Sorry that I haven’t been leaving comments on a lot of your blogs.
I really wanted to, but Blogger has not been making it easy lately.
All of a sudden, Blogger has changed their comment section enough to make it impossible for anyone who doesn’t have a Blogger account to link back to their blog when they leave a comment. So the only way to leave a comment is to leave it anonymously—unless you have the owner of the blog set up special options for the non-Blogger bloggers.
Mr. Brown Thumb was one of these: a Blogger member who was so kind as to change his comment section to accommodate other blog hosts. Thank you.
Even if the comment section is modified to include other blog hosts you still cannot leave a live link back to your own blog. I was wondering if Google had let their customers know that this change was going to occur.
It was really frustrating to type a comment for someone and then go to leave it—and realize that I can’t. At first I thought that something was wrong with Blogger and their system was down. After all how stupid to make a change to something that works fine all ready, unless you were going to improve upon it.
Instead they inconvenienced everyone.
And made it worse.
Annie in Austin left a comment on my blog telling me that the “Cultivated” blog had a paste in fix that I could try. I tried it. It works but your site shows up in the comment window.
Why does Google/Blogger want to make this so difficult?
Hey I’m a child of the sixties. Well, I was 12 when the sixties became the seventies but I remember not giving into “The Establishment”. I remember fighting “The System”. I remember the summer of love. I remember Woodstock.
I smell a conspiracy. I smell a merging monopoly. You remember the game Monopoly don’t you? Only one person wins and it is always, always…my eleven-year-old son.
Some people seem to be upset about this but for the most part life goes on in the blogosphere. Some of my blogging friends have even talked about switching to Blogger or getting an account just to leave a comment.
Don’t do it.
Next thing you know “they” will be messing with our content. We wont be allowed to comment about coneflowers or brugmansia only roses and daisies, hummmm.
When I was nine, my dad stuck a bumper sticker on my back handed me a stick with a sign on the end of it and we marched to the state capital. Those were the days. Chanting slogans, giving peace signs, drinking TaB.
So don’t give in. Please, if you have a Blogger account then ask Blogger to switch back to the old way or a way for us non-Blogger people to leave comment easily, with a way to link back to our sites.
If you don’t have a Blogger account, then ask your friends with Blogger accounts to please voice their disapproval with this change.
This change means more work for everyone, less comments and lots of frustration—and ill will toward Blogger.
Here are some sixties anti-war slogans that can be revised to accommodate our currant predicament in the blogosphere.
Hell no we wont go…over to the dark side and sign up with Blogger.
Make love not changes…on the comment section.
War is not good for Bloggers and other living things…so don’t make us get mad at you.
Hey, hey Blogspot hey, how many Bloggers have you frustrated today?
The last one’s a stretch. But you get the picture.
I totally agree! I thought it was just certain bloggers. I do have a blogger account but it isn't linked to my current blog and so I have been adding "nickname" and then linking my website in the post. It SUCKS!
Posted by: misti | December 05, 2007 at 06:24 AM
I just tested it with a wordpress account I had and it worked and allowed me to make a link back to my wordpress blog, though there is no content on there.
Posted by: MrBrownThumb | December 05, 2007 at 09:59 AM
It is me again. I think I'm going to disable the openID comments until they fix it-so that anonymous comments can be left by people who don't blog at all.
I'll update my post on the OpenID feature in a little while while with a work around that maybe the non-blogger people can use.
They're trying to do something good by making interlinking all bloggers but it isn't working how they'd hope.
If you really want to make your voice heard I'd suggest leaving a comment on the blog where they'd read it.
http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-feature-openid-commenting.html
Posted by: MrBrownThumb | December 05, 2007 at 11:16 AM
I was unaware of this problem - thanks for blogging about it. I have switched over to OpenID, and will be emailing blogger about their new 'feature'.
~Sarah
Posted by: Sarah | December 10, 2007 at 10:53 AM
As a non-blogger user, I find this new "feature" quite unfriendly. As though google/blogger only want you to use their blog host. I'm going to check out MrBrownThumb's link.
Posted by: nikkipolani | December 13, 2007 at 02:57 PM
Misti,
I agree with you.
Mr. Brown Thumb,
Thank you for all your technical advice and information. I wish I were as knowledgeable as you.
Sarah,
Thank you Sarah.
unfortunately I don't think open ID gives you a live link back to your site.
nikkipolani,
You are right it is unfriendly and it does seem suspicious.
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