Recovering From A Corrupt Template - The Next Step

There are three possible dashboard wizards, used to recover a blog with a corrupt template aka "500 Internal Server Error".

1. The Template Designer page.
2. The Template page.
3. The Template Editor ("Edit HTML") page.

With most blogs, one of the three can eventually be used, to install a clean, new template - and recover a blog that's offline because of the broken template.

Some blogs, unfortunately, cannot be recovered this way.

Some blogs have templates so badly broken, that no dashboard template wizard can be accessed - and used to restore the blog to operational status.

If there's no way to recover a broken blog by replacing the template, the next possibility is to recover the URL - and install a new blog at that URL.

1. Create a new blog - with a clean, working, Blogger supplied template.
2. Swap URLs between the old and new blogs.
3. Export content from the broken blog - and Import to the new blog.
4. Transfer / update Followers.
5. Rebuild the template, and add gadgets.
6. Provide notice to your Followers, readers, subscribers, and other viewers.

Create a new blog - with a clean, working template.

Use the dashboard "New Blog" button, and create a new blog. You'll only create the new blog, in this case, to recover the URL of the broken blog - so just use a random, non valued URL.

Choose a template similar to the one on the broken blog, from the dashboard Template page - and get your new blog online. Use a Blogger standard template, until you are satisfied that the problem won't continue.

Swap URLs between the old and new blogs.

Hoping that you can access the Settings - Basic ("basicsettings") page - first rename the URL Of the broken blog, to a second random, non valued URL. Then you can rename your new blog - created above - to the URL previously used by the broken blog.



Just Edit "Blog Address", twice, to swap URLs.

First, for the broken blog, to free up the current URL - then, for the new blog, to recover the current URL.


Now, your broken URL is back online, with a clean template - though without content.

Export content from the broken blog - and Import to the new blog.

Use the "Import & back up" wizard at the Settings - Basic ("othersettings") page for the broken blog, and export comments, pages, and posts. Then use the wizard for the new blog, and import the content just exported.

Transfer / update Followers.

If the broken blog uses Blogger Followers for community building, and you had a significant Followers community, the community will remain on the old, broken blog. This is the one down side of recovering a broken template using this technique.

Fortunately, the only specific problem is the effect upon the Followers community. The other half of Following - the blog feed - will be re established with the new blog, which will now have the desired URL being recovered. And the sooner you get the blog back online, the sooner you can rebuild / recover your Followers.

Rebuild the template, and add gadgets.

If you periodically back up the template, as you tweak it, this will be the easiest step in the recovery. Of course, since you are here because the template is broken, maybe you should rebuild the template, one step at a time. Try to not repeat the previous mistake.

Then add gadgets back, one at a time - and test carefully.

Provide notice to your Followers, readers, and viewers.

If you care about your community - Followers, readers, subscribers, and other viewers - a new post, briefly admitting to your mistake might be a good idea. You can even display your new post, as a Featured Post.

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Sometimes, it's not possible to recover a broken #Blogger blog, using any of the Template dashboard pages, with a blog sidelined by a "500 Internal Server Error" broken template. If the URL has any value to you - or your viewers - you can recover it, using a new blog.

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The Featured Post Gadget, With Multiple Posts

The "Featured Post" gadget is a useful tool, for spotlighting individual posts.

One of the limitations of the gadget is that it, like many (though not all) Blogger supplied gadgets, allows only one copy on the blog, at any time. The gadget is, after all, called "Featured Post" - not "Featured Posts". Blogger does not give us the ability to feature multiple posts, simultaneously.

Given a little imagination, we can make the gadget work, for multiple posts. We can't feature multiple posts, simultaneously - but we can alternate featured posts, sequentially.

Combining the "Featured Post" gadget and labels, we can alternately feature multiple posts, in a daily or weekly sequence.

I added a label in this blog, "Featured Posts".

I identified a couple dozen posts, in this blog, which need to be featured - and gave each post the label "Featured Posts". My intention, once the Blogger Followers gadget rewrite effort is behind us, is to feature one different post in "Featured Posts", each day.

