A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

April 1, 2014

Bombarding Blogger re Broken Follow Button

Dear Friends,

As some of you know, I wrote a post a few days ago about a work-around solution for the problem some of us have been experiencing using the "Join This Site" follow button in the last few weeks. I have since had emails with several of you. What has been working for me as an alternative to the broken Join This Site button did not work for a lot of you. Some of you are just getting a "We're sorry ..." message and some of you are getting a popup to indicate you have already signed up, even though you know you haven't. And even after you reenter your password, you get the "We're sorry ... " message.

I honestly thought this was another issue in a series of issues that have cropped up in recent months and that it would go away. This one is not going away and tonight I found a thread about the issue here on a product forum thread at Google. 

Now I'm ticked.

Although dozens of folks from around the world have complained about this issue and asked for help, it has not been listed as a "known issue" by them. On the forum thread you will see that there is only one person responding, and that's to only some of the pleas for help and that person just keeps saying, "... I tried it and it worked for me." Really? 

As one blogger put it:
I don't see that it can be something we've done, with an ever-growing group of us suddenly encountering this problem after months or years operating without any trouble.  And we're all encountering the same symptoms.  This must be a wider Google hiccup not individual user error - or why is it suddenly clustering like this?  And when I haven't altered any of my activities related to Blogger/GFC?
~~~

I'm from the hippie generation back in the 60s and 70s, so it's in my nature to make an effort to get some immediate attention paid to an issue to get it resolved.  The only thing I can think to do is to bombard them with complaints or requests for action so that they sit up and take notice. 

I am going to post this on the thread:
As other bloggers have indicated on this thread again and again, the inability to follow other blogs via the Join This Site button is a wide-spread issue which has been going on now for weeks. Please expedite this matter and work to resolve it. It is a popular feature that is widely used and enjoyed by your bloggers. It needs to be a known issue and be fixed by your expert technicians as quickly as possible. Thank you!
You have my permission to copy and paste those words into the thread. In fact, I am asking you to do that, or use your own words and join in.

I realize that many of you are not having trouble using the Join This Site button, or you may no longer use it, or have it, or care that much about following other blogs in this way; a lot of you follow now through feeds. Nevertheless, I would ask that you also join in because it's a matter of principal. Today it is the follow button, tomorrow it might be an issue that does impact you. It would be appreciated if all of us who publish our blogs through Blogger could stand together on this.

~~~
To post to the thread, click on the blogger thread and make sure you are at the bottom of the thread. Go to the bottom of the screen and you will see that there is more than one page, click on 3, or 4 or whatever the highest page number is. Then go to the end of that page and after the last message in the thread, to the right, you will see an arrow which toggles, "Post reply." Click on that and a dialogue box will open. Paste my wording above in red, or write your own message in the box, and click "Post."

There is an old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the oil." I hope you will take a couple of minutes and join me in being a squeaky wheel!

Thank you! Please feel free to email me (see my profile page) if you need any assistance.

Mwah!



35 comments:

Barb Ghig said...

Great minds think alike (actually, I often refer to myself as a "Leftover Hippie"), so I love the idea of bombarding them with complaints!

Thank you so much, Darnell! You're a rebel after my own heart, and even though I've been following you for a while, I know it must be frustrating for those who haven't been able to join in the fun...yet!

Off I go to add my two cents...thanks again for your help with this :-)

Sammy said...

So here I was all ready to go reply to the thread and...

The thread won't load and I'm getting "something's broken" messages!

I'd laugh if I wasn't too busy crying! lol. x

Andrea said...

hi darnell mines works but my daughters isn't iv copied and pasted your text hope they take note soon hugs Andrea x

Hannelie said...

I really appreciate your effort Darnell... as I have been struggling with it too!
I really hope all our complaining pays off!
♥♥♥

Redanne said...

Well done Darnell! It is still working for me but a few weeks ago I lost my followers link, like a lot of others, so the problems are definitely at their end. I did try to link up but kept getting an error message........... Hugs, Annie xx

Anne said...

On phone at moment but will do later. I've not had that problem but others. One problem I did keep getting was when I tried to get on your blog via phone was told needed parental consent or whatever cos of adult content :-) kept happening but let me on today. X

Kathyk said...

YAY, Darnell, let's hope your "petition" gets the desired result

Kathyk

Hannelie said...

It seems as if all our complaints helped... because I were able to start following a blog today!
YAY!

JD/ Jill said...

Darnell, I was one of the ones having that problem of not being able to follow for a while now...I just tried following someone and YES, Today for me it worked!

Krisha said...

I. personally, have not had any problems, but for the good of all us bloggers I did go and post your message.

I'm a throw back hippy too, and I use that squeaky wheel thing ALL THE TIME! LOL It really does work.

Irish Cherokee said...

I have been told by several people and can attest to the fact that the follow button is now working. I have been out putting my 1 1/2 cents on every Google problem and programmer sight I can get access to and being a pain in the butt works when something is broken and no one seems to care.

Chris Dring said...

DARNELL FOR PRESIDENT!!! Your slogan can be "I'll get shit done!" ☺
I copied and pasted your words, Darnell, because if I used my own, there would be a lot of profanity! LOL!

Jasleen Kaur said...

Thank you for this thoughful initiative on behalf of many of us Darnell. Even I'm having problems in following blogs and I have c/p your message there. Lets hope something is done asap.

Lisa Elton said...

YOU GO GIRL!!!

Kathleen said...

I went on this morning to do as you asked and it seemed to have been rectified, may have been because of you or maybe not but I know who to contact if I need a champion.

Kath x

Unknown said...

Now we are all ticked Dippy! Gone over and joined the hoards who have already posted......there seems to be an indication that the problem has been fixed but need to see to believe!!! lol Thanks for taking the initiative sweetie.

Hugs.

Karendipity xxx

Tracey McNeely said...

Done--love Chris D's suggestion for your campaign slogan!

Geri said...

It sounds like "they" may have fixed the problem....but I posted your suggested comment anyway! "They" need to know that us card bloggers are a force to be reckoned with - when we have a problem, we need it fixed!

Go Team Darnnell !!!

Susanne Vargas said...

Done! Even though I haven't had problems (yet) but as you said another problem might pop up which might concern me too. They should know that we don't like to be ignored! Thanks for providing the wording!

Shoshi said...

It is most frustrating trying to get Google to do anything. Blogger is riddled with problems that come and go, and their "help" is useless - it just refers you to forums - they expect us to help each other, it seems, rather than taking responsibility to fixing the problems.

Thanks for your visit and your brilliant comment - it literally had me laughing out loud lol lol!!! Anyway, glad you like what I'm doing at the moment. As for Mum's birthday, hop back to my blog for some photos and to find out how she enjoyed her day!

Happy WOYWW,
Shoshi #20

MaryH said...

Hey Darnell, Thanks for writing this up. I followed the link, and "think" I've posted what I copied. I saw where a lot of folks have done the same, but I'm not finding my own post. It seemed to work when I hit the Post button, but I can't find it. Shoot, I can't even get to the bottom or change pages, so I may try this again tomorrow. I also saw where the word duplicate was by several posts - that looked to be this same issue. Saw too, the thing about not having your photo show up. I'm with the reader who said "Darnell for president". You got my vote, girl! TFS & Big Hugs

Roxie said...

I still can't get the photo to show on the Join This Site but I've got a new message today:

The file you selected could not be uploaded. It may be too large or it was not a valid image file. Please select another file or click the upload button to try again.

ANNOYING!

You might get some extra traffic from my blog because I posted a link in my side bar to your post regarding a way around the Follow issue and thanks for posting that info because it did work for me...but I want my photo back!

Gerrina said...

I was so glad that I could make myself a follower yesterday finally by a friend who didn't knew why I couldnot all those time... Haven't tried it elsewhere, but I hope I don't have a problem with it anymore... Maybe they are solving the problem step-by-step? Have an inky day, Gerrina

Laurie Unger said...

Done as requested! thanks for taking a stand on this, hopefully things will get fixed.

ike said...

Hi Darnell - I did as requested as I noticed today that all my Followers pictures have disappeared and I have NO Followers button on my Blog !!!
What on earth are they doing ??!!!

Hope you are having a good day :-)
IKE in Greece xx

Bobby said...

I just came from there and saw a lot of other posts using your wording. I did, too, with an addition of my own. Let's hope there's power in numbers, although I've tried to resolve things on other websites and it take a LONG, LONG time to get their attention.

G Peplow said...

Hi Darnell, Thanks so much for doing this research, I checked out your links and read the threads carefully and decided to sit this one out for a little while and low and behold it seems to be working okay again! Phew what a relief! I have to admit it felt horrid not to have the facility but I also felt bad that I get so used to having this wonderful medium to use for free I take it all for granted! Go Blogger, such a fab service really :D Okay off my bandwagon now LOL Have a wonderful weekend! Hugs Gay xx

Anonymous said...

Mine is working as of a few days ago. I was so MAD that they werent fixing it, I hope yours starts working too!!!

Greta said...

Done!

Nora Noll said...

I started noticing this last week. I cannot even believe that this isn't considered a problem. Will be copying and pasting. Thank you!!

laurie said...

I didn't know there was a problem...how annoying!

Patti said...

I see everyone saying this is working now but I still can't follow your blog, Darnell. Must not be 100% up and running yet : (

Off to "skwawk" hope it works!

Shirley said...

Google is more focused on making $. and as a business they should be. I think we should realize what they are doing is slowly discouraging extra features that do not monetize returns. Imagine the amount of server space blogs take world wide and then it kind of makes sense. I am backing up my blog posts in case I need to move in the future. Thanks for acknowledging the problem too, Darnell. Notice on the blog forum that Google stopped commenting on the complaints too.

Petra Swart said...

I go with the comment saying 'Darnell for President!!!' You are amazing!!
Thanks for this - I'll see in your newer posts I still have to visit if the problem has been solved by now.

Kim S said...

I worry on a regular basis that blogger will just "poof" away and be gone, because they truly don't seem to care! Thank you for taking this on!