The Case Of The Missing Followers And How Google Reader Relates

First I want to thank everyone for encouraging me to try Google Reader, because I think it really helped me bring my Followers list back.

I started out on my DASHBOARD.  I usually would go to it and then if you look down you see the READING LIST, followed below that with the BLOGS I AM FOLLOWING, and just beside that are the ITEMS.  Well I would go to this "place" to maintain and check out the new posts on the blogs I follow.  I would end up doing it here and there as I had time and I could usually tell if I had already seen a post and would go down further.  I thought I was really keeping up.  Please keep in mind, I have been pretty busy elsewhere for quite a few months and was behind in commenting.   I know, I know, not meeeeee!  Ha!

So after several of you referred me to GOOGLE READER and pointed it out to me on the DASHBOARD, I proceeded to first access it (Duh Me) by going down to the bottom of the page to the TOOLS AND RESOURCES link and accessed it from there.  Was I ever in for a rude awakening.  I had over 1000+ posts unread.  It seems I was not doing a good job of catching up after being away.

I started clicking on blogs on the left with the most items to catch up.  A funny thing happened.  When I got below 1000 MY FOLLOWERS CAME BACK.  Okay, okay, I know the people who follow me shouldn't have anything to do with the ones I follow, but for the most part they are all the same.  After reading about 300+ posts, I decided to just hit the MARK ALL AS READ and see what would happen.  I mean, it's not like I wouldn't keep up now.   Seriously, I do keep up as some of you have noticed.  LOLOL  Nothing serious happened and I am up to date and keeping it that way.  It is also important to note that they all stay where they were on your DASHBOARD area, you may just have fewer.

I guess what I would like to know for those of you who are missing followers, who don't keep up by using your GOOGLE READER, would you:

1. Go to your DASHBOARD
2. Go down to the TOOLS AND RESOURCES area
3. Click on GOOGLE READER and take a look at your unread post amounts.
4. If it exceeds 1000 would you just clear it out by clicking on MARK ALL AS READ. (Important to note, if you comment on posts from your DASHBOARD, it doesn't remove them at all and you can still do your thing from there if you choose.
5. Let us know if your followers came back.  I can't remember how quickly it happened for me.  Like that night, or within an hour, etc.

I tried to read up on this in the Blogger Help area, and all I could find is that they are two very distinctly different things, but I think they are intertwined in a way that isn't understood yet.  You can also get your Google Reader feeds that way too and maybe they are talking about that. They appear above the Follower list. Funny though that you can read blog posts you follow in the Google Reader area (that is supposed to be for Google Feeds) and that is confusing to read!!! :-)

That's all I have on this for now.  So far my Followers are right where they belong and so am I, I think!!!  I hope your weekend is turning out great and thanks for stopping by to say hi and share too!

 Shirley