Just edit the "Featured Post" gadget, and select a different post - each day.

The "Featured Post" gadget is at the top of my blog.

I can edit the gadget, and open the label list.

And, select "Featured Posts".

That gives me a list of my posts, with the "Featured Posts" label.

And, I selected the currently featured post, "Dear Followers Of This Blog".



Next month, I may select a different post to be displayed as a Featured Post.

So I can't feature more than one post at a time - but I can alternately feature different posts. And with some planning, I can make it easy to alternately feature different posts.

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The #Blogger supplied "Featured Post" gadget can't be used with more than one such gadget on any blog, simultaneously. It is called "Featured Post" - maybe, for a reason.

With a little planning, though, you can organise the posts to be featured - and change the gadget, daily or weekly.

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Blogger Magic - Supporting A BlogSpot URL Change

Blog owners are always changing the URLs of their blogs - then asking why Blogger does not provide automatic redirection, to the new URL.

We see the occasional query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

How do I redirect my readers, to my new URL?

And this is a need that will likely go unfulfilled.

If Blogger provided automated redirection, spammers would abuse it, as part of a spam publishing strategy.

Blogger wants to keep the Blogger infrastructure as free from spam, as possible.

Changing the URL is simple enough.

Just use the Publishing wizard, in the Settings - Basic page, and Edit the "Blog Address". Subject to availability, your blog will have a new URL - as you watch.


The change is not difficult. Just Edit "Blog Address".


But with a new URL, unplanned, you'll lose traffic.

Blogger does not support automated blog to blog redirection.

Trying to keep the Blogger ecosystem clean from spam, Blogger actively discourages automated redirection. Neither JavaScript or meta refresh redirection is recommended.

You can use passive redirection, though - and give your readers the choice, to read the blog using the new URL.

• Setup a blog cluster.
• Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Setup a blog cluster.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and pair the old and new blogs, actively. There are a number of possible techniques to use, to combine two blogs as equals.

You will need informative, interesting, and unique content, for both blogs, to get the most from this approach.

Setup a stub blog, at the old URL.

Publish a blog at the old URL - and add a single post, advising your readers about the change - with a link, taking them to the new blog. You can use a custom 404 display, to collect all existing links to posts in the blog, which will take your readers to the single post.

A Featured Post is perfect, as the single post in the stub blog.

You can redirect the blog posts feed, even though you can't redirect the posts themselves. Just redirect the old blog feed, to the new blog posts feed URL.

Combine the two approaches, if you like.

There's no need to consider the two approaches as mutually exclusive. You can use techniques from each, if you like. Simply pick an approach that suits your readers.

Just don't look for automated redirection. That's not likely to happen.

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Some #Blogger blog owners decide to change the URL of their blog - then ask how to setup automated redirection, from the old URL to the new. That is, however not likely to be an option provided, or even allowed, by Blogger.

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Put A Notice, To Your Followers, On Your Blog

Thanks to the Followers rewrite - and the Followers database cleanup - this blog has lost over 500 Followers.

Blogger Support suggests that we should publish a notice to our Followers, letting them know what is going on - and why some might be no longer Following.

The notice, if published as a post, will go out to everybody subscribed to the posts newsfeed.

People who were affected by the Followers cleanup weren't subscribed to the newsfeed, using the Reading List - and did not lose a newsfeed subscription (nor did we lose a subscriber).

If they are subscribed, they will be using a third party newsfeed display - and any third party display won't be affected by the cleanup. Basically, the only thing that your blog (or mine) lost is somebody's photo, on our blogs.

Any ex Follower should see the notice, at the top of the page.

If an ex Follower was subscribed to a blog using a third party newsfeed display, that subscription still exists. If they view the blog, as a normal reader, the notice at the top of the blog should catch their eye. You can do the same, on your blog.

Look at the top of the page, here. Do you see the gadget, directly under the header?

Dear Followers Of This Blog ...

"If you did not use a Blogger / Google account when you Followed this blog, years ago, you are probably not Following now."

I think that says enough.

