please empty your brain below
*really* hoping this is the worst April Fool, ever.

Don't let the buggers win.

Jason Cobb | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 1:07 a.m. | #

DG, many sympathies, I know how much a blog matters when one has invested so much into it. I still think you should grit your teeth and change the template.
I run this blog which was a spinoff from this one - they both use the Minima Stretch template and it really is OK.

vicky park | 01.04.10 - 1:10 a.m. | #

keep posting words, just no photos?

HF | 01.04.10 - 1:17 a.m. | #

Can't the British Library help? They have you archived don't they?

Amused | 01.04.10 - 2:37 a.m. | #

Man, DG. I wish I could help. Good luck, and know that your archives ARE worth saving.

Scoakat | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 3:52 a.m. | #

Oh dear, I was so looking forward to your April Fool post but this auto-pagination is obviously getting you down.

Bite the bullet, DG - go to WordPress. You'll be able to put the same layout there, I'm sure - and move over your comments. Good luck in whatever you do.

zed | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 8:06 a.m. | #

Say it ain't so! Hope you can sort this out one way or another, can't believe they've done this to the finest blog out there.

SELondoner | 01.04.10 - 8:22 a.m. | #

So first they piss aruond with your comments system, now they're messing up the blog itself... Nice one Blogger...

RG | 01.04.10 - 8:38 a.m. | #

The comments piss-around was a different company to this blog mess-up.

Important lesson: there is no such thing as digital legacy. Everything online disappears eventually.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 8:46 a.m. | #

I'm not one to defend Blogger, but I can understand why they're doing this and not really considering those who might still be using classic templates (and to be honest, I suspect that's a handful of their global user numbers), because right from the start they have been the ultimate in 'push-button publishing' - meaning that as websites have got more complex they've been keener and keener to keep what they see as meddling hands away from the complicated stuff under the bonnet. I think they have been happy to say to themselves that if a user wants more control, they should try a more complex blogging platform.

DG, as difficult as it must be with your long history on the web and the sheer amount of content you have, I think it's time to admit defeat. No, this isn't a cheap 'move to Wordpress comment', I promise you. But the fact is that your huge site has simply outgrown Blogger's limited potential.

No one wants to see you stop blogging for half the month. But, conversely, from your huge readership I suspect there would be many willing people who would gladly take up arms (well, okay, laptops) to help you either (a) find a current Blogger template that could suit your needs; (b) move to Wordpress or wordpress.com (I'd certainly be up for supplying my limited knowledge on the second option). I'm not pretending that either will be any easy undertaking, and there's no use pretending that they'll be exactly what you've got now, but I think that with a few people to help with this massive transfer it could be done, and the result would be a website that you could work with easily - rather than fight against bitterly - once again.

An Unreliable Witness | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 9:03 a.m. | #

Important lesson: there is no such thing as digital legacy. Everything online disappears eventually.
So that picture of me fellating a horse will eventually go?

Gerald | 01.04.10 - 9:19 a.m. | #

Shame. I was looking forward to this year's April Fool's post. Last year's was hilarious. Of course, this could turn out to be a joke, but somehow I doubt it.

I, like all your readers, don't want you to go on a fortnight's hiatus, as your blog is a great read every morning, but I can understand if it's in protest at Blogger now 'eating' half of your posts. Your archives are one of the web's hidden treasures, and the way Blogger are treating them is atrocious.

Good luck in fixing this. You can do it! :-)

Andrewh | 01.04.10 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I've found the proper (hidden) April Fool post :)

Blue Witch | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 9:40 a.m. | #

I was hoping for kittens ...

Debster | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 9:43 a.m. | #

Shame about the hassles with old posts. Meanwhile - the other one is just brilliant - loved it.

Island Resident | 01.04.10 - 10:08 a.m. | #

Regrettably, I think it's time to bite the bullet and get yourself on Wordpress and a custom hosted site.

Alan | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 10:13 a.m. | #

I think it maybe time to move to a new host, even a paid for one. I am sure that you have enough loyal readers that some of us may contribute towards the hosting costs if needed. I shall miss reading your posts if you do stop for a fortnight, as it's always my first read in the morning.
Don't get too disheartened.

John | 01.04.10 - 10:24 a.m. | #

Me too. Even more amusing though, if you click the "Auto Pagination" link on the 3rd line and scroll down to the "links to this post" section at the end of that page there is a link titled "Thanks Audrey" that links back to DG!

Tim B | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 10:45 a.m. | #

Ok I'll bite, what is so wrong with just switching layout that makes you rather just give up on posting?

sweek | 01.04.10 - 10:49 a.m. | #

I'm sad to read that. To say something positive, I visited the finches playing guitar upon your post and I really enjoyed the show. So thank you for the idea!

cybergreg | 01.04.10 - 10:59 a.m. | #

You should really look at moving to a different platform like wordress - you can import an entire blogger site without loosing anything and there are loads of templates to choose from to get the look and feel you like.

Tom | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 11:37 a.m. | #

DG - not losing your comments is a genuine concern, but really you are a paying far too much attention to the layout. No one reads your blog for the grey background or idiosyncratic refusal to make each post title to be a hyperlink to that post - - - It's the content people like. So at least upgrade yourself to new template, you can easily make it look *roughly* the same.

botogol | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 11:41 a.m. | #

This is, to be honest, bottoms on the part of Blogger/Google. If they are finding that certain blogs above a certain size are slowing the servers down, why not move them over to a paid-for service? More fool them if they didn't include a clause for that in the ToS. So longer as users know about the clause up front, there is no reason why they can't then stop people from "using Blogger as a free hosting service" (a line which seems incredibly rude to me and should never have been used by anyone who cares about customer relations).

graybo | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 11:41 a.m. | #

Thanks, Blue Witch - found it!

