In Which One Curses the Cyberverse

A Broken Laptop

Arrg! I say.  My brain has just exploded.  Why, you ask?  (What do you mean, you didn’t ask?!)  Well, I’ll tell you anyway.

The Blog.

By “The Blog” I mean this blog.  I love this blog.  I love to blog.  To blog, have blogged, will blog.  Awesome.

But I am horribly computer illiterate at times, and it hurts.  Throw in WordPress, the Shiny Blog of All Blogs, and I’m downright screwed.

Today’s drama comes when I decide that I’ve had it.  I want a list of followers like everybody else has!  The main reason for this is because I love to read and comment on blogs.  Also, if you’re gracious enough to read and comment on mine, I want to return the favor.  This is how friendships strike up.  It’s fun.  It’s networking. 

But noooooo, WordPress doesn’t have that feature.  There’s no plugin, and from what I’m reading, it won’t support Google Friend Connect.  Which doesn’t matter, I suppose, since the GFC files won’t download for me, anyway.  But that’s another story.  Anyway, this sword cuts both ways.  Not only can’t I see who is following me, but I can’t actually follow anybody. 

“What?!” you gasp incredulously, clutching at your heart.  “How can this be?  Mercedes has her follower icon on my blog!” 

And you’re completely right.  I do.  I placed my “I shall follow you publicly!” icon on there with my smiling little face because I want to support you.  And I want to follow you, I really do.  I clicked “follow” with the brightest of dreams and the best of intentions.  But oh, I was let down.  When you post new content, I don’t know.  I’m in the dark.  I’m out of the loop.

Lost and alone am I.

So.  I’m at a crossroads.  I can’t decide whether to laboriously export everything from WordPress to Blogger like everybody else on earth.  I even have a www.mercedesyardley.blogspot.com all ready for me in case I choose to do that.  I started it in July!  My eyes were starry!  And look, Google Friend Connect is included automatically!  Blogspot is much more user friendly.  But WordPress has some cool stuff, too.  And exporting a year’s worth of content post by post doesn’t sound that entertaining.  In fact, it sounds dangerously close to work, and I’m too busy to add more to the stack.  Also, I don’t want to ditch this blog absolutely.  But maybe it’ll be worth it, I don’t know.

Advice?  Comments?  Hopes, dreams, fears?

0 Comments on “In Which One Curses the Cyberverse”

  1. Yeah, I was on livejournal forever, and still maintain a presence there, but I finally got to the point where I wanted to do things with my blog. I wanted to customize things, post pictures, links. All of these things can be done there, I’m just too computer illiterate to do them there easily.

    So I took a seminar about communications for artists and the instructor swore that I needed to use wordpress. She really thought it was the best route for anyone who wanted a blog or an easy site. I messed with the functions and tried things out, but in the end blogger just worked better for me. It was drag and drop, put things where you want them, what you see is what you get. This was perfect for me.

    I really decided against wordpress for all the reasons you mentioned. I know this doesn’t help you now, but I thought I’d let you know I had the same problem at one point.

  2. Thanks, Matt! It does make me feel better to know that you were in the same boat. Though now maybe I want to figure WordPress out just so I can beat you. 😛

    Ooh, Shad, I’ll look those up right now! Thank you! Also, it’s really good to see you. I should be in more now that it’s nearing November. 🙂

  3. I have an LJ account with duplicate posts but I adore my blogger blog most of all. I think the wordpress sites look more professional and cleaner but I wouldn’t have a clue how to work it.

  4. I’m sorry you’re frustrated! I could send you to James or I could just let you flop like a fish out of water… hmm… Just kidding. I’ll see what James knows and send him your way. Unless you figure it out first. 🙂

  5. When I left LJ for Blogger, I just posted a final message on LF saying I’d moved, and included a link. And since Blogger has lots of nifty little gadgets you can add to your page, you could always add a “here’s my archive of old posts” link to here.

    I like Blogger, although I do admit that WordPress looks nicer. Whatever you do, we’ll all keep reading your posts, though. You can’t get away from us!

  6. I don’t have a blog, which makes me COMPLETELY blog illiterate, but I do have a google reader page where I subscribe to all my friends’ blogs (including this one), and it tells me when they have been updated. I think it’s great. It’s only drawback is it doesn’t work for private blogs. But I can read the posts all inside the google reader page. You probably know all this, but I thought I’d mention it in case you didn’t. 🙂

  7. I think Natalie hit the nail on the head. Can I handle two blogs? I think so. Next week might be moving day. I’m going to move to the lee of the stone.

    Cate, it’s good to know that you’re happy with moving, too! I’ll join you.

    Nisa, Jim would do something strange to my computer in retaliation. We both know this. 😉

    K.C, thanks for saying that you’ll keep reading. You don’t know how happy that makes me! 😀

    Laura, I really appreciate that. I need all the computer help I can get, no joke.

    And I just heard the voice of the devil…it sounded strangely like Aaron Polson. I’m enticed.

    Thanks so much, you guys! Your input helped me make this decision. Expect a little smiley Following icon that will actually follow!

  8. Sheesh! What’s wrong with me? I tried blogger and couldn’t get anywhere with it. How do you find other people posting stuff like yours? Here, I use the tags and get a huge list of blogs to follow. I admit I’m a B- user so…what can I say: dinosaur? But, I found WordPress easy,easy with a lot of nice feature. I feel like WP is Pc and Blogger is Mac or something.

    Oh, for followers I use the blogroll usually too, and when you monitor comments the link to the person’s blog is usually there–I click to check them out. Keep in mind (dare I say this?) you might not want to follow everyone who follows you. (could be very time consuming, but I must say I visit most of mine). Anyway, best of luck deciding. I’ll visit you wherever you go. By the way, just link to this blog as your archives like suggested above by Natalie.

Leave a Reply to Writing Shadows Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *