Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Winter 2014 Mini Bloggiesta!


Bloggiesta MiniW14

Looking forward to this coming weekend, the eagerly awaited Mini Bloggiesta For those of you who haven't heard of Bloggiesta, it's basically time
devoted to cleaning up our blogs, tackling those neglected tasks, and
learning new tips & tricks from our fellow bloggers.
I wasn't going to partcipate in the mini Bloggiesta but then I thought about and it would be good to get some stuff done around the blog. Sooo here is what I want to do:

  • Replace the tab on top of the blog that has blogger help links to one for my 2014 challenges. I don't think people really use it for help on their blog and it's wasted space.
  • Make progress bars for my book challenges
  • Back Up Blog
  • Visit other participants in Bloggiesta
  • Go through my two groups on goodreads and make sure all the topics/threads are straight Done... took a couple hours
  • Come up with ideas for future discussions on the blog and write them up
  • Try to think of a feature to have on the blog (so far I have Comic Adventures and Videos Games @ Angela's Anxious Life)
  • Clean up the blogs I follow - some don't blog anymore, some I just don't have the same reading interests with. This always takes a long time too. Doing this now... one of the problems is that I follow through Bloglovin but mainly use Blogger RSS to follow blogs.  As usual.. this sucks.  Blogger takes forever and half the time does load my list of blogs I am following.  I have deleted over 30 blogs so that is great!
  • Clean up side bars by fixing the size of my buttons on the left side of blog move or delete items that are clutter.  I moved two of my buttons from the right side bar onto my about me page.  I think they go better there and that people don't really read or click on those two buttons anyways (they are for my goodreads book clubs that I moderate.
  • Here is the BIG ONE... I am going to re-upload my template. Why you ask??? The preview button in blogger hasn't worked for me for a couple weeks now.. maybe even a month. I think that I need to reboot the system. Why does this suck you ask??? Well then I pretty much go back to default.  So I have to save all my sidebars somewhere... and reinstall Link Within. Last time I did this when my comments messes up I lost an amazing author box I had under my posts which I really loved and could never get to work again. So to say the least I am nervous about doing this again. Done complete waste of time though.  This did not fix my preview problem.  Oh blogger.. you are making me move to wordpress aren't you?  I did figure out an easier way though to get my widgets back though!  I also went BACK into the Blogger forums and updated my topic that I did these changes but no one has even bothered to answer me so far. My post on the google forums 
  • Change my commenting system to Disqus! Well I just did this.  I was on the fence about this because honestly I don't think blogger commenting system is that big of a deal.  I know people on wordpress don't like it but I didn't think it was a big deal.  I have found people don't really come back and comment anyways.  BUT THEN I messed around with my template last night and it reverted back to the issues I was having before where I can't reply to comments on the blogger commenting system so that pushed me to just convert to Disqus.  Really I just need to find a newer template.  Mine was created in 2004 and so I think it's outdated and confusing the system.

Well I am going to give it a shot.. and get some stuff done. Doing that goodreads one is always a challenge for me but I hate to let it go too long.

36 comments:

  1. Good luck! This sounds fun, sadly I don't think I have the time to join and really make a dent in anything.

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    1. It does take time... there will be a bigger one later in the year you can join.

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  2. Good luck with Bloggiesta. I've never heard of it before. Bloggiesta sounds like something I need to do with my blog, but I don't have time to do it this weekend.

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    1. Later in the year there is a bigger one with lots of challenges that can help you keep your blog up. It's fun and I always learn a lot.

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  3. Good luck, I may try to join this as soon as I determine if my daughter needs me this weekend or not. Good luck!

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    1. Hopefully you can join! I always get a lot of work done during Bloggiesta.

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  4. Good luck! This is a lot for a couple pf days but I'm sure you can do it :)

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    1. I have to probably start today to get this all done :)

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  5. I am doing Bloggiesta too! You have some great links in the blog help tab. I didn't notice it before. Maybe you should turn it into a post and refer back to it every so often? The links are really useful (I just clicked through of them). :)

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    1. Humm... I guess maybe it isn't highlighted enough. I need to think more about the blog help tab. Maybe I could add it into my Sunday Post now and then or something.

