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.
~~~
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!
Mwah!
