How're people doing with switching to the new Blogger? It seems like the recommendations that we switch that appear when we log in get increasingly urgent, and I can't help wondering if they'll simply stop supporting the old version at some point. Still, migration is always such a pain...
Painless or nightmare?
Mine went quite well, which was amazing given the number of blogs (and group blogs) and volume of posts involved. There were a few little glitches in the sidebar (copy and paste your html somewhere else before switching). The comments came out a little strange - those who haven't yet switched to the new blogger show up as "anonymous" - not sure if this will be corrected once they switch over.
ReplyDeleteI'm also having trouble commenting on old blogger sites some of the time.
One of my sisters-in-law completely lost her blog for a week or so when she switched. After getting on their case for awhile, she got everything back (it's all backed up - somewhere - for the switch).
I LOVE the new features - especially the categories.
I did OK, but I am living in fear of Upgrading My Template. Otherwise, it all went without a hitch for me. The only difference I notice is the category feature, which I like. The basic stuff appears to be much the same.
ReplyDeleteI've been holiding off on switching too. After years in the tech industry I run screaming at the word "beta". :)
ReplyDeleteFor those who have already done it -- dumb question, but your entire site, including comments, is transferred over, right?
Yes, your entire site, including comments is transferred over. Then you can do some lovely extras like adding labels to posts, so you can readily find all the posts on a certain topic.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I lost was the html that I had pasted on the sidebar for a map.
"Upgrading the template" after you have changed over, lets you shift things around on the sidebat etc in a very easy way, without needing to know any html! It was easy enough to then re-add the map html into the new template. So long as you stick with the same kind of template, when you upgrade the template, you don't lose anything. But if you change the template at that point, then I think you lose all changes and I suppose comments as well.
The only issue I have had at all, is that over the last few days I have been unable to post comments on any of the old style blogs at all, only on the new style. So if I have a problem posting this comment as well, I will e-mail it to Darwin for when he next checks his e-mail!
It wasn't so bad for me. I haven't upgraded my template, but I do like the screens better on the new one than on the old one. Give it a whirl... :)
ReplyDeleteThe upgrade I really really liked once I had done it. It enables you to find old posts from the sidebar much more easily. And from memory, though I might be quite wrong here, it was the 'upgrade' that then gave me the power to use 'drag and drop' for what was in the sidebar and in what order.
ReplyDeletePhew, and now it seems like I can comment again on non-beta blogs!
Speed... that is the other thing. It seems an awful lot quicker to publish posts with the new blogger. They must have organised a few things differently behind the scenes!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas by the way. It is already Christmas morning in this part of the world!
The beta doesn't bother me so much (heck, half the stuff I use for work is officially in beta). And it looks like they've officially taken it out of beta anyway.
ReplyDeleteI certainly think that the database format that they're putting things into makes way more sense that storing all the data in HTML files the way the old blogger does. I guess I'm mainly just concerned about not losing old posts and comments.
Have to give it a try here shortly. I am definitely interested in the new features like tags, especially since my current topic pages have a way of not getting updated very often.
You certainly keep all your old posts and comments. Go for it Darwin! I am sure you will love the way you can sort things and find things with the labels.
ReplyDeleteI like it now, but it took three weeks for me to be able to comment on other blogs after I made the switch.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this post, I've been afraid to switch, too.
ReplyDeleteI have different blogger and google accounts, and don't want my blog listed under my google name. That doesn't happen, does it?
Yeah, I'm not really sure on that yet... I'll let you know when it lets us migrate our blog.
ReplyDeletethe new blogger is fine, witha few improvements- it is much better than the old.
ReplyDeleteOne thing- the "Blog it" feature of DIGG does not work.
Here is my "new" blogger blog
http://matt-at-berkeley.blogspot.com