The New Followers Gadget

The new Followers gadget is out - and is causing some confusion.

If you are Following a blog - either your own blog, or somebody else's - and you examine the Followers gadget, you will see a button labeled "UnFollow".

Long ago, "UnFollow" was a selection, in the "Options" menu.

The "Unfollow" button is there, to let you stop Following a blog that you are Following.

"Unfollow" lets you stop Following any blog - yours or not.

If you are Following this blog, you should see a button labeled "Unfollow".



Previously, "Stop Following" was just one link, in the Followers gadget Options menu. Now, it's a button, in the gadget.

This blog, with the Followers gadget, as I see it.



If I wish to Unfollow a blog - possibly because I can Follow only 300 blogs at any time - I can click "Unfollow".

Since I am Following my blog, I see a button labeled "Unfollow".



Long ago, "Stop Following" was an "Options" menu selection.

Previously, the "Stop Following"" option was available, behind the "Options" link in the gadget.

What we used to see.



A blog that you are not Following will display a "Follow" button.

We see a "Follow" button, on blogs that we are not Following.

I am not Following this blog.

Since I am not Following this blog, I see a button labeled "Follow".



It's that simple. If you are Following a blog, you'll see an "Unfollow" button. If you're not Following, you should see "Follow".

If you wish to Follow, you will need a Blogger / Google account - though not necessarily a GMail account.

If you see "Follow" when viewing this blog, you are welcome to click on the button.

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The #Blogger Followers gadget now has an "UnFollow" button, visible to people who are Following a blog. Previously, "UnFollow" was a "Stop Following" selection, in the gadget "Options" menu.

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Blogger Magic - Followers / Reading List Visibility

When we use Blogger Following, we create a link to our profile, from each blog that we Follow.

That's the primary purpose of Following - to see, and to be seen. We also create links from our Followers profile, to each Followed blog. That's the purpose of having a profile - to describe ourselves, by the blogs that interest us.

Everybody does not want other people knowing about every blog that we Follow, though. To let us Follow blogs without being seen, we can Follow anonymously - or hide a blog, from our profile on other blogs.

When we Follow a blog, we can choose to Follow anonymously, or publicly.

We can change the option, to Follow anonymously or publicly, when needed. If we Follow publicly, we can hide this blog, in our profile, on other blogs.

We can also hide blogs in Reading List, to keep the list manageable.

Change between Anonymous and Public Following.

There are two ways of changing between anonymous and public Following.

1. Use the Followers gadget.
2. Use the Reading List wizard.

Use the Followers gadget.

If you are Following a blog publicly, you'll have your icon in the Followers facepile (the icon cloud in the gadget). You can edit your profile, and Follow anonymously - or continue to Follow publicly, but with this blog hidden from other blogs.

Click on "Options", when you are logged in to Following, as yourself.

Then, click on "Site settings".

Or, if you are Following publicly, you can click on your icon, then "Settings".

Now, you have the Settings wizard, for this site.

Click on "publicly" - since you can see this, when Following publicly.

If you're Following publicly, you can choose to Follow anonymously - or continue to Follow publicly, but not include this blog on your profile.



If you are Following a blog anonymously, you won't have your icon in the facepile. If you want to now Follow publicly, and you are properly logged in, you'll still have "Options" - then "Site settings".

Use the Reading List wizard.

There are two Reading List management wizards - one for Blogger profiles, the other for Google+ profiles.

Changing Reading List, with a Blogger profile.

If you have a Blogger profile, you use the Blogger "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard - that you access from the Blogger dashboard.

If you have a Google+ profile, you'll use Google friend connect "Sites I've joined".

Start from the Blogger dashboard home page.

Click on the "gear" icon, to the right of "Reading List".

Some blogs are Followed publicly.

You can make any publicly Followed blog, Followed anonymously.

Just click on "Change to anonymous".

Some blogs are Followed anonymously.

You can make any anonymously Followed blog, Followed publicly.

Just click on "Change to public".



Changing Reading List, with a Google+ profile.

If you have a Google+ profile, you use Google Friend Connect: Sites I've joined. You can't click to this wizard, from the dashboard.

If you have a Blogger profile, you'll use Blogger "Manage Blogs I'm Following".

Start from "Sites I've joined".

Find the blog that's relevant - and click on "Settings".

