~update on blogroll problems~

Hello peeps,

First of all, a big thank you for all your comments and input on my blogroll problem, it is helpful to know that others of you are also struggling with this.

Take a deep calming breath….

Well, I can’t say I have it all resolved, but I am nothing if not persistent, so this is what I have figured out so far:

1. Blogger limits how many blogs you can follow, apparantly it is 300. I had 409 on my list. Wowzers!!! How did that happen. Yes gals, a little blog maintenance was in order, but blogger was still not allowing me to remove {unsubscribe} or add {subscribe} new blogs: back to the original problem. {You can see how many blogs you are following on your “configure blog list” gadget under layout}

When I “add” new blogs or "remove" blogs under this gadget, it appears to accept the info and change the number, but as soon as I close the page and reopen it, it is right back to 409 blogs. The changes don't save.

2.In the process I switched over to the new blogger interface. When you log in to your dashboard it gives you the option to try the new blogger interface. I had been too scared to hit that button in case it messed everything up, but I did it gals, and so can you. I thought maybe if I switched to the new interface it would solve my problem. It didn’t!

3. So, I needed to find a way to unsubscribe from some blogs, actually from a lot of blogs! Here’s one way I found that you can do that. Sorta. Google this :

google.com/reader/settings

When I went to this link it opened up a list of all the blogs I was following, and gives the option to unsubscribe. Yay!! 

You can also access Google Reader through your dashboard.

Still with me? Okay, take another deep breath…

4. So this was a long and tedious process. How do you decide which blogs to cut. Each one is unique and special in it’s own way. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself, but here are some pointers for how I did it.

~open your blogpage and scroll right down to the bottom of all the blogs you follow. Start opening the blogs one by one.

~you will notice that some of the blogs near the bottom of your blogroll no longer exist, or haven’t posted in a very long time. These are the easy ones to unsubscribe to. Start making a list. For me, if the blogger hadn’t posted in 6 months I put them on the unsubscribe list.

~as you work your way up your blogroll you will start to come across blogs that have posted more recently, but in my case I have to cut over 100 blogs to get back under that magic number of 300. Even that is a lot. Think about it, if even a third of those bloggers posted every day that’s 100 posts to read each day! So you have to decide on which blogs you really want to keep subscribing too.

~I have to tell you, I found this process very hard, I felt like I was turning away friends, I felt disloyal, it was way harder than I thought it would be. Make yourself a big cup of tea before you start.

~Once you have your list go back to the google link I gave you above, and unsubscribe to the blogs you have decided to cut. It looks like you can check off the boxes and unsubscribe to a bunch at once, but I was too afraid I might lose them all, so I unsubscribed to each one individually.Right click on the trash can icon and select okay.

5. I couldn’t find anywhere here to add blogs. Could just be me??

6. You can also apparantly unsubscribe by going to the blog and in the Followers Box click on Options. Follow the prompts and you can unsubscribe to the blog. I tried this with a couple but they are still showing up on my blogroll. Maybe it will work better for you!

7. So this is where I find myself now. On the Google reader page I apparantly now subscribe to 259 blogs, and strangely enough the blogs I tried to add under my layout page that wouldn’t save, they actually show up here!

~But, when I go back to my layout page, it still says I have 409 blogs on my blogroll. The blogs I have unsubscribed to are still showing up in my blogroll on my blog homepage. And the new blogs I have subscribed to are not showing up. Grrr again!

So gals, I’m not sure where to go from here, I’m hoping maybe it just takes a while to update. Just thought I’d share what info I have found and hopefully we can figure it out together. Anyone know how to get an answer from blogger??

On a lighter and brighter note, look out for another post this week on ~raggygirlvintage french farmhouse stylin’~

and part II of raggygirlvintage top choc chip cookie recipes.

Tracey