Saturday, June 18, 2011

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

18 comments:

Sharli Schaitberger said...

Wow, thanks for posting this Shirley - I had no idea! It's nice you figured it out AND that you shared!
Hugs!

cdjcape521 said...

Wow, great info! Thanx for the post on my blog, I decided to join the challenge!!!!! You rock!

G Peplow said...

Hi Shirley, Well I've cleared out all my unread items and I have to say thanks to you, I'm feeling a whole lot better about what I've missed, LOL Gay xxx

Stampin in the suburbs said...

So glad you got your followers back. This is useful information. Thanks for sharing...

Sally said...

Shirley,
Thanks so much for the information. I wish I had, had it last week before I messed up my blog..Can you tell me how to get my quick fix widgets back...you know that little pencil at the end of your posts that you used to be able to click on and edit right from your blog?

Kimberly Gajewski said...

Thanks so much for this useful information Shirley! I'm going to have to give this a try! I have a "thingy" (I don't know what the technical term is...lol) to subscribe to my blog, but maybe this would be better! Thanks again! :D

Lisa Minckler said...

I don't think I've lost followers, but now I'm concerned that I too am behind in keeping up. oops. Thank you for posting this information!
VERY helpful :)

Diane said...

I only lost my followers for a short time, but I went ahead and cleared everything out anyhow...mine was 1000 plus unread as well.....might as well clean it up before I do have a problem...thanks for sharing!!

Jan Hennings said...

This is some great information and I'm almost afraid to check mine! YIKES!

Orion Designs said...

Hi Shirley -- I think google reader will only "record" your reading of posts if you read them in the reader. If you read them and click on them from your dashboard, they will still show as unread in your reader.

I wouldn't swear to this, but I think it's true. So you probably did NOT miss 1000 posts.

April said...

Thanks for the info! I also want to thank you for posting so faithfully on my blog. I love all your cards. I have been looking at many of them on your blog.

Donna B. said...

Thanks for this info Shirley. It's very helpful and thanks for all your nice posts on my blog - I really appreciate them!!

Deb Neerman said...

You are a peach, Shirley! Thank you for .. everything!

Big hugs, Deb

Dawn B. said...

Blogger is so frustrating at times. I will see if this helps mine. Half the time they are there half the time they aren't. Thanks for this info.

Benzi said...

So glad you got your followers back...couldn't we just scream sometimes when these things happen.

Curt in Indy said...

I really haven't used my Google reader, and this was very helpful. I usually just go one by one clicking on all the folks who comment on my blog and go from there! I'm kind of scared to go look now at my reader! LOL Thanks for this great post. And by the way, thanks too for the nice, supportive comments you've been leaving me. You are very sweet. Best, Curt

Benzi said...

Shirley, you are just right on time with this post. I got up this morning and all my followers were gone. I did the above and they came back immediately. Thank you so much.

Ellen Taylor said...

Hi Shirley,
Thanks for this really helpful tip, off to try it now! This looks like a blog I MUST follow! Have a fabulous day!
Ellen

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...