Claire in Osaka | 01.04.10 - 12:05 p.m. | #

As another affected by the auto pagination, I have more than a little sympathy.

But, I've also been watching the forums and visiting some others who are complaining. My conclusion - the world is really, really, really no poorer for not having 95% of the affected blogs and the idea that anyone should be held to account for not making them readily available is more than faintly risible.

Ham | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 12:18 p.m. | #

Oops, or maybe not. That one was from 2006 :-(

DG, please let your April Fool be the idea that you're going to stop posting ... even if your posts disappear after two weeks, reading them on the day they're published is an integral part of my day, and I'd miss them greatly.

Claire in Osaka | 01.04.10 - 12:27 p.m. | #

Clare, you haven't looked hard enough :)

Blue Witch | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 12:52 p.m. | #

Yes, the "free web host" bit in their statement is bizarre beyond belief.
I've discovered that the search and label systems are also subject to the autopagination, which has really screwed me.

Audrey | 01.04.10 - 2:03 p.m. | #

It's sad how such a grassroots publishing system can be ruined by a faceless behemoth. I'm wondering if Google's UK office can step in here and offer some kind of bespoke solution - without DG's efforts, many Londoners would never have discovered blogs. (Or at least, would never have discovered blogs which weren't dull political ones.)

darryl853 | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 3:03 p.m. | #

Needed sunglasses for one of those bonus posts.

I'm also stuck in the middle of the classic to whatever debate, although I took a path of least resistance on using Echo.

I noticed that it is possible to set up a Blogger widget with embedded HTML in the sidebar.

As a quick experiment I copied all of my sidebar stuff into such a widget and created a new temporary blog as a test which mainly worked.

Ironically, in my case it was the Echo stuff that didn't work in the new blog so I've put it on hold for the moment.

In case of interest, the normal blog is at http://rashbre2.blogspot.com and the test replacement (its slow, but for other testing reasons) is at http://rashbre20.blogspot.com.

Maybe someone here would know how to finish the cutover experiment I started?

Best regards to you dharma/de jour/ etc.

rashbre

rashbre | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 4:22 p.m. | #

If you haven't already done so, I recommend you use the Blogger backup facility on the dashboard to download the entire contents of your blog for safekeeping. I don't know if you'll get the missing items that way. Have you tried that? They would be in XML format but at least an XML expert or a future utility program will be able to use the XML source to load into a new system.

Feargal Mooney | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 5:26 p.m. | #

Nooooooooooo!
Please continue

melinda | 01.04.10 - 6:00 p.m. | #

DG, if you can't find them anywhere else, I have at least all of March's posts on file as emails as I RSS feed them rather than subscribe online...

Liz | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 6:25 p.m. | #

None of these missing posts are lost to me.
They're simply lost to you.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 6:30 p.m. | #

DG - I really hope that you get this sorted; the absence of your posts would be a real loss. It's a *great* blog!

The Ant Man | 01.04.10 - 6:47 p.m. | #

Well if there is a hidden April Fool I'm afraid it's too well hidden for me to find, so you've got me!
If it's not, I can't believe you're just going to give up. We love what you write, not how the page looks. Maybe the time has come for the launch of a new-and-improved Diamond Geezer. Change doesn't have to be the end of the world.

CornishCockney | 01.04.10 - 7:24 p.m. | #

Also hope that you'll find an alternative..

Dorothy | 01.04.10 - 7:25 p.m. | #

The link to Spatula Disjoin seems to be broken.

Don't give up. I think you'd miss as much as we would.

ganching | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 8:06 p.m. | #

I can see how this is annoying when you have a system that performs totally to your satisfaction and it changes, through no fault of your own. However, IT 'upgrades' causing such problems are not unknown; and the solution is generally to learn to live with (and customise) the replacement product. Realistically, if you're not paying for the service, then stopping the blog will harm no-one but yourself (unless you actively want to give up writing) and your readers. Few blogs have so many vociferous supporters, so it would seem a shame to abandon things. If it's a particular problem with layout in the new blogger template code, then blog about the problem in detail and you have two weeks to see if anybody here can help. I'd certainly be interested in trying to solve it.

I have to say, though, that I wholly agree with the comments above about layout and its relative unimportance - it's great to have control over layout, to make it clear and uncluttered, but people read your blog for the *content*.

Lee | Homepage | 01.04.10 - 10:53 p.m. | #

sad to hear of the blogger hassle... wish i had a solution... i sadly don't though... enjoyed the april fool post too... clever as always... :)...

tim... | 02.04.10 - 11:28 a.m. | #

As others have said it is the writing and the photos that brings us here not the look. However I too have an old Blogger template that I have fiddled with to my liking, but I have had enough and plan to move to WordPress when I get a spare weekend.

However I didn't like the look at all, when I moved all of my Blogger posts over so that is an issue.

Keep your chin up DG.

Chicago Addick | Homepage | 03.04.10 - 1:48 a.m. | #

I have really been enjoying reading your blog since a facebook friend linked to it, and hope that you will not be too discouraged to carry on. I have not had a problem linking to old archived posts ...

kate | Homepage | 09.04.10 - 5:28 p.m. | #











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