Saturday, February 2, 2019

Ominous spanners

The ominous spanner in the works, will be visiting my blog soon. Not from my own doing, but apparently Google+ is shutting down, for good. Therefore, all comments made on my blog, signed in with a Google+ account (including my own) will be deleted from April 2.

It will also mean, all the comments I made on other blogs with my Google+ account, will be deleted too. Sorry about that, but it's certainly out of all of our hands.


Get to work


I'm attempting to download a copy of my Google+ data. How to reinstate comments, back on my blog however, is still being researched. I don't even know if it's possible. But I'm also going to save a back-up of my blog, as a precaution too. I recommend if you use a Google+ account, with your blog or comments, you take measures to save your data before it gets deleted on April 2.

I don't know what this shutdown, will mean for my blog - or how it will look in the end. But I'm just giving you all a heads-up, that things may look very different after March.

The good news is, Blogger isn't going anywhere. So my Gully Grove address won't be disappearing into the ether, along with Google+. At least, not for now, lol.



14 comments:

  1. That's disturbing. Comments are a vital part of blogging and often the comments are as useful as the post itself. I've often wanted to comment to a blog where Google comments is the only option so haven't been able to do it. I hope you can manage to keep the comments in all your posts somehow. It doesn't affect me, as I use the Name/URL function.

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    1. I hope I can find a way to migrate them over as well. Those on Wordpress, won't be having to endure this particular experience. Has me thinking about ways to protect my blog in future though. Even still, no virtual system, is ever truly safe.

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  2. I got the message to back up my google+ content, although I never created a google+ account. They didn't explain very well how it would affect blogger, so I've tried to download whatever info is there. That's not going very well. I keep getting errors. Honestly? I kinda figured a while back that G+ wouldn't make it.

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    1. Yes, there are some elements I'm a little confused about, as well. I know it will delete the comments made, while being signed-in to Google+. But it also seemed to imply, posts may be deleted as well. I've been signed-in to Blogger, with my Google+ account, for years now. That's why I'm making sure to back up my entire blog.

      Yesterday, I signed out of Google+, and back under a normal Blogger account. So from this post onward, I shouldn't have any problems. What's left of my blog, prior to this post however, is still a mystery. Fingers crossed, it will hardly change at all! At least on the "post" front.

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  3. It's expensive, but every year I print my blog into a book, just the post not the comments. I am pleased I have done this as I always felt there would be a time when blogger would stop, of they would stop allowing so much content to be saved. Already blogger only keeps the last 1000 comments, I know at one point I had over 5000 comments, because I send a gift to the person who made the 5000 comment, but it's gone now.

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    1. Wow, that's interesting about how many comments they save. I'm assuming that's in the comments moderation, section only. As I know the comments remain on the blog, permanently, once published under the post. I've considered printing mine to a book, but so long as I regularly save a copy to my computer, I can always migrate it to another blogging platform, if anything does happen to Blogger. I know Wordpress allows you to migrate Blogger content over to their platform.

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  4. Yet another step toward going to wordpress for me I'm afraid - just not quite ready to do it yet

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    1. I've been looking for different options too. Not because I'm upset with Google - they actually have a very stable platform, and lots of flexible templates. But it begs to ask the question, how much control do you want over your blog? I'm wondering if "free" is actually the best option.

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  5. oh dear. This sounds like a bit of a headache. Ill back up my blog for now, I have no idea about the other bit. gah!

    Thanks for the heads up!

    xx

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    1. If you didn't receive an Email from the Google+ Team, then you may not have a Google+ account. But it's always a good idea to back-up your blog, at least every 3 months (depending how much you post) to ensure you don't lose everything, if the worst happened. Zombie apocalypse, doesn't count, lol. ;)

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  6. Thanks for the reminder Chris.

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    1. Cheers Sherri. I know I had to get onto it, pronto, or it would slip through the holes in my memory, lol.

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  7. OOh Chris I received that email and have put it into 'the too hard basket' as it makes me hyperventilate just thinking about all this tech stuff.
    I'll check out how to "back up" when my tech savvy son calls in this week.
    Yep, it's a case of when in doubt ask a young person.. in my case anyway!

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    1. Ha! What I coincidence, Sally. I just asked my daughter about making digital logos, this afternoon. She learns all this stuff at school!

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