Backing Up Your Blog

www.flickr.com

Once again, its problems, problems, problems with Blogger's photo uploader. So yesterday evening on my Trouble blog, and today right here, I've had to rely on flickr. It's just not my first choice of photo insertion tools.

I was visitng Chuck's BloggerStatusForReal site yesterday and he suggests backing up your blog, especially when you make changes to your template.

With all the problems I've been having lately, I thought that was an excellent idea!

He had already helped me instal HTrack, so I just opened that up and ran it again. It took 23min. or so, so do it when you have time. I am also going to copy and paste my template to Word. This way, I've got two databases with my blog info if for any reason I have to rebuild it myself....GOD FORBID!!!!

Wow!! Blogger Support E-Mailed Me A Personal Question!!

Will wonders never cease!

The photo I wanted to upload here I will include at the bottom of the post so you can see how weird it looks once it passes through Blogger's Photo Uploader. It doesn't look like this in my files, on my other blog or in flick'r. Go figure! I have never had this problem until right now! It's got me feeling like this little guy here on the right!!

On the bright side though, Blogger Support has sent me a personal e-mail asking me to help them with the photo uploading problem, which according to Chuck, is still being discussed in the Blogger Help Forums. Here is the info they were wanting:

Dear CameraDawktor,

Hi there,Thanks for reporting the problems with image uploading. We are currentlyinvestigating some issues regarding this feature. To help us in debuggingthe problem, we'd appreciate it if you could answer the followingquestions:
1) What format are the images that you are uploading? (E.g. JPG, GIF,etc.)
2) About how big are the images? (E.g. 200K)
3) What are the filenames of the images that you are unable to upload?
4) What browser are you using?
5) Are you uploading from Compose or Edit HTML mode?Additionally, please attach the image(s) that you are unable to upload toyour reply.

Sincerely, Blogger Support

I did notice yesterday afternoon that I had better luck with the photo uploader, I tried making my pictures a little smaller in dimension from 12 Megabytes to 770K, and dropped the pixel per inch count from 600 to 200. I don't know if it was luck (Blogger fixing the uploader), or the changes I had made that attributed to my success. I haven't tried drafting anything today on my Trouble Blog, to know what the current status is.

Chuck had a great reminder to us all today: http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/2006/03/its-called-blogger-support-not-blogger.html

My Latest Posting Problems on my Trouble Blog

Welp! Looks like Blogger's Picture Uploader is currently on the fritz. I had this rock'n cool photo that I wanted to start off with in on my Trouble post. (That's the blog I want Blogger to PLZ save if this is your first time visiting). Instead, I had to upload photos using Flick'r and while its nice and serves its purpose, it just doesn't give me the same effect I want on my posts..

Something strange also happened to me today, of course it took a few times of persistent republishing before I could proceed without getting this error sign: 450 Write error: No space left on deviceblog/20/43/11/troublealwayshasadoor/2006/02/maybe-im-not-clueless-after-watching.html

Also, in my post I linked to a past post. I click on the individual archive in my sidebar (if my sidebar happens to be there) and then the url that comes up I copy and paste as my link. Well, when I hit the title in the archive, it came up as a blank page with one of my flickr badges on it. Just one flickr badge, no sidebar, no text, NADA, Nothing! Very strange and bizarre. Is my blog posessed? Well, I did forget to pray over it last night. Here's what I think you should do if you have problems. See what Chuck has to say because Chuck has some really great, extremely thurough adivce today that address most of the problems I am talking about. Let's give it one more try for my rock'n cool photo, if you see it, picture uploader has fixed itself!!

Well, what do you know....hopefully y'all have the time to put in to try, try and try again. Seems like these problems really are hit and miss!

Has My Blog Been Saved?

Do Blogger Errors have you feeling like this? Me too!

Tonight was the first time in THREE WHOLE DAYS that I could post an entry on my blog that I want Blogger to Plz Save. I could republish the entire index, have it upload 100% and still be able to have an intact sidebar. I could even include pictures.

I am a happy girl now and feel more like this. HOWEVER.....I am not naive enough to think that I will wake up tomorrow and have the same thing happen, again and again with simplicity. These last three days have been a wake-up call to me.

So far, this is what I have learned:
*Don't Delete Your Blogger Baby.
*Always save your posts periodically.
*Save your template after you make changes.
*Pray for your Blog's safety every night before you go to bed.
*Be thankful everytime you can post quickly, efficiently, without getting an error message.
*Always be ready for a 3 Day Blogging Fast that Blogger Support may decide to make you endure when you are least expecting it.

And look folks, a picture! Oh, I am in Blogger Heaven right now!

Dear God, Plz Help Blogger Save My Blog from Trouble!!!

Oh Where, Oh Where Has my Little Sidebar Gone....

Oh Wheeeerrrrreeee, Oh Where can it be?????

Once again my little blog is F'd up!! Just couldn't resist getting a guestbook like Chuck's and of course it wouldn't let me republish. Errors, errors, errors. Now my sidebar is gone.

Sometimes the error is this:

450 Write error: No space left on device 001 java.net.SocketException: Broken pipeblog/20/43/11/troublealwayshasadoor/archives/
2006_03_01_troublealwayshasadoor_archive.html

Sometimes the error is that:

450 Write error: No space left on deviceblog/20/43/11/troublealwayshasadoor/archives/
2006_02_01_troublealwayshasadoor_archive.html

I tried to upload a picture for you too see how stoned I look from all these problems and do you think the photo uploader is working??? Do you see a picture here?? Haha, what are all those photobloggers doing? Suffering, I tell you. Suffering.