Some blogs are Followed publicly.

This blog is being Followed publicly.



If you choose to Follow publicly, using a Google+ profile, you can choose to display this blog, as part of your profile - when your icon is displayed on other blogs. Alternately, you can Follow this blog publicly - but make it non visible, from other blogs.

To Follow anonymously, click on "Follow anonymously", and "Save".

Some blogs are Followed anonymously.

This blog is being Followed anonymously.

To Follow publicly, click on "Follow publicly", and "Save".

If you Follow publicly, you can choose to hide the blog from your profile. You'll be visible, on this blog - but your profile, on other blogs, won't point to this blog.



Hide and un hide a blog, in Reading List.

Besides anonymity in Following, we can hide a blog, to make Reading List manageable.

So, be aware of the options for choosing private ("anonymous") vs public Following.

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target="_blank"

When we Follow a blog, using #Blogger Followers, we have several options to control our visibility on different blogs. We can make ourselves fully or partially visible - or non visible.

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Blogger Magic - Maintain Reading List Brevity

When you Follow a blog, the blog feed is added, as a subscription, to your dashboard Reading List.

This lets you read the blog content, conveniently, using the newsfeed. Separately from the Reading List, you can choose whether to have your personal Followers icon displayed, in the icon cloud on the blog display.

Besides maintaining anonymity in Following, you can hide any number of blogs, in the Reading List index, to make the index manageable.

You can display your Reading List, with the various blogs indexed in 3 states.

• Hidden, and not shown.
• Hidden, and temporarily shown.
• Visible.

Just learn to hover the mouse cursor in the right spot, to the left of the index entries, to change the state of the individual blogs.

Hidden or not, the blog content will continue to display, in the main Reading List display. Hidden blogs simply appear or disappear - as needed - in the Reading List index.

Here's an example of Reading List index entries.

Start from the Reading List section of the dashboard home page.

Here, we see two blogs that are being Followed, both visible.

To hide a blog, hover the mouse cursor to the left of a given blog name, and click on the down arrow.

To show all hidden blogs, click on the right arrow to the left of "Hidden blogs".

Now, all blogs are displayed - and the hidden blogs are indicated.

To un hide a hidden blog, hover the mouse cursor to the left of the blog name, and click on the up arrow.

And we again have two blogs, both visible.



The actual content of the Reading List display does not change - just the Reading List index, on the left.

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To help you use the #Blogger dashboard Reading List effectively, you have the ability to display or hide specific blogs in the index. This does not change Reading list content - just the index - and makes it easier to locate important blogs, repeatedly, in the index.

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Social Sharing Popularity, And URL Changes

As both custom domain publishing, and social sharing networks, become normal with many blogs, we see anguish when blog owners change the URLs of their blogs, without planning for the effects of the change.

What happened to my Likes?

This blog owner - and many others - do not realise that FaceBook counts Likes, based on the URL, not the blog.

FaceBook Likes, and Google+ +1s, are counted by URL - and are not controlled by DNS redirection, or simple name changes. If you rename your blog, you get a new URL with a new popularity counter, in FaceBook and Google+.

Some social sharing services allow for URL changes.

BlogLovin lets you transfer Followers from one URL to another.

BlogLovin, for instance, provides for transfer of Followers, to a new URL - as long as the blog owner owns both the old and new URL.

First, make sure that you've claimed both of your blogs.

Once both blogs are claimed, navigate to "My blog" and select the "Edit Blog Info" option next to your original blog.

From the "Move Followers" dropdown menu, select the blog you'd like to move your followers to and click "Move". This will remove your original blog and move your followers to your new blog of choice.

Start from any BlogLovin page.

Select "Blog analytics" from the drop down menu.

Click "Edit blog info".

Select a blog, from the drop down blog menu, in the "Edit blog info" wizard - and click on "Move Followers".



Whether you have a blog with a new URL, or a blog with multiple feeds and groups of Followers, BlogLovin lets you consolidate / move Followers so you can address your Followers, conveniently.

Blogger Followers stay with the blog, automatically.

With a Blogger blog, and Blogger Following / Google Friend Connect, your Followers Follow the blog - not the URL. You can rename the blog, and change the URL - but as long as you don't change the BlogID, your Followers remain with your blog.

