I like Blogger. I like that the Classic Blogger system is straight up, simple HTML. I like the way this travelogue looks and functions. It is my impression that it is easy to read, use, looks alright, and does the job. The three-column Minima template that I rigged together is exactly the sort of appearance [...]
I like Blogger. I like that the Classic Blogger system is straight up, simple HTML. I like the way this travelogue looks and functions. It is my impression that it is easy to read, use, looks alright, and does the job. The three-column Minima template that I rigged together is exactly the sort of appearance that I want: simple, straight forward, and content heavy.
I also know what is going on in every piece of code inside of this travelogue. It took me more than a long time to learn this, as it has been a journey in and of itself . . .
In point, everything should be alright, and I would think that I could just ride this wave off into the horizon.
But there is one problem, and that is that Blogger has regular publishing problems that often arise out of nowhere. Every month or two, a new problem rears its ugly head: either the blog fails to publish new entries, or some other odd dysfunction. Through experience, I have learned that if I just ignore these internal publishing problems that I cannot fix, they usually — somehow — go away.
Though I am in the middle of a problem that has been ongoing for over two weeks: I cannot update the template on any entries older than May 2009. This is rotten because I consistently update the travelogue template with maps and other temporal information that often changes. If I cannot have a consistent template on ALL of the pages of this travelogue, then it is going to soon become a mess.
More than 50% of the travelogues’ traffic comes in on random post pages from Google searches. This means that these people are entering into the middle of the journey on a page with an outdated template. 95% of the pages on this travelogue say that I am in Israel and going to Egypt. I cannot change this. It is an internal Blogger publishing problem. I have updated the template, as is evident on this page that you are reading, but it will not rewrite all of the pages on the entire travelogue as it is suppose to do.
Also, this is a problem because comments on entries older than May 2009 will not publish automatically. I have found that if I go in and enter a comment on the older, outdated pages and refresh the page, that they will update. But this is not good. I cannot rightly leave a comment on 800+ pages each time I want to update the template.
I need a travelogue that is a finely tuned machine. Blogger COULD to this, but it functions in a far too clunky manner to be relied upon. Two times in this journey I have bailed from Blogger because of these odd little problems, just to return because of a nostalgic notion that it COULD work well this time.
Oh brother . . . I am becoming worn out by these same old problems. I did some reading this morning on how to convert this Classic Blogger powered travelogue over to WordPress — like many of the other sections of Vagabondjourney.com — without changing the URLs . . .
In with the new boss, perhaps.
The arrows in the above screenshot of an older page on the travelogue show some of the places where the template will not update.
If anyone has any suggestions on how this can be repaired, please let me know.
Thanks.
Walk Slow,
Wade
Other Blogger problems
Blogger Comment Form Problem
Blogger Problem Fixed
Vagabond Site Without Blogger
Travel Blog on Blogger
New Travel Blog
More Blogger Problems – Template Not Updating
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About the Author: VBJ
I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. VBJ has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.
VBJ is currently in: New York City
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April 27, 2010, 3:24 am
Ive had the same problem for a while, I just gave up
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