A Different Kind of Quiet

 ...and a different sort of problem.

Out of necessity, over the many years, I've had to be the tech-savvy one. 

It did not, necessarily, come naturally to me and was one of my "skills" I preferred I didn't have. However, it kept my staff and family afloat (mostly).

Maybe I'm just too stinking old to keep up with it, or I'm just tired of the trying, but I really can't anymore.

I rely on the Blogger "Reading List" to inform me when bloggers I follow have posted new posts. 

A few months+ back, it seemed that my reading list was not showing recent posts from blogs I followed.

I researched, pondered, and tinkered and found a simple resolution (manually refreshing my FeedBurner/RSS feed). (FeedBurner is the feed reader that Blogger (and other feed readers) use to retrieve posts.) I think I even helped a fellow blogger resolve the same issue on her blog.

And then "this" happened.

Over a week ago, I again noticed something seemed off with my "Reading List." 

No new posts were showing.

I manually refreshed my FeedBurner feed, cleared all caches, and tested.

Finally, a post from Saundra (Woodland Junction Blogspot) showed up so I thought all was well (again).

It wasn't and isn't.

The only posts that show up in my Reading List were/are Saundra's.

(Yes, I double-checked by going to a few blogs who post regularly and, sure enough, there were posts.... many of them...only none of them showing on my Reading List.

I did what I did last time (manually refreshed my FeedBurner feed)...did a test post (as sometimes things only refresh in the background until a new post is made) and nope. Still, only Saundra's posts show.

More researching, pondering, and tinkering ensued and the conclusion is not good.

This is not a FeedBurner/RSS issue.

Apparently Google Blogger is having a major backend/cache problem.

And this is giving me (and likely others) a major "backend" problem as well.

This also explains why I was experiencing that new posts were missing, delayed, or appearing out of order. To add insult to injury, all questions regarding this topic have been locked on the "Help" platform and replying has been disabled.

So.....Gameplan B: Find a workaround.

Ummm, another "nope." 

Essentially this would require bypassing Blogger's Reading List and use a separate feed reader (e.g., Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire, etc.). 

Not necessarily a huge deal...but the deal becomes huge when I have to transfer my Blogger Reading List/followed blogs into the new feed reader, and Blogger doesn't offer a simple "export my Reading List" button that alternative feeders can directly import. Consequently, I would have to manually search out the feed address for each and every blog I follow and add it to the new feed reader manually.

I can't wrap my head around how long that would take me.

In short, I'm "fed" up with FeedBurner, feed readers, and feeds in general. 

I don't know what else to say.

Theoretically, each day I could look up each and every blog (I can remember) I follow and check to see if they posted anything new, but I follow almost 200 blogs (197 to be precise). (It actually was more until Blogger limited the number of blogs one can follow. Granted, not all are still active, but I don't want to delete them, you know?)

So I am stuck here.

And I am sad here.

Blogging has been a refuge for me for many years and I've come to count so many of you as my dearest friends.

But until (unless??) Blogger fixes things, I don't know when I will be able to see you or your posts. And, if things are mucked up in the manner that I think they might be, you may not see anything I post...including this post. 😢

Not sure why I bothered...but I'm developing an expertise in exercises of futility I guess.

Be well my friends.

You will be sincerely and dearly missed.