FaceBook and Google+ give you a new counter, for each URL.

Neither FaceBook or Google+ provide a similar option. To both FaceBook and Google+, if you change the URL of the blog, you have a new blog. Google+ Followers - unlike Blogger Followers - Follow the URL.

With custom domain publishing, and the BlogSpot to domain redirect, the attention of your Followers may end up on your redirected blog - but the +1 counter that was based on the BlogSpot URL stays with the BlogSpot URL. With the blog published to the domain, your blog gets a counter for the domain URL - and starts over.

With a BlogSpot to BlogSpot URL change, and a domain to BlogSpot URL change, everything starts over.

FaceBook Likes are counted, within FaceBook - and Google+ +1s are counted, within Google+. Both are based on the URL of the blog which accrues the Likes and +1s. If you change the URL of the blog, you get a new counter.

A URL change is effective for different changes, to a Blogger blog.

• BlogSpot to BlogSpot name change.
• BlogSpot to custom domain republishing.
• Custom domain to custom domain change.
• Custom domain to BlogSpot republishing.

All of these are URL changes - and are treated as a different blog, for most social sharing services.

BlogLovin supports URL changes. Neither FaceBook, Google+, or LinkedIn provides this ability. You change the URL, you start over with +1 / Like count, and sharing reputation.

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With most social sharing services, if you change the URL of a #Blogger blog, you start over accumulating +1s, Followers, and Likes. BlogLovin appears to be alone, in letting you transfer Followers from one blog to another - if you create a new blog, or change the URL of an existing blog.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/ZiozKZOS07Q

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/gkmBV6s03Ck

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Confusion About Blogger / Google Support Policies

We're seeing confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about unfairly limited Blogger / Google support policies.

Why can I not Follow my favourite blog, without using a Google account?

and

Why must I upgrade my computer, to be able to use Chrome?

Some blog owners and readers take the support policy limits personally, as if Blogger / Google is punishing them - or their readers - for not using the right account to login, or not upgrading their software.

Every different account host - and every different browser or operating system - requires more unique code, that must be provided by Blogger / Google, in their libraries.

Blogger / Google are trying to make their products efficient and stable.

Blogger / Google is trying to make their applications and browser more stable. More stable products yield happier users, and more users.

Complex code libraries, caused by the need to support every different non Google account (previously supported by Blogger), and every different operating system of every age, cause Chrome and Followers to be slow and unstable. Slow and unstable applications and browsers yield unhappy users, and less users.

More complex code libraries require Blogger / Google to spend more time updating their code, for every change made outside Google.

Which choice makes more sense?

1. Less complex applications and browsers, less time spent maintaining less complex code libraries, more customers, more satisfied customers.
2. More complex applications and browsers, more time spent maintaining more complex code libraries, less customers, less satisfied customers.

My money says Door #1 makes the most sense, from a business viewpoint.

Efficient and stable applications require effort by users, as well as coders.

Blogger / Google simply can't support every different non Google account in their applications, and every different browser and operating system, and maintain a business. People who want to use Blogger and Google have to make some effort, and help Blogger and Google to help them.

Blogger cannot support non Google accounts, and provide an efficient and stable Followers gadget.



If you try to update Chrome - and you see advice

Sorry, you can't update Chrome, using this operating system.

or if you (or your readers) try to Follow your blog, and see

We're sorry, the site owner has blocked you from joining this site.

Neither refusal is Blogger / Google being petty, and forcing you (or your readers) from having unlimited choice, capriciously. This simply represents Blogger / Google making a tough choice, and trying to provide efficient and stable products, for their customers who are willing to make some effort.

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Some blog owners do not understand the need for #Blogger and #Google to support use of a limited range of non Blogger / Google products, in their various features. Support policy for products like the new Followers gadget, which now supports only Google accounts for Following - and Chrome, which supports only newer versions of Windows operating system - are not understood.

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Would Be Followers Being Blocked By Blog Owners

This month, we have a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about problems Following some blogs.

Why am I being blocked, from Following?

Some would be Followers are taking this personally. Please, don''t do that.

What you're seeing (maybe, when trying to Follow this blog, too) is not an owner initiated conspiracy.

The Blogger Followers gadget rewrite is taking shape.

If you're trying to use a non Google account to login to Following, you'll be seeing this, for some blogs.



