July has come and gone, and Google is still refining the new back end for Blogger.
We can still revert back to the "legacy" version, and the online Blogger Help Community is still rife with questions and complaints ranging from the concerned to the indignant.
So what do we know about things at this point?
1. They are listening
Things keep changing, and it is confusing. Most of what I've written here about the new user interface is obsolete. Good news: the changes are in response to our feedback.2. They are talking to us
Since August 7, Marc Ridey from Google has been posting weekly reports on The New Blogger project in the help community.
These chatty and informative posts shine a light on what is going on behind the scenes with the Blogger developers.
These chatty and informative posts shine a light on what is going on behind the scenes with the Blogger developers.
3. There are wheels within wheels
One thing Marc told us is that blogger relies on some technologies that Google is phasing out:
This information fleshes out the "official" story about wanting to provide a responsive UI that will work on phones and tablets.
It also corroborates Google's claim that the new UI would be more "modern." Turns out, that's not just an aesthetic opinion, it actually means something.
But also, it says that, as with Google+, Google is not a monolith, but a collection of moving parts that bounce off of each other. Sometimes, pain results.
The legacy interface runs on very old technical infrastructure that is about to be turned off.
This isn’t a decision the Blogger team made, nor one we can reverse; hence, soon the legacy interface will go away.In July, Marc had posted a similar note about the tech that Blogger uses to manage images and videos.
This information fleshes out the "official" story about wanting to provide a responsive UI that will work on phones and tablets.
It also corroborates Google's claim that the new UI would be more "modern." Turns out, that's not just an aesthetic opinion, it actually means something.
But also, it says that, as with Google+, Google is not a monolith, but a collection of moving parts that bounce off of each other. Sometimes, pain results.
"This isn't a decision that the Blogger team made." It's just one to which they, and we, must adapt.
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are depicted in a drawing by Sidney Paget first published in The Strand Magazine in 1892. The illustration is in the public domain.
Thanks for your careful eye on the changes.
ReplyDeleteOne problem I noticed for the first time today: on my iPhone in portrait view, there's no indication that a post is a draft. To see the word "Draft," it's necessary to switch to landscape view. Even with all that blank (wasted) space surrounding each post listed in the dashboard! (Yes, I left feedback.)
The one good thing I've noticed: on the iPhone, it's now possible to edit text and position the cursor where one wants it to be. No need to hit Done and try again, over and over. But the disadvantages of the new interface far outweigh that advantage.
Your report is especially unfortunate given that one of the guiding principles (I thought!) was to make it easier to blog from your phone.
DeleteStill, it's not done yet, so maybe your feedback will make things less difficult in the end.
They are indeed listening: label editing in the desktop version improved out of sight (ie almost to old-blogger convenience) just a few days ago. Phew.
ReplyDeleteYes, just in the last week or so!
DeleteI am sure the developers want to get this right, even if I might not always agree with them about what that is.
Just read today on the Blogger forum (Sept 17/20) that the old interface is gone permanently. Have not tried posting anything to the new one yet. However, on the back end, multiple labels on some of my posts sometimes extend out over the right margin. My admin name always extends over the right margin on the back end. Fortunately neither of these problems show on the front end, but this may be because I have not posted anything in the new interface yet. Have let the developers know about this several times, and have also posted about this twice on the forum. Was told by one of the forum experts this is something the developers have to fix. There was some improvement at the beginning of September, but there is more that needs to be done to rectify this. Hope it can be fixed.
ReplyDeleteYes, well, they told us this day would come. Kind of a mess though!
DeleteToday on the forum it says the legacy interface is gone permanently. However, multiple labels on some of my blog posts on both my blogs still extend out over the right margin. In addition, my admin name always extends out over the right margin. Have submitted feedback to the developers several times, but it is still not rectified, although there was some improvement at the beginning of September.
ReplyDeleteHave also posted about this a couple of times to the forum (with screenshots) and one of the forum experts said it is something the developers have to fix. Fortunately, this is only noticeable on the back end, not the front end. Hope this will be rectified.
I hope so too!
DeleteI always thought that Blogger technology was always being developed behind the scenes, always using the newest technology. Then I was surprised that all this time Blogger kept old technology :O
ReplyDeleteBut I'm glad the Blogger team is now updating regularly what they are doing. Despite there are some problems that still need to be fixed, their weekly updates news is really nice thing.
I miss the time when they are more communicative through official blogs, like this for example:
https://blogger.googleblog.com/2006/03/with-apologies-to-mike-judge.html
Were Google more forthcoming, I wouldn't have to blog about it here!
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