I should have just left it alone. I shouldn't have touched it, but aren't blogs created to be blogged upon? You'd think............

Blogger Status' Latest Story

If you are like me, you had a LOT of problems trying to get your blog published and not look like crap last night. Here's what they are currently saying about it at Blogger Status.

Blogger Status
Saturday, March 18, 2006
A clarification about the filer we restored yesterday: This machine is indeed up and functioning again, so the affected blogs are no longer entirely inaccessible. However, it is still not in great shape and we are in the process of moving all the data off of it and on to better machines. So over the next few days there may still be lingering and intermittent problems for some blogs. This includes the "forbidden" errors we're all getting tired of, as well as occasional publishing errors, or incompletely published pages. If you get an error viewing a blog, refreshing the page once or twice should clear it. For publishing problems, simply wait a few minutes and republish, and that should take care of it. Thanks for your patience while we work on clearing all this up.
Posted by Graham at 08:22 PST

What the - - - -?! Simply wait a few min.? Try a few hours?! You should have seen my sidebar. Once its there, once its not, once it has a title of a post in it. Yikes! And are they saying anything about not being able to upload photos? NO.....let's try that now.....hold on....Nope! Tried twice, surprise, surprise.

Those poor photo bloggers. I hope some of you make it over here to cry on my shoulder!!!

I'm not pissed, only frustrated. I mean, you get what you pay for and I pay nothing. I think I would be madder if I paid big $$ I don't have and get problems w/ crappy customer service.

So.....leave a comment and let me know how things are going for you. Don't forget to save your posts and templates. And, by all means, please link Chuck in your sidebar, you may need a friend like him someday!!! It pays to learn before you have a problem!!

And, please, PLEASE, keep an eye on my little blog and pray that Blogger will save it PLZ! I love it and do not want me to abort my blogger, baby!!

Blogger, Please Save My Blog

I think my patience just left. I was trying to upload this kickass photo so you could see how MISERABLE I am that blogger keeps F---K'n me around and of course, once again the blogger photo uploader is NOT WORKING. Here is the blog I want Blogger to save from destruction: Trouble (Do you think I doomed myself with that title?) Check on it frequently because one minute its there, one minute all of the sidebar is gone. When that happens there is no profile, no about me, no links, no archives, NADA NOTHING.

But really people, this is the least of my worries. Because what I really care about, as much as I need to upload photos like a RELIGION, is to be able to publish content.

Do you think I can do that? NOOOOO M'AM!!

Thursday night I get an e-mail from my friend SpiceHut that she can't view my blog. What the F@#*?! I think and sure enough she is not jerkin' me around. That was the beginning of my Blogger Error Agony. That's a good word for it don't you think. The first error Blogger gave me was 550. Do you know what that means? Because I sure don't. To me, it just means that NO ONE CAN SEE ANYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN!!!

Sorry for yelling at you, but it has been 50+ hrs. without a consistently proper functioning blog and I am LOSING IT PEOPLE!!

My latest error messages besides being able to upload a photo for you right now, is error message 405:
450 Write error: No space left on device 001 java.net.SocketException: Connection resetblog/20/43/11/troublealwayshasadoor/archives/
2006_03_01_troublealwayshasadoor_archive.html

Now what in cripes sakes (my grammies used to say that but you wouldn't know because you can't read my blog) is that supposed to mean. How would I know?!

Of course, this is blogger's e-mail response to me:
Hi there, Thanks for notifying us of this issue. Due to a temporary problem with ourservers, many users are currently unable to publish and view their blogs.Please rest assured that we are working hard to resolve this issue andprevent this kind of thing from happening again. We sincerely apologizefor the inconvenience and hope to have the problem resolved soon. For further details and updates on this outage, please check our statuspage here: http://status.blogger.com/ Your continued patience is much appreciated. Sincerely,Blogger Support

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not such a Biatch that I don't appreciate them getting back to me 12+hrs after I ask them a question, but the blogger status shite is bogus. Because, obviously they didn't fix the problem since my little bloggie's still broke.

Next, I go to the forum just like they told me and everyone else has the same problem. Is that encouraging? No, because none of us know how to fix the problem and that is the reason why I am there.

I do notice this guy who very quickly e-mails me at least 6 times over the next hour advising me to delete cookies, change ISP and other assundrious things like: this

Which didn't fix my problem but at least someone was listening to me.

This nice guy who calls himself Chuck , set me up as one of his IM contacts. Nice guy huh? And when I wake up this morning he happens to be awake to. And get this folks:

He has spent over 4 hours im'ing me today trying to help me get my blog back. Now why would you want to e-mail blogger support when you can get friendly, im'ing customer service like that??!! I ask you, WHY????

O.K., I am calming down now. I have put his links on the sidebar so please check him out if you are having problems. Is he God, can he fix it? Maybe not, but you will sure feel a hell of a lot better that somebody cares about your plight.

Please comment and let me know if you are having similar problems.

Please back up your posts and template in case this happens to you.

Please visit any 3 of Chuck's sites (in the links) and comment on his blogs telling him your problems.

Please, please, above all DO NOT DELETE YOUR BLOGGER BABY. Chuck has a great article on why it is not a good idea to do this.

Let's stick together to help Blogger build a better Blogger!!