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| Image Via: We Heart It |
Time to get technical!
Also, I'm not sure if ANYONE will see this post - and you'll see why if you read on.
So, here's the thing: This morning, while I was happily working my way through some Stacking the Shelves posts, I noticed that on those sites that enable linking to the latest post on your blog, the latest post showing up for me, was, well, not my latest post at all. In fact, my latest post showed up as my review of Lobsters, which was posted way back on July 21st.
In short: My RSS feed had stopped working, um, two weeks ago. Now, it's fair to say that there were signs - lots of signs - that this had happened, and I should have noticed sooner. For one thing, over the last two weeks, my stats have dropped an enormous amount - I don't pay very much attention to stats, it must be said, but, I mean my stats have dropped so much over the past fortnight, that even I noticed. Also, I haven't been getting very many comments on my latest posts, but that, in itself, is not all that unusual to be quite honest.
Now, I subscribe to my own blog via Bloglovin and Email - I do this so I can be sure that everything is running smoothly and my blog is updating properly. Ha! You might be starting to think right about now that I'm a bit dim-witted, and maybe I am, but did I notice that my blog wasn't updating on Bloglovin or that I wasn't getting those thrice-a-week emails?
NOPE! I did not!
So, if you subscribe to this blog -via Bloglovin, Facebook, Email - you won't have been getting updates either. Sorry about that.
Anyway, I fixed the problem (at least temporarily - I think), and much as I want to blame Blogger for all of this (I like to blame Blogger for everything that goes wrong on this blog), I think, after some investigation, that I can safely say the fault was all mine.
I went to Feedburner and was told that my blog was too big for it to handle. Huh?
Further investigation showed that I should not type up my reviews in Word and then post them to Blogger -because by doing that (for over four years) I've been adding a whole lot of extra code/unnecessary html - to my posts. Who knew? Possibly you - but certainly not me.
My temporary fix consisted of updating my Feedburner link as instructed and manually deleting that extra code from a bunch of reviews. Hey, I said it was a temporary fix. I don't know of any other way to fix it.
For now, the blog seems to be updating again - at least via Bloglovin, Twitter and Facebook. I'm not sure about those email updates yet - I'm writing this on Sunday night and my email alerts, if they work, won't come through until Monday morning. If you're reading this, and you subscribe by email, then my fix worked if you get the Stacking the Shelves post on Monday and this one on Tuesday. If the emails are not working, I do not know how to fix that, so...
Feedburner is no longer supported by Google, and it seems glitchy, so I will look into an alternative. If you have any suggestions, let me know! Also, my blog probably isn't updating in your sidebar if you have it there - actually a bunch of other blogs in my sidebar are not updating with their latest posts - I don't know how to fix that. I really feel lately like Blogger is breaking down - it is SO glitchy! And everyone keeps telling me to move to Wordpress, but that really seems like a lot of work for me -and this blog already gives me enough of a headache without throwing even more work into the mix!
If you do want to follow this blog, I recommend BLOGLOVIN - I'll be keeping a closer eye on there from now on to make sure that it's updating properly!
I'm also having problems with the comments on the blog at the moment, but that's a whole other story (and I'm pretty sure it is not my fault!)
Yikes, that's a bit of a nightmare. Sounds time consuming too having to delete old code. By the way, I always write in word too and copy it over. It just works better for me as I often write reviews while on break in work and I don't want my blog open.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you I'd consider wp. I know it's an investment but if you move and also buy the UBB plugin, you will save so much time in the long run. I didn't mind blogger but self hosting is the best move I ever made.
Don't blame yourself for noticing earlier, we have lives outside iof blogging too and we can't be on top of everything!
I follow my own blog via bloglovin and email too just for that reason. :P
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about the technical problems. Those are always the worst. I follow using my Blogger Dashboard and your post came up there today so you know.
ReplyDeleteOMG. This sounds like a horrible situation. I am the worst with fixing these kind of things…I'm not sure I would have been able to. I don't think I missed any posts and I follow your blog through Bloglovin. Hmm. Anyway, everyone has told me to move to Wordpress as well, but I just can't wrap my head around a move that big….it seems also like a nightmare. I'm glad you got it sorted out though…that couldn't have been easy!
ReplyDeleteI saw this on google reader :)
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of funny because I actually haven't had any problems seeing your latest posts! I follow via Bloglovin' and your recent posts have all been showing up just fine for me, so that's a bit strange. I've been told Blogger is glitchy too but I've never had any problems with it so I don't know if I really want to make the investment and switch!
ReplyDeleteOh man this sounds like a headache! I'm rubbish with any kind of tech stuff so it really is a nightmare when something like this happens. I usually keep up to date with your blog in my sidebar and that has been updating fine. I also write my reviews in word first but I post in plain text in the html section and as far as I know that doesn't show up any coding.
ReplyDelete^ That is probably the right way to do it. I was just posting into the text section and there was a lot of unnecessary code added to the html because of it. I'm just glad I sorted it out - and I hope it stays fixed! :)
ReplyDeleteAww so sorry to hear that. Blogger really is glitchy and fixing it is a bit tricky. I know many people have said this before but I think moving to Wordpress is better :D Moving your blog can be a lot of work but you can hire people to do it for you. :D I recommend Ashley from NoseGraze.com :)
ReplyDeleteHave you tried Feedly? I can't vouch for Feedly (because I am a Bloglovin' girl through and through) but I heard lots of great things about Feedly. It's worth a try. :) Also, sometimes Disqus malfunctions when you have slow internet connection and it doesn't let you comment on a blog post, I've experienced this issue a lot of times on other people's blogs. Commentluv loads faster than Disqus, it's also worth the try :D
But those are just my tips :) I wish all the best for your blog :)
I would probably cry if that happened! I'm glad you've found at least a temporary fix! I did NOT know that about Word, how bizarre!
ReplyDeleteKatrina @ Chased
By My Imagination
I'm following you through Bloglovin, so that's ok. I didn't know about the Word codes, thanks for the heads up ! You've done quite a detective job in finding where the problem originated from, kudos - I know I wouldn't have found it :)
ReplyDelete