That is simply a Featured Posts gadget, displaying my post from January 2016, Dear Followers Of This Blog ....

The notice is simply a Featured Posts gadget, displaying last week's post.

When I installed my Featured Posts gadget, I positioned it at the top of the posts column ("Main"). Having selected "Dear Followers Of This Blog ..." as my Featured Post for the near future (probably the next month or so, anyway), I renamed the gadget to "AN IMPORTANT UPDATE".

And that's all that I had to do. I actually installed the Featured Posts gadget several weeks ago, shortly after Blogger Engineering released it. I had been changing it daily - and showing a different older post, each day.

Until the Followers rewrite is finished, and my "missing" Followers start returning, I'll probably leave that featured post in place.

You can do something similar, with your blog.

You can do something similar with your blog, if you like. Just note, as I did by experimenting, that the post content, as displayed in the gadget, has a limited length. You'll do best with a short and carefully phrased opening sentence.

Oh Yes, I did tweak the gadget Title line!

.widget .post-summary h3 {
font-size: 28px;
font-weight: normal;
}

I'll probably go back to "22px" after this episode is over - but for right now, "28px" makes the title "Dear Followers Of This Blog ..." stand out a bit. Hopefully, some former Followers will see and react.

You could do the same, with a Text gadget, if you wish - though again, using a post puts the notice into the posts newsfeed - as this post will go. I just found the Featured Posts gadget to be the natural medium for an advice to my (former) Followers. As always - YMMV.

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Thanks to the #Blogger Followers gadget cleanup / rewrite, this blog (and many others) have lost a significant amount of Followers. It's possible that the people who were dropped may re Follow - if they are aware that they need to so so.

You may notice my advice, at the top of my blog page, "AN IMPORTANT UPDATE". Hopefully, some people who are now not Following will read the advice, either on the blog, or in their newsfeed reader.

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Dear Followers Of This Blog ...

If you did not use a Blogger / Google account when you Followed this blog, years ago, you are probably not Following now.

During the past month or so, this blog has gone from 5,300 to 4,800 Followers. Owners of other blogs have reported similar reductions.

Look at the Reading List, in the Blogger dashboard - if you use Blogger. Is this blog listed? If so, you are Following this blog, using a Blogger account. If not, you may want to add this blog to your Reading List.

As part of a project to make Blogger Followers (aka "Google Friend Connect") more reliable and stable, Blogger Engineers are rewriting Followers to only work with Blogger / Google accounts.

Originally, Blogger Followers was part of a web of community building features.

In the past, Blogger Followers was part of a web based community composed of half a dozen account hosts - and another half a dozen profile hosts - and the login and profile hosts complements were not the same.

The Followers gadget, for many years, had well known problems.

"Were sorry ...

This gadget is configured incorrectly."

Everyone who uses Followers, on their blogs, has surely seen this notice.



This blog showed the above message, during most of 2015, for many would be Followers. Other blog owners had similar complaints, during the past several years.

One of the odder peccadilloes of Following started with someone who would, for one reason or another, decide to Follow a blog using an OpenID account or profile, then later login to Blogger and look in their Reading List for the new newsfeed subscription. Surprise! No subscription!!

Unfortunately, people Following using the web were shortchanged. One of the downsides of Following (seldom discussed) was that only Followers using Blogger / Google accounts would have a newsfeed subscription added to their Reading List.

People Following without Google accounts did not get newsfeed subscriptions.

Followers using OpenID only got their photo icon in the Followers facepile. How would OpenID Followers get a Reading List subscription? Reading List subscriptions require Blogger / Google accounts.

Followers is being rewritten - and non Google accounts are not supported.

Starting last month, Blogger Engineers have been eliminating Followers who use OpenID accounts, and / or who use OpenID hosted profiles.

January 27 - 4,860 Followers.

December 18 - 5,343 Followers.



This causes a drop in Follower count, on a lot of blogs - and yes, it's painful to watch the numbers drop. But what they are removing is people who only get their photo icon on the blog (temporarily) - the ones being removed don't read the newsfeed in Reading List, because they don't use Reading List.

