Beta Blocker

Title to the contrary, the reason today's post is up so late isn't because I've made the switch to Beta Blogger and was not able to post last night. I'm currently falling horribly behind at work through a combination of my own stupidity, extra projects, meetings, classes, interuptions, and vacation days, and I didn't get home until 9:30 PM. This is the “use it or lose it” time of the year, when vacation days dissipate if unused. I ended up losing two or three last year, something I've never done before and don't wish to do again. So, despite the fact that I really should have gone in to work today, I'm home.

Today I'm breaking my own cardinal rule, and blogging about blogging. Several people on my blogroll, like Sean and Lyndon have switched to the new version of Blogger a while ago. Lyndon had to abandon his original site due to technical difficulties after making the change, something that convinced me to wait as long as possible to “upgrade” my own. Still, I hadn't had problems leaving comments on sites in the new format, other than the occasional request to log in when I already was logged in.

Now, other bloggers have made the switch, such as B13, Kev Bayer, and Darrell, who wisely is trying things out on a test blog first. Thus far, I've been unable to leave a comment on any of their sites. It's annoying because I really wanted to comment on Kev Bayer's Perilous!, and despite being a better photographer, B13 seems to mostly get comments from only me. Even worse, I've gone around checking some of the blogs that were already in beta, and I can no longer comment there either.

The error message is deceptive. It still says I can log in using a blogger account as well as a Google™ account. But when I try to log in, it says, “Could not log you in. Double check your password or try again later. You can also use your Blogger account.” When I try the “other” or “anonymous” field, it accepts the word verification and reloads the page with no error message, but still doesn't post. Blogger is aware of the issue and working to resolve it, but meanwhile their suggested work around doesn't work for me, and I can't leave comments on the new sites.

Now that I finally have my archives in order with my latest redesign, I had been considering making the switch myself. I had asked my readers for their feedback on the issue, and I think I now have my answer. While switching might allow me to comment on other blogs, right now it may prevent a larger number of readers from leaving comments here. So, until this compatibility issue is resolved, or everyone moves to the same platform, I'm going to remain on the old Blogger. My apologies to those of you I currently can't reach, but know that I'm going to keep trying.

Change is always difficult, especially where technology is concerned. A new system of font management and new software are among the contributing factors to my own recent shortcomings at my job. There's always an adjustment period as bugs get worked out, after which things usually are better. Hopefully, this will soon be the case with the blog situation. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, when I return to blogging about other things than blogging.

Fun Fact: This post contains the letter sequence “blog” 32 times, including HTML.