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  6. I'm moving to wordpress soon, so I'm not sure there's much that would be worth doing. Though actually, there are some pages I need to update with links and stuff. So I suppose I probably *should* do this too. And I don't know that I've ever cleaned up who I follow, I'm sure there are LOTS that no longer blog. Hmmm... I guess I have more work to do then I thought.

    Good luck!

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    1. I hope that you blog about your switch to wordpress. I would really love to learn more about it. I have thought about it myself but am pretty happy at blogger. I think the only thing I am afraid of is losing followers. I have been at Blogger so long.

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  7. This sounds like a great idea. There is a lot that I really should do for my blog. Right now, I'm just trying to come up with future posts and hopefully schedule them since I'm so busy these days.

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    1. I need to come up with future posts too. Last night in bed I was laying there thinking about things for the blog and just BLANK! AYE!

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  8. I don't think I'm going to have time to participate in blogiesta. May I ask how you back up your blog? I'm curious because I have never done that with mine.

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    1. humm... I lost the link I normally use but I found this one :http://www.geekalicious.co.uk/2012/09/how-to-back-up-your-blogger-blog.html be sure to back up your template (if you have a special one) and the posts. I do try to do mine once a month but sometimes I forget. So Bloggiesta always reminds me to do it.

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  9. Good luck! I'm considering joining as well, we'll see :)

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    1. Yea!! This weekend is going to be busy for me with this but I need to do it.

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  10. Good luck! I'm doing this too - for my first time - and I'm super hopeful that I'll get lots of work done :)

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    1. I bet you get lots done. I remember my first time... that was probably the one I worked hardest on!!

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  11. I think your list is definitely do-able, good luck this weekend!

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  12. You have a busy week planned. I took a look at your blog help link, you have a lot of great information on that page! I think you are going to have to explain to me how you back up your blog, I thought about doing this at some point but my plan was to print everything and keep it in a binder LOL! I am so not computer savvy!

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    1. Here is the link to show you how to back up your blog: http://www.geekalicious.co.uk/2012/09/how-to-back-up-your-blogger-blog.html I just added this link to my blog help tab. For some reason I didn't have that on there. Printing would be such a hassle. By backing up your blog you can copy and paste the html into a new blog or somewhere else and everything will be there ready.

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  13. Good luck with your goals especially your last one, it sounds nerve wracking! I don't know much about the technical side of blogging so things like that terrify me. I'm always afraid of breaking my blog!

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    1. Ughhhh I usually can figure out the technical side but googling everything. It is just time consuming to go in and have to put everything back in. I don't know what else to do though to get the preview button to work again. Damn you blogger.

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  14. So glad that you decided to join, as I always wind up learning something new! You've already gotten so much done too! Good luck with all of your goals!

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  15. Thanks... right now getting Disqus sorted out. Looks like it transferred over but blogger comments won't thread but they are there. I didn't want to go to Disqus but as usual blogger got screwy on me.

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  16. You're doing really well! Sad to think about cleaning out the reader, but it's a good idea. I've noticed that the blogs I follow faithfully are the ones I get email notifications on, although I follow via WordPress, Feedly, and Bloglovin', too. I can't keep up with the other methods of following...the posts are overflowing! I like commenting with Disqus better than Blogger (another WP person), so I appreciate your efforts!

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  17. Yay so happy you have disqus now as it means I'll have your replies emailed to me. Much handier than having to remember to check back the post.

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  18. The good thing is that now people can see when I comment and be able to comment back if they want. I did like the Blogger comment system but Blogger is always messing up anymore. It was hard to clean out the reader but I follow a lot of blogs. Probably too many. The only hard thing about Disqus is when people don't have their email in the Disqus profile sometimes I can't visit back they're blog.

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  19. That is true. I don't actually have my Disqus set up to email me, but when I log on there is always a number lit up so I can click on that number and go back and visit blogs that way. I got a lot done this weekend on the blog that's for sure!

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  20. Wow! You have quite a list! After reading your list I started a new list of things to do. I don't know if I'll do them right away... I may just wait until the next Bloggiesta in March. I hope you can get all your problems worked out. Sometimes I think about moving to Wordpress, but I've never had any major problems with blogger.

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  21. I don't know what it is about Blogger but I do have issues with it. I've had issues with commenting, the preview button, open id, and no response from the Blogger team of course. It's like dealing with facebook. I don't know why I have such issues.

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