay with.

However to address you point, the best way to post photos on blogger and blogger beta is to post a html link from flickr. To do this prepare your post as normal in the compose tab of the create post. When you are ready to add photos change over to the view html and go to flickr. Go to the different sizes window, choose the size of the photo you want to add and copy the html code you want to add to your blog. Then just paste it into the html code for the blogger blog and the photo will appear when you preview.

Of the four that I am testing (I include blogger and blogger beta as one) the best for integrating photos is Vox. If you want an invitation to them let me know as they are still in beta form. You can see my blog on vox at sanmiguelphotos.vox.com.

I hpoe this helps,
Hasta luego,
Jon

Anonymous said...

Billie,

Why not migrate back to the non-beta blogger until you decide if you want to make the switch to WordPress?

Jerry

Anonymous said...

I don't host at Wordpress.com, but I use the Wordpress software on my site. I have used several different blogging engines over the years and Wordpress is my favorite. You'll have a lot more features than you have with Blogger.

I can't say anything about the hosting at Wordpress.com, though, since I've never used that service.