Blogger is doing this for a practical reason - Followers code needs to be simplified, so it can be made more reliable. It's similar to support policy for every brand and version of browser. Blogger can't support every version of every browser, nor can they support every type of login to Followers, reliably.

If we are going to use the Followers gadget, it needs to be reliable.

The Followers gadget, on this blog, was broken - for many months, last year. If we're going to use Followers, it needs to be reliable.

If you look in your Reading List and find this blog listed, you are Following this blog using a Blogger account - since the Reading List subscription is one benefit of Following. If you don't find this blog listed, you may subscribe, using Reading List - or Follow, using "Follow Me". Just use a Blogger / Google account, when you Follow.

I welcome you, either way. Now that this blog is The ONLY Blogger Status, I plan to continue bringing you the best discussions of Blogger features and problems.

If you are Following my Google+ stream, this may not affect you.

Keeping all of this in proper perspective, some of you may be Following this blog in your Google+ stream, using Google Followers. You will be using a Google account (you cannot use Google+ without a Google account) - and you will not have a Reading List entry (Google+ does not use Reading List).

Others may be Following my Google+ Collection, RBS. Google+ Collections are more similar to blogs.

Blogger Followers ("Follow Me"), above Google+ Followers ("+Follow Me").



Blogger Followers, and Google+ Followers, are simply two different products - and both are displayed on this blog. And both help different people to find your blog.

And that's why we add the gadgets, to our blogs. And now, why we add notices, to our blogs.

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When You Create A Blog, Only Type The Blog Name!

Too many would be blog owners are unable to create a blog, because they don't understand how to check for availability.

I can't seem to type in a URL, without it saying it's not available.

Some people don't understand that you do not type a URL - you just type a blog name, when checking for availability.

This is the (BlogSpot) URL of this blog.

http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com

This is the (BlogSpot) name of this blog.

bloggerstatusforreal

If I was going to use the "Create a blog" wizard, and create this blog, I would type the name - "bloggerstatusforreal".

If I typed the entire URL "http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com" - even if "bloggerstatusforreal" was available (and no, it is not ever going to be available), I should expect to see

Sorry, this blog address is not available.

or

This blog address is invalid or not supported.

It's that simple - only type the name, to create a blog. And - only create a blog once - then spend your time creating "New Posts".

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Blog Readers Can't Remove Blogs From Reading Lists

We're seeing an occasional report, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about inability to manage the Reading List, using the dashboard "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard.

Clicking on the dashboard "gear" icon to the right of "Reading List", one should expect to see a list of Followed blogs, in the familiar menu. In some cases, what is seen will be bad news.

We are unable to load your FriendConnect data at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again shortly.

Upon trying again, the same error is frequently seen, repeatedly.

As an alternative to Blogger: Manage Blogs I'm Following (linked from the "gear" icon), try Google Friend Connect: Sites I've joined.

"Sites I've joined" may work, when "Manage Blogs I'm Following" won't.

The latter appears to work, for Blogger accounts that use Google / Google+ profiles - and the former, for Blogger accounts that use Blogger profiles.

Owners of Blogger blogs, who use Google+ profiles, won't use "Manage Blogs I'm Following".

So, use "Google friend connect: Sites I've joined".

Click on "Settings", then "Stop following this site".



"Sites I've joined" may require repeat authentication.

Using the Google Friend Connect wizard, you may have to sign into Google again, after clicking on the "Settings" link for the blog / website in question. Having signed in, you may have to click on "Settings" a second time, to get the "Settings" pop up window.

If the "Settings" popup window does not appear - or does not display or operate properly, you may need to check your cookie and script filters, and check that you are properly logged in to Blogger.

Neither wizard will work, if "you" cannot be identified.

There are legitimate reasons when neither wizard will help. Neither Blogger: Manage Blogs I'm Following nor Google Friend Connect: Sites I've joined will operate successfully, if you cannot be identified.

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Blog Readers Report Inability To Remove Blogs From Their Reading Lists
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/01/blog-readers-report-inability-to-remove.html
Blog Readers Can't Remove Blogs From Reading Lists

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