If you want to Follow some blogs, you will need to use a Google account. The OpenID and similar non Google logins are not usable, with Following, any more.

We were warned, several months ago, about changes to Followers.

As we mentioned some weeks ago, starting this week, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. To follow a blog via Google Friend Connect now, readers will need a Google Account (the same they use for Gmail or YouTube).

It's happening, finally. One day, we'll have a new - and more stable - Followers gadget.

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The #Blogger Followers gadget rewrite is continuing. This month, some would be Followers are seeing a notice, instead of the gadget, when they try to Follow some blogs, without Google accounts.

The Followers Gadget Rewrite Continues
Would Be Followers Being Blocked By The Blog Owner

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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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The Followers Gadget, And Internet Identification

How many of you have used your favourite Internet application recently - and received a convenience login suggestion?

To continue, please tell us who you are!

Login with your FaceBook, Google, or Twitter account.

Many small business Internet services, instead of making you setup one more unknown account, are letting you login, and use their product, based on your FaceBook, Google, or Twitter account.

This is not a magical concept. It requires a lot of work, to make this happen.

The major Internet services, such as FaceBook, Google, and Twitter, act as identification sources for many smaller services.

Letting FaceBook, Google, and Twitter identify us is good, for everybody.

With FaceBook, Google, and Twitter providing identification services, we see a win - win - win situation.

1. FaceBook, Google, and Twitter get to set the standards for identification - and make the Internet safer for everybody.
2. The lesser known services can concentrate on their product - and not worry about identification.
3. The users of the lesser known services have one less account / password to maintain.

I login to AddThis, using my Google account. That's one less account, for me to maintain.



This is called Open Protocol Authorisation - or OAuth. I use OAuth to login to AddThis - and to other services, at various times.

Followers used to use OpenID Authentication - and complicated code.

For many years, Blogger used a similar concept - OpenID authentication - with the Followers gadget. People could Follow our blogs, using a Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Netlog, or OpenID account - and they could identify their activities (similar to our Blogger / Google+ profiles) using a profile hosted by Orkut, Netlog, Plaxo, or Twitter.

This use of a third party service, for account and / or profile hosting, is not magical. OAuth / OpenID standards or not, each different service has its own peculiarities. Coding, to allow for these peculiarities, makes the Followers gadget more complicated than it should be.

Complicated code is not good. Blogger has to maintain duplicated code to allow for different browsers, operating systems, world wide government bureaucrats, and more. More time spent fixing problems == less time spent improving features.

Followers has shown problems to different people, at various times.

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

"Were sorry ...

This gadget is configured incorrectly."

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



The gadget, on this blog, has shown that error, more than once. Many would be Followers have told me so.

Many of us have tried to surf the Followers gadget, on their favourite blog, and seen this display too.



A lot of people saw the latter, in 2015, when using the gadget on this blog.

Now, Blogger is simplifying Following - and dropping some Followers.

This year, Blogger Engineers are removing excess code in the Followers gadget, to make it more reliable. This requires removal of code which supports OpenID accounts in Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, and Netlog - and profiles hosted in Orkut, Netlog, Plaxo, and Twitter.

Now, Following supports only Blogger / Google / Google+ accounts and profiles. Note that Blogger / Google / Google+ accounts do not have to be GMail.

Removal of the excess code requires removal of the OpenID accounts and profiles. And, we have been seeing our Followers counts drop, since mid December 2015.

It's important to note that anybody "Following" our blogs, using OpenID, can continue to use any email or third party newsfeed subscription - neither of which are affected by the account / profile cleanup. They were not using Reading List to read our blogs, since Reading List requires a Blogger account. And with the Followers gadget broken, no new readers were surfing to our blogs.

I don't like the drop in numbers, any more than the next blog owner. But I also don't like being unable to surf, using the Followers gadget.

So, I'll endure what looks like a 20% drop in Followers count - and be able to use the Followers gadget. And hope that having a working gadget, with less Followers, will still lead to more traffic - more so than having a broken gadget with more Followers. And, move forward.

And, my deepest apologies to those of you who were Following - but are not now - and wanted to find out why you were dropped.

Just use a Blogger / Google account, and Follow again, using a working Followers gadget, or using the Reading List wizard, please. And we'll put this sad story behind us.

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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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